The Edmonton Oilers added another win to their streak as they defeated the Vancouver Canucks on March 30 at Rexall Place in a 4-0 shutout. They came in as absolute dynamos, creating their four goal lead in the first period and maintaining it for the entirety of the game.
The first period – or more specifically, the first ten minutes of the first period – were incredible. Guaranteed, every Oilers fan was leaping out of their seats in a combination of disbelief and utter joy. Hall tore down the ice, opening the game with a beautiful goal a mere 16 seconds into the first period with assists by Eberle and Petry.
The Oilers continued pushing and at 2:05 Edmonton’s Ladislav Smid added to the goal total, bringing the Oilers to a 2-0 lead. Incidentally, on the Monday following the game, Oilers GM Steve Tambellini confirmed that the Oilers agreed to terms with Smid on a 4 year contract extension. The two goals led the Canucks to pull goalie Corey Schneider and put in Roberto Luongo.
Less than a minute after Smid’s goal, despite the change in goalie, Hall slammed in a wrist shot to increase the Oilers’ lead, bringing the score to 3-0. These three goals in less than 3 minutes meant that the Oilers set a franchise record for the fastest three goals from the start of a game. “That was a pretty electric way to start the game. We played with a lot of confidence” Hall said in a post-game interview.
It was an electric start indeed. The Canucks were surprised when greeted with Hall’s blazing goal 16 seconds into the period, and with each respective rapid-fire goal seemed to get visibly more shaken.
Hall wasn’t content with his two goals, however, and with assists by Nugent-Hopkins and Schultz got his third goal of the night, leading to his third career hat trick. Hall’s hat trick wasn’t merely great by his own standards, but by the standards of The Great One himself – Hall’s three goals in the first 7:53 of the game bested Wayne Gretzky’s 12:38 record for the fastest hat trick from the start of the game, a record that Gretzky set back in 1986 against Quebec. Hall called this a “huge honor,” and excited fans at Rexall Place showered the ice with hats in acknowledgement of Hall’s accomplishment.
(Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
While there was a lot of effort and high energy playing in the remaining two periods, the second and third period held no more goals for either team as Edmonton managed to keep its 4-0 lead through to the very end. Edmonton’s Devan Dubnyk made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season.
Tonight’s game demonstrates just how important it is to play full throttle, with confidence and energy, for the full 60 minutes, something that Krueger acknowledged. He stated that “we stuck with it for all three periods. We outchanced them for three periods in a row, even with that lead. That’s showing maturity that we haven’t showed maybe as much as we’d like to. It was a very complete performance from the whole group.”
The Oilers are looking to continue their winning streak as they face the Calgary Flames on Monday, April 1.
Adrianna Szenthe
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