"The Edmonton Oilers are playing Murphy's Law hockey these days where whatever can go wrong will go wrong. After making a third period comeback, they wound up losing because their «top defenseman» fired a laser beam directly into their own net.
Auston Matthews got the Maple Leafs board early with his team-high 13th tally of the season just over two minutes into the game. While on the power play, William Nylander fired a cross-ice pass to the left circle where Matthews beat Laurent Brossoit to the near post with a lightning quick snap shot.
The Maple Leafs doubled the lead at the 5:55 mark as Dominic Moore picked off a pass from Eric Gryba in the neutral zone, skated below the left faceoff dot and beat Brossoit the short side for his fourth goal.
Mark Letestu got the home team on the board at 12:37 as he found a soft spot below the right circle and blasted home a one-timer off a pass from behind the net from Jujhar Khaira. Nikita Zaitsev got caught in between defending the pass and preventing the shot and did neither.
The Leafs had a quick response as the fourth line answered just 29 seconds later to increase the lead to 3-1. William Nylander picked off a clearing attempt and got the pick to Moore, who quickly fired it back across below the right circle where Matt Martin one timed the puck into the Edmonton net for his second goal.
The Oilers had plenty of push back in the second period and cut the lead down to a single goal at the 6:38 mark as Zack Kassian headed to the front of the net and fired home a feed from Khaira.
11 minutes later, Connor McDavid took advantage of Ron Hainsey being stung by blocking shot to head to front of the net to redirect a slap-pass from Kris Russell to tie the game.
Once again, the Maple Leafs had a quick response as Nylander scored on the power play less than a minute later. Nylander took a pass from Jake Gardiner and beat Brossoit to the glove side with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle. Matthews picked up the secondary assist.
Three minutes into the third period, Russell tied the game by sending a laser beam of a one-timer, off the feed from Darnell Nurse, from nearly the same spot on the ice Nylander scored from.
Russell scored a second goal in the third period with just 1:15 remaining in regulation, but unfortunately for him, it was into his own net. There are no words that can give the play justice so we will let the video do the talking.
What a brutal way to lose a game!
Nazem Kadri was given credit for the Russell own goal and he added an empty goal in the final minute of the game to seal the deal.
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