The Edmonton Oilers owe their goaltender a steak dinner after what transpired at Nationwide Arena on Sunday night.
Devan Dubnyk made a season-high 39 saves as the Oilers managed to notch two points despite being outshot 40-14 in a 3-1 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Ales Hemsky, Magnus Paajarvi and Sam Gagner scored for the Oilers, who ended a five-game winless streak despite being outplayed. Gagner also added an assist.
"I knew on the road, the start's especially key to keep them off the board," Dubnyk said. "It was a fun game to play. Obviously, a little more work than usual, but that's how you've got to win games sometimes. That's my job – to stop whatever comes at me."
R.J. Umberger had the lone goal for Columbus. Sergei Bobrovsky made just 11 saves in the loss.
"As a team, we've got to be better," Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky said. "Two points is all that matters and we came up short tonight. We've got to be better tomorrow (against San Jose)."
The Blue Jackets went 0-for-7 on the power play, while Edmonton finished 0-for-4. Paajarvi's tally came shorthanded and broke a 1-1 tie with 3:10 remaining in the third period, as he took a pass from Gagner and ripped a high wrister past Bobrovsky for his first goal of the season. Gagner added an empty-netter at 19:47.
Columbus fired 25 shots on goal through the first two periods, but Dubnyk stopped them all. Umberger finally solved the Oilers' netminder with his first goal of the season at 9:43 of the third, when he stepped around Hemsky and Gagner before beating Dubnyk with a low shot from the slot.
"You've got to score more than one goal in this League," Umberger said. "For us, we can't make the blatant mistakes because they're just always in our net. We've got to find ways to score more than one goal and help out our goaltending."
The Blue Jackets outshot the Oilers 15-3 in the final period.
"I felt we were a little sloppy," Gagner said. "We could have been better. Our goaltending was unbelievable tonight and stole us a win. You look at the shots and a number of the chances that they had were prime-scoring chances. He made some huge saves and really stabilized things for us back there. We owe him a lot for tonight."
Jordan Eberle thought he gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead midway through the second period on a play that was ruled no-goal by the officials. After rookie Nail Yakupov blocked Bobrovsky's clearing attempt behind the goal, the puck ramped off James Wisniewski's stick and over the net to Eberle, who batted it in. Replays proved to be inconclusive, upholding the call on the ice.
Dubnyk made several pad saves before Hemsky capitalized on a giveaway by Wisniewski. Taylor Hall intercepted a breakout pass and the puck caromed toward Bobrovsky, who swiped at it. But the puck bounced off Hall and Bobrovsky, then came to Hemsky for a one-timer at 13:58. It was his fifth goal of the season.
"We probably should have had 10 goals tonight," Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson said. "You only score one goal, you're not going to win many hockey games. That's the most frustrating part, is the offense giving ourselves a chance to win. You're probably going to have to score three, four goals every night to win. Otherwise, our poor goalies have to pitch a shutout every night. That's just unrealistic to ask."
Material from wire services and team media was used in this report.
