NHL: Edmonton Oilers win 4-3 against Phoenix Coyotes at Rexall Place
Phoenix Coyotes played against Edmonton Oilers as part of the 69th game in NHL Pre-season. Both teams landed in the match hopeful of continuing their separate victory streaks. The match that took place at Rexall Place, home of Edmonton Oilers,
finished 4-3 in their favor.
First period
In the first 10 minutes, nothing extraordinary happened as both teams stick to their halves. Although, they came up with some goal attempts but were not as good as they could have been. But after the 10th minute, Phoenix Coyotes shifted their
gear and started to attack Edmonton Oilers’ defense more often. This resulted in Coyotes taking the lead during the 14th minute. A 29 feet bullet strike by Lee Stempniak found the back of the net.
Coyotes put further pressure on Oilers’ defense and managed to score once again in the 15th minute. This time the goal was scored by Kyle Turris via an 18 feet brilliant wrist work. Oilers managed to pull one goal back in the 17th minute
during a counter attack. The goal came as a result of a splendid 10 feet backhand by Sam Gagner. The period ended at 1-2 in favor of Coyotes. They came up with 14 goal attempts while Oilers managed 10.
Second period
There seemed to be less happening in the second period as only one goal was scored during the 20 minutes of play. Edmonton Oilers dominated right from the start and managed to come up with excellent passing. They scored in the 4th minute which
was the result of a 27 feet wrist shot by Alexandre Giroux. Rest of the period witnessed both teams coming up with regular goal attempts but none found the back of the net.
The second period ended with 2-2 and both teams were able to come up with some good scoring opportunities. Coyotes managed 8 goal attempts while Oilers were able to pile up 11.
Third period
In the third period, both teams came up with one goal each. The first goal came for the home side and the goal scorer was Colin McDonald, who scored through a 21 feet tip in the 8th minute. This put the Oilers in lead with 3-2.
However, Coyotes leveled the match in the 19th minute when Scottie Upshall scored through a 14 feet shot. The rest of the period didn’t witness much happening and the game went into overtime. During the overtime, Phoenix Coyotes made 5 goal attempts
out of which none were able to find the back of the net. On the contrary, Edmonton Oilers couldn’t even manage to come up with any shot.
With all leveled at the end of overtime, it meant that the game would now proceed towards a shootout. In the shootout, Coyotes came up with 2 shots but weren’t able to score while Oilers made 3 shots out of which 2 found the back of the net. This resulted
in Edmonton Oilers winning the match 4-3 amid a 15,752 strong crowd.
In the end, Alexandre Giroux of Edmonton Oilers emerged as the 1st star selection of the match while Phoenix Coyotes’ goal keeper, Ilya Bryzgalov was the 2nd star selection.
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