GAME RECAP: Golden Knights 5, Oilers 2 (Game 6)

EDMONTON, AB - The Edmonton Oilers season ended on Sunday night with the Vegas Golden Knights eliminating them from the second round of the playoffs in six games with a 5-2 victory at Rogers Place.

"Yeah, it hurts. I don't know. It's tough to find words right now," Leon Draisaitl said after the loss. "Obviously, when you start a season, you're in it to win it, and we're at that stage if you don't complete that, then it just feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. So that hurts."

Jonathan Marchessault erased a 2-1 Oilers lead with a natural hat trick in the second period, while Reilly Smith and William Karlsson scored the Knights others in the Western Conference regular-season leader's win.

Connor McDavid and Warren Foegele were on the other end of the only two pucks to find their way by Adin Hill, who turned aside 39 of 41 shots for his third victory of the series in relief of Laurent Brossoit.

"They did a lot of good things. They shut it down. Their third period was clinical," Connor McDavid said. "We still had our looks and didn't find a way to get one past him."

Sunday night's defeat was the first time since the beginning of March that the Oilers had lost two games in a row and puts an end to a season that saw the Oilers record 109 points and boast three 100-point scorers.

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FLURRY-OUS START

For the first time in the series, the Oilers didn't score the game's first goal.

Reilly Smith and the Golden Knights were able to get the jump on the home side when an Oilers clearing attempt trickled right into the slot and on a platter for the Vegas forward to snap by Stuart Skinner. The opener came just 24 seconds into the game, but it wouldn't be much longer until the Oilers matched it.

On the very next shift, Connor McDavid did exactly what you expect a Hart Trophy nominee to do. The Oilers captain collected a pass from Brett Kulak and blazed down the right flank, firing a quick wrister over the pad and under the blocker of Adin Hill to nullify the Vegas advantage 31 seconds after it was created.

The goal was McDavid's eight of the playoffs and 10th point of the series - essentially returning the game back to opening deadlocked state.

The Oilers built off that jolt of momentum and started to put the pressure on the Golden Knights. Ryan McLeod used his trademark speed to win a race on a dump in, Derek Ryan followed up the play and slid a neat pass to an onrushing Warren Foegele who dropped the knee and hammered his second goal of the series by Hill and giving Edmonton a 2-1 lead.

The pair of goals gave Edmonton a playoff-high 23 first-period tallies -- 10 more than the second place Seattle Kraken.

JONATHAN ON THE SPOT

After the very strong first period where the Oilers were able to pin the Golden Knights deep and notch a 15-7 shot advantage - it was to be expected that Vegas would push back.

The line of Jonathan Marchessault, Jack Eichel, and Ivan Barbashev continued to be the torch-bearers, forcing the Oilers to defend the cycle with some long shifts in Edmonton territory. Their hardwork, and a fair bit of luck, allowed the Knights to erase the Oilers advantage and take it for themselves.

It was Marchessault who scored the double, notching his third and fourth of the postseason. His first coming from a puck that bounced off a skate in front of Skinner and into prime scoring territory for the forward to tap by a diving Oilers goaltender.

Marchessault's second goal in the span of 3:18 also came in very similar fashion. Barbashev ripped a shot from the circle up high on Skinner who fought off the shot with his shoulder. Unfortunately for the Edmonton netminder, the puck bounced up in the air and landed directly on the goal line for Marchessault to jump on and take a 3-2 lead for the visitors.

"I worked really hard to get in position, got a lot of depth, [he] made a nice shot, but I made the save and it went right up," Skinner said about the third goal. "I thought it was going to go into the netting because I feel like that's kind of how it normally goes. I was looking up to kind of make sure and then it bounced right on the goal line."

CAMPBELL COMES IN

For the third time in the series and the fourth time in the playoffs, Jack Campbell would come in to spell the Oilers rookie netminder. The 31-year-old entered the contest with some solid performances in relief, with a 1.19 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage prior to his third period arrival.

Campbell wouldn't have a busy night with the Golden Knights content to dump and change for the majority of the third period, turning aside four shots in his 20 minutes of action.

