After getting curb stomped by the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night, everyone expected the Edmonton Oilers to come out swinging. The Oilers didn’t exactly get the start they wanted, but they got the finish they needed.

Ivan Provorov opened the scoring on the power play with a slapshot off the top of the faceoff circle. Edmonton responded with a slapshot courtesy of Jake Walman to keep the game tied heading into the second period.

Columbus overwhelmed Edmonton on the rush early after the intermission – Stuart Skinner made a save on Kent Johnson, but no Oiler was available to clear the rebound, and Sean Monahan scored on a wide open net created by Skinner’s save attempt on the first shot. No further action would be recored until the final two minutes – Columbus again established a net front presence and extended their lead to two by pinballing the puck through center traffic.

Connor McDavid decided he’d had enough and decided to open the third period by scoring the best goal of the season thus far. McDavid entered the zone defended by Denton Mateychuck; he faked left and immediately reversed himself with a 360 degree spin – breaking Mateychuck’s ankles in the process (metaphorically) – and backhanded a shot over Greaves in the top left corner.

Things took a turn for the worse shortly after; Edmonton again failed to defend against the Blue Jackets rush, and Fantilli put it past Skinner to make the score 4-2 Blue Jackets.

Down 2, and with only six minutes left to play, Edmonton regained possesion and McDavid barreled down the zone on the right side before driving hard left into the net and wrapping the puck around Greaves to make it a one goal game.

Jack Roslovic took a weak high sticking call with two minutes left to play, and the game looked over, but it wasn’t lost yet. The Oilers sent out their top players to harrass Columbus in their own end, and the panicking Blue Jackets turned over the puck to Jake Walman who sent a lob shot over Greaves’ shoulder to tie the game with only a minute left to play.

Edmonton completed the comeback in overtime – Stuart Skinner made his biggest save of the game that allowed a breakaway opportunity the other way; Jack Roslovic used his speed to attack Greaves and elevate the puck over the pad, under the arm, and into the back of the net to give the Oilers squad a much needed home ice win.

It wasn’t a pretty win, but a win is a win.

The biggest takeaway for the group is that good things happen when you take play towards the opposing net. In the season so far, Edmonton has an abysmal shooting percentage of 5% from the perimeter, and low quality perimeter shots currently make up 30% of Edmonton’s shot attempts. Four of Edmonton’s goals tonight came from attacking center ice and finding a way to beat the opposition defense, three if you don’t count McDavid’s hero goal which simply isn’t being scored by any other player in the league.

Hopefully this win energizes this Oilers squad, which until tonight, was on a three game losing slump. They’ll have an opportunity to build on this game agains the Flyers on Wednesday, and a rematch against Columbus the day after.