Michal Postava made his first career NHL start a memorable one Monday night.
Postava made 25 stops in regulation and three more in a shootout as the Detroit Red Wings beat Connor McDavid and the high-flying Oilers 4-3 in Edmonton, Alberta.
The 24-year-old undrafted netminder from Czechia was appearing in his second career game, after replacing John Gibson in the third period of a 5-2 win against Vancouver last Thursday.
"It's amazing," Postava told Detroit SportsNet. "It's a big win for me. I'm happy now that I help guys, and guys help me. Three times we were losing, and we still can get it, so it's a great win for us."
One of Postava's stops in the shootout came against McDavid.
"Crazy, he's like one of the best players that's ever played," Postava said. "I'm just happy. I don't have words."
Lucas Raymond scored the only goal of the shootout and had a pair of assists in regulation for Detroit. Viktor Arvidsson, Emmitt Finnie and Dylan Larkin added the goals in regulation for the Red Wings, who went 2-1-1 on a four-game road trip.
Detroit fell behind three times and tied the game for a third time with 1:17 remaining in the third period. With Postava pulled, a bouncing puck came to Larkin in front and he shoveled in his second of the season.
Vasily Podkolzin, Isaac Howard and Colton Dach scored for the Oilers, who have lost two straight as well as forward Zach Hyman to what looked to be a concussion.
McDavid had an assist to extend his season-starting points streak to 12 games, now with an NHL-best 34 points. He set a team record for most points before Nov. 1, and also matched the longest season-opening assist streak in NHL history, matching Sebastian Aho, Ken Linseman and Wayne Gretzky.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
