Element No. 3: Off the third period’s opening faceoff, an Oilers dump-in should’ve been called for icing. Instead, McDavid raced in, stole the puck and scored to spark Edmonton’s three-goal comeback.
“When a guy’s five feet from center ice and we don’t get an icing call, there’s no reason,” Ruff said. “I mean, it’s not even close. It’s just icing, and you’ve got to call it. And it gave them life.”
An unlucky bounce set up McDavid’s last-second tying goal, forcing the Sabres to continue battling for a second point. Three-on-three overtime is no walk in the park when facing McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Bouchard, so Tuch and Ryan McLeod schemed up a path to puck possession.
“Clouder told me to go,” Tuch explained. “He was gonna shoot it down the ice. That was a plan that we had, trying to put them back on their heels a little bit. He thought that I could maybe, especially with their defenseman moving so far up, beat [Bouchard] off the line. I was just able to strip the puck, and we had possession from there.”
After a regroup in the neutral zone, McLeod drew Edmonton’s star skaters toward the wall and found Tuch, uncovered, for the game winner.