Oilers deliver solid team win against Bruins

BOSTON — A power-play goal, an even-strength goal, a shorthanded goal.

Connor McDavid scores the 382nd goal of his career, and Quinn Hutson scores his first. Tristan Jarry started the game in goal, Calvin Pickard finished the night with a perfect relief performance in a 3-1 Edmonton Oilers win at the TD Garden.

Are you getting the picture? This was as solid a team win as the Edmonton Oilers have delivered… Maybe all season long.

“You don’t win them all the same way,” said Zach Hyman, who was around the net all night but saw his four-game goals streak come to an end. “The more ways you can win the better team you are. I thought it was great, we haven’t won enough of these tight, 3-1 games.”

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You know who played an awesome game in Boston, where the Bruins have been surprisingly good this season, sitting near the top of the Atlantic Division all season?

Farmhand Max Jones, that’s who.

The little-known call-up — and former Bruin, who came over in the Trent Frederic trade — played just 5:48 and managed to make an impact with an assist, three shots on goal and two hits.

“Anytime you can contribute with, obviously, those really low minutes, it feels really good,” said Jones, who has almost zero chance of remaining an Oiler once guys like Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen come back from injury. “I mean, you’ve got to find ways on each shift to bring something, whether it’s being physical, breaking up a play, being good defensively…

“Obviously the role is very difficult to play, and I’m just grateful that I could get a couple shifts there with (Leon Draisaitl) and Hutty (Hutson), and then (Frederic) and Hutty. We played a really good, strong game.”

They did, on an Oilers team that has had the square root of nothing from its bottom-six over the past while.

It was a nice change, and a different look for Edmonton. They were more of a four-line team against a Bruins team that rolls ‘em as well as any NHL club, and ground out a 3-1 win after a month of higher scoring games.

“Everybody’s got to contribute, right?” Hyman said. “In the playoffs, you have to win games many different ways, and the more ways you can win, the better team you are. I don’t think we’ve won enough of these tight, 3-1 games.”

Edmonton hasn’t won a game in regulation — scoring three or less goals — since a 2-0 win at Madison Square Garden in Game No. 3 of the season. They’re on a nice tear now, collecting 13 of their past 16 available points, and in their previous six regulation wins they’ve averaged just less than six goals a game.

If Edmonton can win a low-scoring game or two along the way, then you know they’ve found their way out of their annual early-season doldrums.

Offensively, their formula is simple: a goal from the power play, a goal from McDavid or Draisaitl, and a goal from someone else gets them to three. And in a 3-2 league, that’s enough to win on most nights.

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“It was nice to contribute every way,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “To get the power play goal — that’s usual, they’re pretty good at doing that — and a shorthanded goal. McDavid makes a nice play to get the put the puck in the net, but it starts with Nuge’s patience, the pass he made to set that up.

“Then the highlight of tonight was Hutson getting his first goal,” Knoblauch added. “Him and Jones didn’t play very much, but they played really well.”

Hutson scored a bunch of goals at the Garden in his three seasons with Boston University. “I’ve had some cool goals in this rink, but that was definitely the coolest,” he said of his first NHL tuck, a rebound from Jones’ shot.

“I was laughing on the bench with him,” Jones said. “I was like, ‘Dude, I thought he saved that.’ And he was like, ‘I did too!’”

“I thought (Jeremy Swayman) got a stick on and I watched it barely go in. It was nice to see it go in,” said Hutson, who plays top-line minutes in Bakersfield, but had to make the most of just 6:26 in Boston. “It’s obviously harder. You’re just thinking about your next shift. When I go out there, I’m just thinking, if I’m gonna get a chance, I’ve got to shoot it.

“That’s how it is with limited minutes. This next shot’s got to go in.”

OIL SPILLS — Knoblauch had no update on Jarry, who appeared to tweak something as he moved across his crease. “I’m not sure how serious it is. I’ve got no updates.” … McDavid has an eight-game points streak intact (10-12-22) … McDavid and Draisaitl combined on a goal for the 252nd time, surpassing Daniel and Henrik Sedin to move into second place all-time behind Sid Crosby and Evgeny Malkin (267).