Red Wings vs. Oilers: Undrafted Goalie Michal Postava Wins His First NHL Start in a Shootout

The first NHL start of Michal Postava's career ended with the goalie staring down Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in a shootout on Monday night. All three of them skated back to the Edmonton bench with nothing to show for it.

Lucas Raymond scored the only goal of the tiebreaker, and the Detroit Red Wings left Rogers Place with a 4-3 shootout win over the Edmonton Oilers after trailing on three separate occasions. Postava is a 24-year-old from Czechia who was never drafted, and a website called Undrafted is contractually obligated to treat that as the lead story of the night.

"It's amazing, I feel like a kid. I watched all those NHL games when I was young and I didn't expect to one day be in the net and win the game. Now I'm just so happy," Postava said, per NHL.com.

Edmonton Kept Swinging First

The Oilers opened the scoring at 6:10 of the first period on a goal that looked more like a pinball bonus than a set play. Draisaitl threw the puck toward the middle, it bounced into the slot and ricocheted off two skates, first Vasily Podkolzin's and then Detroit forward Carter Mazur's, before it trickled over the line. Podkolzin got credit for his eighth of the season, and McDavid's secondary assist kept a very famous streak breathing.

The middle period belonged to Detroit. "I thought they were better than us in the second," Oilers coach Mike Babcock admitted. The Wings cashed in on the power play at 8:35, when Raymond zipped a pass across the ice and Viktor Arvidsson hammered it home from the left circle for his fifth goal of the year.

That period also cost Edmonton Zach Hyman, who left at 7:36 after a hit from Detroit defenseman Andreas Englund sent his head into the glass.

Then the third period turned into a Wimbledon rally. Kasperi Kapanen set up Isaac Howard for a power-play one-timer at 4:18, and Postava, already down on the ice, had no chance at it. It was Howard's first goal since Oct. 28, 2025. Edmonton's lead lasted exactly 30 seconds. Arvidsson pried the puck loose behind the net, Emmitt Finnie was waiting in front, and Finnie's fifth goal of the season made it 2-2 at 4:48.

Edmonton went ahead for the third time at 16:32. Ryan Shea fired a slap shot from the point, Colton Dach got his stick on it, and the redirect beat Postava. A video review for a possible high stick confirmed the goal, Dach had his first of the season, and with 3:28 left the Oilers looked ready to bank two points.

The Extra Attacker Changed Everything

Detroit coach Todd McLellan pulled Postava for a sixth skater, and the gamble paid off at 18:43. Raymond sent the puck toward the slot, it arrived at Dylan Larkin's feet, and Larkin pulled a soccer move, kicking it up to his blade before sliding it five-hole on Tristan Jarry. That made it 3-3 with 1:17 to play, and it was only Larkin's second goal of the season.

Babcock saw a bounce that went the wrong way. "They got under us there, an extra guy hit our guy's stick, went right to him," he said. That was Edmonton's night in one sentence.

Overtime nearly flipped the script anyway. Evan Bouchard found space in the slot with nine seconds left and snapped a wrist shot that Postava turned aside.

Then the kid went to work. McDavid tried a wrister and got stopped. Raymond scored on Detroit's first attempt. Draisaitl went to the backhand and got stopped. Jarry kept Edmonton alive by denying Alex DeBrincat, but Postava closed the book on Nugent-Hopkins, and the Red Wings had their two points.

A Debut Worth Framing, and a Gretzky Footnote

The official box score credits Postava with 24 saves on 27 shots before the shootout, a respectable line against a team with this much firepower. His NHL debut came last Thursday, when he replaced John Gibson to start the third period of a 5-2 win in Vancouver and stopped seven of eight shots. According to NHL.com, he is now the third Red Wings goaltender in the past 25 years to win in his first NHL start, joining Petr Mrazek and Jimmy Howard.

Raymond was the quiet engine. He set up two of Detroit's three regulation goals and then supplied the only shootout goal. Arvidsson finished with a goal and an assist, and he made sure the goalie got his flowers. "We played as a five-man unit and we helped each other out, and 'Posty' was unbelievable in net," Arvidsson said.

On the Edmonton side, McDavid's assist pushed his season-opening point streak to 12 games and his league-leading total to 34 points. He also matched the longest season-opening assist streak in NHL history, joining Sebastian Aho, Ken Linseman and Wayne Gretzky. Draisaitl's six-game goal streak ended, but his assist stretched his point streak to seven games.

Moritz Seider logged a whopping 30:07 for Detroit and picked up the secondary assist on the equalizer.

Stats That Matter

• 30 seconds: the gap between Howard's power-play goal and Finnie's answer.
• 0 for 3: McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins against Postava in the shootout.
• 33-25: Detroit's edge in hits, plus a 55.7 percent night on faceoffs.
• 28-27: the shot count, about as even as it gets.

Where This Leaves Both Teams

Detroit improved to 5-4-3 with 13 points and wrapped its four-game road trip at 2-1-1, two nights after a 4-1 loss in Calgary. "I'm really proud of the group, we responded well after what happened in Calgary," McLellan said. The Red Wings host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday.

Edmonton slipped to 8-2-2 with 18 points and has dropped two straight after a three-game winning run, starting with a 7-2 home loss to Toronto on Saturday. Shea pointed straight at the middle frame. "We have to do a better job of playing in the second period," he said, adding that the pattern is "draining a little bit of confidence." Add the uncertainty around Hyman, and the Oilers have some homework before they host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.

The Understudy Steals the Show

McLellan kept it simple. "A goalie gets the start such as this one and plays really well and gets the win," he said.

Rudy got carried off the field at the end of his movie. Postava stonewalled three of Edmonton's best shooters in their own building, which feels like the tougher screenplay. Not bad for a guy who was never drafted.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes from NHL.com's game recap; additional details as reported by the Associated Press and NHL.com.