Talbot’s 23 saves help Oilers overcome Bruins

BOSTON: The Edmonton Oilers headed home trying to build on a big victory. Ryan Strome broke a tie early in the third period and Cam Talbot made 23 saves in the Oilers’ 4-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday night.

“I don’t know why we make life so hard on ourselves,” Strome said.

“The challenge is consistency and hopefully we can find that here.”

Edmonton has the second worst record in the Western Conference and has won consecutive games only once this season.

“We finished the trip off the way we wanted to,” Oilers coach Todd Mclellan said.

Strome scored 2:07 into the third when he took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and wristed a shot from point blank range over goalie Tuukka Rask’s shoulder. Draisaitl added an empty-netter with 51 seconds remaining. The Oilers won for the second time in six games and beat Boston for the sixth straight time after dropping the previous 13.

“You hope that guys can gain some confidence,” Oilers forward Milan Lucic said.

Patrick Maroon and Adam Larsson also scored for the Oilers.

David Pastrnak and David Krejci scored for Boston. Rask stopped 32 shots in his first appearance in five games after backup Anton Khudobin had led the Bruins to four straight victories.

“He (Rask) played well but we only scored two goals,” Pastrnak said.

“It’s hard to score goals when we don’t shoot enough and we just didn’t do all the things we have done during our four wins.”

Krejci converted a feed from Riley Nash to tie it at 2 with 4:29 remaining in the second period.

Maroon and Larsson scored less than five minutes apart midway through the second period to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead.

Pastrnak had a power-play goal at 14:03 of the first to snap Boston’s 0-for-17 drought with the man advantage.

“We lacked energy and I couldn’t kick start us,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got the early power-play goal but couldn’t extend the lead and that’s disappointing playing at home.” Rask made 32 saves but has dropped four straight.