GAME RECAP: Jets 7, Oilers 5

WINNIPEG, MB - Leon Draisaitl recorded the seventh regular-season hat-trick of his NHL career, but the Edmonton Oilers were unable to sweep a back-to-back home-and-home set with the Winnipeg Jets after falling 7-5 at Canada Life Centre on Saturday night.
The Dynamic Duo set a pair of new Oilers single-season franchise records on the power play in the loss, with the German recording his 25th power-play goal of the campaign that opened the scoring before Connor McDavid followed suit in the third period with his 58th power-play point of the campaign.
Draisaitl's former Prince Albert Raiders teammate and Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey paced the hosts with two goals and an assist as Winnipeg was able to snap a five-game winless skid with the victory on Saturday.
"They played a good game," Draisaitl said. "We obviously gave them way too many chances for looks and scoring chances. They're obviously a good offensive team, so they'll capitalize."
Nick Bjugstad found the back of the net in his Oilers debut and 600th career NHL game, while Jack Campbell didn't have his best on the night, allowing six goals on 38 shots in the loss.
"It's disappointing," Campbell said. "The guys played great and I've been working super hard, feeling good going into the games and it's just disappointing to let them down. A couple I want back, and that would have been the difference."
"Jack made some saves in that third period to give us a chance, and that's something that he can take out of tonight's game, but our team can be better," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft added.
The Oilers travel to Buffalo ahead of facing the Sabres on Monday night as they continue their four-game road trip.

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FIRST BLOOD

After scoring an early power-play goal in the first of the back-to-back on Friday night in Edmonton, Draisaitl was back at it setting an Oilers single-season record with the man advantage.
Defenceman Evan Bouchard blasted a slap shot from the blue line that couldn't be controlled by netminder Connor Hellebuyck before the puck popped out to his left, where Draisaitl was positioned to collect the rebound and put home his 25th goal of the season on the power play -- a new franchise best.
The 39th goal of the campaign for number 29 also extended his point streak to a team-high 12 games that's coincided with a noticeable strong stretch of games put together by the German, while also being the fifth straight road game he's found the back of the net.

WINNIPEG TIPS WELL

Always tip your servers.
In the first period's case for Winnipeg, two deflections -- one off the twig of centre Mark Scheifele and another off the leg of defenceman Vincent Desharnais -- were created from the blue line off served-up shots from the point to give the Jets the lead heading into the first intermission.
Scheifele got his twig to Dylan DeMelo's effort to deflect the equalizer past Campbell 10 minutes after Draisaitl had the Oilers ahead before Josh Morrissey's turn-away shot towards goal three-and-a-half minutes later caught a piece of Desharnais' left foot on the way through, changing the puck's trajectory and leaving Campbell no chance of preventing the Jets from taking the lead.

SECOND-PERIOD FRENZY

After Mattias Janmark and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored shorthanded early in the second period to tie the game at 2-2, it was beginning to look like it might be Edmonton's period.
Things would, however, get a bit out of hand at both ends of the rink in a middle frame that ended with seven goals, minimal goaltending and a 6-4 advantage in favour of the Jets.

Draisaitl converted from another ridiculous angle for the second straight game against Winnipeg 6:12 into the middle frame, putting the Oilers ahead briefly by a goal and beginning a three-goal stretch of 56 seconds that saw Adam Lowry and Kyle Capobianco strike twice via the deflection and snap shot to restore the Jets advantage.
Fast forward two minutes, and it was Draisaitl bringing down the caps from the seats at Canada Life Centre with his hat-trick goal that came off the goal-line feed from McDavid to the back door, where the German one-tapped the pass past Hellebuyck for his 41st tally of the season and seventh regular-season NHL hatty. With the assist, McDavid set a new Oilers franchise record for power-play points in a season with his 58th point on the man advantage.

But just when they thought they might've been through the rough patch, Morgan Barron got away from pressure at the Oilers blue line to skate in alone and slide the 5-4 goal through the wickets of Campbell.
In the last seconds of the period with the Canada Life Centre crowd yelling "Shooooooot!", Josh Morrissey's desperation, last-second slap shot found its way through traffic and in off the blocker of Campbell with 1.7 seconds left on a frantic middle frame.
"it's great to get a lot of action, and frankly it was a fun game, but just disappointing and a couple of goals that I'd like back," Campbell said. "The guy beats me high glove, and Morrissey one found a way to beat me from the point and then the five-hole on the breakaway.
"Keep working on it and I know the results will come, but definitely a tough one to swallow."

A SUCCESSFUL 'DEBJUG'

Playing in his first-ever game as an Edmonton Oiler while subsequently playing in his 600th NHL game on Saturday night, Nick Bjugstad got himself on the scoresheet with his first-ever goal for Edmonton.
The 30-year-old centre won an offensive-zone draw, went to the net and was positioned perfectly in front to tap home Devin Shore's terrific feed that drew out Hellebuyck to pull Edmonton back within a goal 2:55 into the third period.
"I almost missed it," he said. "It was the easiest goal I've had all year, so thanks to Shoresy... I would've loved to come up with the win first game here, but we move on and keep working towards getting better and better."
Bjugstad concluded his debut in Blue & Orange with a goal, 4-of-8 faceoffs won, two shots, one hit and three blocks in 13:17 of ice time.
"I thought he was a good player for us," Woodcroft said. "We used him in every situation. Put him out 6-on-5, he was on the penalty kill and won a big face off that led to a goal with him standing over the goalie in the blue paint. I thought that was a good sign. We gave him a couple of shifts up with Connor on his line, so yeah, I thought it was a good start for him personally. You can see why he's played in the League for as long as he has. Good veteran poise."

PARTING WORDS

Campbell on decompressing from this loss and then returning to work:
"Just try to watch a movie on the plane, look at the tape tomorrow and have a great practice. I just know I can be so much better for this group and I'm definitely going to keep working to get there.
Campbell on knowing he has the ability to lead this team between the pipes:
"I believe in my talent, and I think I've shown it up until this year and the ability to make those saves that people don't expect me to make. I know it's right there. I just got to keep working and I know I'll be there for this team."

Woodcroft on what he saw from his team in defeat tonight:
"I saw some fatigue errors, and there's no excuse. The schedule is what the schedule is, but I saw some things that we haven't seen for a long time show up.
"All I know is that we can handle situations better, and I think when you get in situations with where the schedule is at, that's when you have to trust your structure and play towards the structure because that protects everybody. And tonight, we didn't do a good enough job of that. We scored enough to win, but we didn't defend well enough to win."