Skinner, who is a Calder Trophy nominee after a strong regular season, wasn't able to find the same level of consistency that he displayed throughout the year while suffering from some untimely bounces.

"It's hard to say right now. I don't really have a clear mind, but hard to lose, obviously," Skinner said about the performance. "I thought the guys played really hard. Again, I think I needed to be better. I got pulled countless times, so It's hard to take this one on the chin, for sure."

TOP PERFORMER

The night belonged to Marchessault, who recorded a natural hat trick in the second period for his second straight three-point game of the series.

The 32-year-old capped off the trio of goals with 1:24 remaining in the middle stanza. Just as Kailer Yamamoto came rushing out of the penalty box to help in defence, Marchessault bared down on a wrist shot from the left hashmarks that eluded Skinner's glove.

The Golden Knights forward ended the game with three goals and six shots in his 16:13 of ice time.

PARTING WORDS

Leon Draisaitl on the series play at 5-on-5:

"Yeah. Couldn't create enough maybe five-on-five, but we scored two 5-on-5 tonight. Sometimes that's got to be enough, right? I got to take a lot of ownership myself. I wasn't good tonight."

Draisaitl on what he will take from this game and season:

"Just a feeling of how much it hurts. I don't think anyone in here wants to feel like that again. So you got to do whatever you have to do personally to make sure that you don't feel like that anymore. But it's obviously very fresh and hurts right now."

Draisaitl on falling short after a very good regular season:

"Yeah, they're a good team. They played us well, played us hard. There are too many little mistakes. Key moments for our group that ended up backfiring and turned the series around."

Stuart Skinner on having the faith of Jay Woodcroft:

"I mean, it's always good when you're put back into the net. You get a chance for redemption, chance to bounce back. I thought I did a great job on bouncing back every game, and then tonight just obviously wasn't my night."

Skinner on if this playoff loss is a just a part of the team's journey:

"This is obviously part of the book that one day we're all going to write. This is a chapter where it stings and it sucks and it's painful and sure it's the first year for myself, but it was a year that we had a very special group and I had the chance to help this team do that and I didn't do that, but it's part of the road. Yeah. It's hard to really think about it right now, but it's part of my story anyways."

Darnell Nurse on what he feels happened in the series:

"We just weren't consistent enough. I think you if give them chances they are going to make you pay. Kind of played with fire a little bit getting behind in the series and then they found a way to finish their chances tonight and we couldn't."

Nurse on if the team gave enough down the stretch:

"Every single person in this room went out there and prepared, tried to give everything that they had, and we weren't able to produce at the same level five-on-five as Vegas was. That comes down to each and every guy. We did produce a lot in the regular season and we're a really good five-on-five team and I think on a team and personal level we could have been better, and it stings now."

Connor McDavid on continuing to be a playoff team working towards a Stanley Cup:

"Feels like every team that wins and goes on a stretch of winning kind of experiences this. Obviously, it's not what you want to do, not what you want to feel. That being said, I really feel that you got to go through some of this to win. I think we've seen that all the way through. So let's hope it's the last time."

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on the results of the game:

"I think there were points in tonight's game where we can better. That said, I thought the effort of our players, they pushed right to the very end in trying to find the equalizers. In the end, it didn't turn our way, but I can't fault the effort of our players. But, there were certainly some points in tonight's game that we felt we could have executed better."

Woodcroft on Leon Draisaitl taking responsibility for the loss:

"I think we win as a team and we don't win as a team, and we stick together. That's Leon being the leader that he is in trying to take all that on himself. But we win as a team and we lose as a team and in the end, we didn't execute at a high enough rate today in order to win the game and push it to seven games."

Woodcroft on losing to the Western Conference's best regular season team:

'Congratulations are in order to the Vegas Golden Knights, who played a very good series. There were two teams that were taking swings at each other in every game. There's moments in that series that we feel we could execute it at a higher level, but you also have to tip your cap to the other team. You're right. They finished ahead of us in the standings, and I thought there are moments we want to have back and we're going to have to learn from, to use this as the growth opportunity that it presents itself as for us as an organization to take a step. But all that said, the Vegas Golden Knights executed at a high level, and they're moving on for a reason."