GAME RECAP: Kraken 4, Oilers 3

SEATTLE, WA - Couldn't turn the tide.
Trailing by two goals in the second intermission after the Seattle Kraken scored twice in 4:47 before the break through Colin Blackwell and Alex Wennberg, the Oilers were unable to convert a late 6-on-4 opportunity and complete the comeback in a 4-3 defeat at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday night.
Connor McDavid scored his 16th goal of the season on a deflection that made it a one-goal game with just over eight minutes remaining in the contest before the Kraken weathered the storm and Edmonton's late two-man advantage with the net empty.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins recorded two assists to reach 500 NHL points for his career, while Leon Draisaitl had a goal and assist in his 500th NHL game. Evan Bouchard posted two points in the defeat, and goaltender Stuart Skinner made 30 saves on 34 shots to fall to 2-4-0 on the season.

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FIRST BLOOD

Well that was quick. The Oilers were down a goal just 49 seconds into the contest when Yanni Gourde one-timed Ryan Donato's cross-ice feed on a 3-on-2 through the five-hole of Stuart Skinner, who was under siege for much of the opening 10 minutes in the Edmonton crease.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Colin Blackwell took a drop pass from Kole Lind at the Oilers blueline before cutting up the middle between Kris Russell and Tyson Barrie, head-faking and putting his backhand over the outstretched pad of Skinner to give the Kraken a 3-2 lead with 6:44 on the clock in the second period.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Skinner came up with an incredible grab on Morgan Geekie with 8:32 on the clock that seemed to spark a fightback from the Oilers bench. Geekie got loose on the left and took a pass from the corner that gave him the whole left side of the net to shoot at, but Skinner flashed the leather for his biggest save of the night.
Just 16 seconds after the stop, McDavid pulled one back for Edmonton with a deft deflection that made it a one-goal game with just over eight minutes remaining.

TURNING POINT

After Bouchard leveled the score just over eight minutes into the second period, the Kraken tightened its grasp by getting two goals in 4:47 from Colin Blackwell and Alex Wennberg in the second period's final seven minutes. The Oilers power play had the chance to pull one back before the intermission, but couldn't cash in on an important man advantage.

KEEP IT FIVE HUNDRED

Two assists for Nugent-Hopkins helped the Burnaby, BC product eclipse the 500-point plateau in his 678th NHL game, earning number 500 with an assist on Bouchard's second-period equalizer. Draisaitl suited up for his 500th NHL game in the loss and added two assists to his league-leading point total this season of 20 goals and 23 assists in 22 games.

TOP PERFORMER

Bouchard's two-point night was a bright spot on the Oilers blueline, with the young defender scoring his fourth goal of the season and adding a helper to improve his season stat line to four goals and 11 assists in 21 games.

PARTING WORDS

Nugent-Hopkins on the late push coming up short against Seattle:
"We knew coming into this building there were going to have energy. I thought in the second, maybe not outworked, but they just had a little bit more life than we did. In the third, we had a good push and clawed our way back a little bit, but (came up) just a little short there."
Tyson Barrie on a disappointing result versus the Kraken:
"It's frustrating. I don't think we want to put ourselves in a position to come back. This was a bit of a disappointing one. I think we didn't play our best tonight, so I think we'd like to just be better in a lot of areas."

Barrie on the play of the young defenceman tonight:
"I thought they were good tonight. I didn't think that was an issue at all. I think it was a lot of other parts of our game, and they got some goals there in the second and we just couldn't pull it off in the third. We had some chances, but like I said, you don't want to be chasing it."
Tippett on learnable and manageable mistakes in the result:
"We got it back to 2-2 and I thought we were alright, then we give up a tough third one there. Some good, we pushed in the third, but we didn't do enough to win, though... A couple too many turnovers and penalties. Those would be areas we could fix that's on us and not on them."