The Edmonton Oilers are hoping they finally have the so-called goalie of the future in Devon Levi.
The 24-year-old netminder stood on his head with 28 saves and Leon Draisaitl had a pair of goals as the Oilers held on to defeat the New York Rangers 3-1 on Monday.
Connor McDavid also scored for the Oilers (13-3-3), who have won two in a row and swept the season series with Rangers, also beating New York 4-1 to start the month.
Levi, who returned last game against Vancouver after missing the previous seven games with a lower-body injury, improved to 8-1-0 in the Edmonton net.
“That’s why I’m here, right? The last line of defence,” said Levi of having to come up with several big saves in the net to preserve the victory.
“I kind of embrace that [challenge]. I love it. If we played a perfect game, we wouldn’t need a goalie. And they’ve got my back when I need them to — which isn’t much. We usually play really good.”
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Draisaitl said Levi was stellar in the contest.
“I think he’s the main reason that we won the game,” Draisaitl said.
“I don’t think we were terrible, probably not our best, but he made the right saves at the right time. A couple of really, really big ones. He’s been incredible for us. We have so much trust in him.”
Oilers defenceman Connor Murphy agreed that Levi has inspired confidence.
“Any time you have your goalie as your best player, you’re in a good spot,” he said. “To add that element to our game is so huge, that he can get wins for us on nights we might not deserve it totally.
“It [creates] confidence for guys to continue to play aggressive, and then hopefully it turns out to be us shutting down plays instead of them getting by us.”
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Levi, a Quebec native who had played 39 games over three seasons for the Buffalo Sabres before spending all of last season with their AHL team, was picked up in an off-season trade by the Oilers for a third-round draft pick. His situation seems to have changed dramatically now that he has been given a chance to shine in Edmonton, but he’s not looking too far down the line quite yet.
“I’m not thinking about my future,” Levi said. “I’m just thinking about the next game, the team. I’m such a small part of this.
“Just to be here on this team, I’m super, super grateful. We’ve got a whole rest of the year to go, and we got more hockey to come.”
Under siege as they were up by one and killing a penalty while the Rangers also had their goalie pulled, Draisaitl was able to make a long shot into the empty net with 1:13 to play for his second of the game and to record his league-leading 18th goal of the season (in 19 games), extending his goal-scoring streak to four games and his points streak to six.
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“It’s massive,” Draisaitl said of the victory. “Winning a game on home ice 3-1 where you’re not at your absolute best, that’s playoff hockey right? So much momentum going back and forth and learning how to win those early on in the year is going to pay off later on in the year.”
It was Draisaitl’s franchise record-extending 78th game-winning goal.
With a goal of his own, McDavid extended his points streak to 19 games (11 goals, 37 assists, 48 points) and became just the fourth player in NHL history with a 19-game season-opening point streak, joining Wayne Gretzky, Dany Heatley and Mats Sundin. Unfortunately, his record-setting season-starting assist streak ended at 18 games.
Jaroslav Chmelar replied with a short-handed goal for the Rangers (10-8-1), who had a three-game winning streak snapped. Dylan Garand made 17 stops in goal for New York.
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