POST-GAME: Oilers flex team toughness, togetherness in statement Game 2

LAS VEGAS, NV - Expect the expected when you're up by five goals.

In the case of the Edmonton Oilers during Game 3, ahead by a handful on their way to evening up the series at 1-1, it was the Vegas Golden Knights trying to take a piece of them with the game out of their reach.

"We got it to five-nothing, right? And we know they're going to try to run around and cause [expletive] and get involved in the game somehow," Evander Kane said. "I thought we did a great job answering there."

The Oilers soared to a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes driven by power-play, shorthanded and even-strength goals for Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard and Connor McDavid that led to a lot of soul-searching for the Golden Knights.

After Draisaitl added Edmonton's fourth of the night and his 13th goal of the postseason before the first intermission, desperation led to a Vegas challenge for goaltender interference on Zach Hyman that was expectedly declined for another Golden Knights penalty -- their third of the period -- as the cold truth of the result settled in on their bench.

When things soured further in the second period after Connor McDavid netted his second of the game with a short-side effort on the man advantage, the Oilers firmly and confidently stood their ground and showed their team toughness isn't just limited to their 56 percent power play, their top-two NHL playoff scoring leaders, or their well-rounded team depth and defence corps.

"Certainly if they want to run around and play that type of game, then we'll play on the power play all night if that's what they want," McDavid said. "So at the end of the day, we're not going to sit back and take it though either."

In the literal definition of the word 'toughness', the Oilers flexed theirs to give the Golden Knights a glimpse of what they can offer in return.

"It's a big part of our team identity," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft added. "And when teams are undisciplined and run around, it's one of the ways we can make them pay."

"One of the ways," he emphasized.

Game 2 reached its physical peak in the final three minutes of the second period when action broke out all across the ice. The battle of the Brett's in Kulak and Howden went down at the Vegas bench, while 100 feet down the ice in the corner, Kane and Nick Bjugstad were wrapped up with Keegan Kolesar and Alex Pietrangelo.

After the refs broke it up, Kane blew his now-infamous kiss to a Vegas Golden Knights fan for a fitting homage to the final scoreline. He finished with 24 penalty minutes as the target of some final-period angst from Vegas that the Oilers answered face-to-face.

The 31-year-old kept his cool in the third period when Nicolas Hague and Kolesar were both tossed with 10-minute misconducts before he met the same fate with Bjugstad, Nicolas Roy and William Carrier in the final 30 seconds of a 5-1 lead for Edmonton. Klim Kostin also dropped the gloves with Zach Whitecloud to join Kulak with a fighting major in the game.

"Like I said, I thought we did a good job staying disciplined," he said. "We stuck up for each other when we had to, and we're a team that I don't think can be punished physically, so we like to do the punishing. We don't mind that type of game when we're at five-nothing."

"When you want to [expletive] around, sometimes you've got to find out," he added. "So that's what happened."

Coach Woodcroft praised his team's mental dedication to arriving at T-Mobile Arena ready to respond to their Game 1 loss and physical answer to the Golden Knights' attempts to push them around.

"We talk a lot about being mentally tough, and part of being mentally tough is it's a choice you make," he said. "There are going to be disappointments and setbacks along the way, but how you react or respond. I think that's really important in terms of the physical play and all that type of stuff."

With many ways they can take over games, Game 2 was a great lesson for the Golden Knights that they can answer for any aggression they face.

"We have more than enough people that can take care of that side of things, and I was proud of our team togetherness."