GAME RECAP: Oilers 2, Lightning 1

EDMONTON, AB – Lightning can't strike twice.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner made 21 saves, while forward Leon Draisaitl became the first player this season to reach 20 goals after he notched the game-winner during the second period in a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night at Rogers Place.

The German got credit for the winner at 8:02 of the middle frame when goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy attempted to poke away his rebound that went in off the leg of defenceman Victor Hedman, giving the Oilers a 2-1 lead that held to the final buzzer after Stuart Skinner & their penalty kill closed out the contest at six-on-four in the final two minutes.

Draisaitl added an assist on Connor McDavid's first-period goal that followed defenceman Mattias Ekholm having a goal disallowed in the opening frame

"They're a dangerous group over there, so you've got to be alert as they can make stuff happen out of nothing," Draisaitl said. "So I thought we did a pretty good job of playing down the clock in the third and not giving them too much and continuing just to push and play our game.".

The Oilers have now won three straight games and their last four on home ice as they hit the road for a one-game road trip to Minnesota to face the Central Division-leading Wild on Thursday night.

FIRST PERIOD

After an unstoppable shot from Mattias Ekholm was nullified by an offside challenge, Connor McDavid ripped through the Tampa Bay defence to score an opener that was equally as impressive as his teammate's disallowed goal 10 minutes earlier in the period.

Ekholm looked to have blasted Edmonton into the lead seven-and-a-half minutes in on a slap shot over the shoulder of Andrei Vasilevskiy from the left circle, but a challenge by the Tampa Bay bench for a marginal offside more than half a minute earlier on Zach Hyman overturned what would've been an incredible goal by the Swedish blueliner.

McDavid was stopped on a breakaway earlier in the frame, but there was no denying him a second time with two-and-a-half to go before the intermission after Leon Draisaitl found him coming through the neutral zone with speed off the initial break-out pass from Brett Kulak.

With speed to burn and space between the Lightning defence, the Oilers captain cut through Viktor Hedman and J.J. Moser before moving the puck to his forehand to fire a shot under the arm of Vasilevskiy for his 14th goal of the season.

With the goal, McDavid now has 28 points (11G, 17A) in 15 games since returning from injury on Nov. 6, which leads all NHL players since that date. Draisaitl's assist was his 37th point of the campaign, with 19 of those being goals as the German chased becoming the first player in the NHL this season to hit the 20-goal mark.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner made a crucial save on Nick Paul in the final minute of the period to stop the Lightning forward from equalizing before the break on a toe drag out front from below the goal line that forced the Oilers netminder into making a vital intervention.

Both the Oilers and Lightning were 0-for-1 with the power play after the first period, with Edmonton leading 8-7 in shots after 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

The first player to 20 goals this season? None other than Leon Draisaitl.

The Lightning got on the board to make it 1-1 midway through the period after taking advantage of a giveaway from Ekholm in his own zone that gave the puck to Nikita Kucherov, who found Jake Guentzel in the slot for a wrist shot that squeaked through Stuart Skinner's right arm for his fourth goal in four games with 9:58 left in the frame.

Just 1:56 later, Draisaitl found himself on a breakaway off a stretch pass from Darnell Nurse, and it wasn't even his own effort that resulted in the puck crossing the line to restore Edmonton's one-goal lead on his 20th goal of the campaign.

Vasilevskiy tried to clear the puck from danger, but his attempt hit the leg of his own defenceman Hedman, who kicked it past his netminder for an unassisted Draisaitl marker with 8:02 remaining in the period.

Draisaitl has now recorded nine 20-goal seasons over his career – tied for the fourth most in franchise history alongside Wayne Gretzky behind Jari Kurri, Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson – and beat out Florida's Sam Reinhart (19) and Tampa's Brayden Point (18) as the first player to reach 20 goals this season.

The Oilers led 2-1 after two periods, limiting the high-powered Lightning to only 14 shots after 40 minutes.

THIRD PERIOD

Over the final 20 minutes, the Oilers fought to keep pucks out of their own net, culminating in their fourth straight victory behind back-to-back one-goal performances from their netminder Stuart Skinner, who finished with 20 saves for the victory.

Post-game, the netminder could only heap praise on his teammates for their defensive efforts in front of him during the final frame.

"Especially in the third period, there were some times where they made some really good passes and I was a little bit out of the play," Skinner said. "Stecher got a stick on it. Kuley got a nice stick on it. A big block by Kappy. A really smart defensive play by Ekky.

"I could go down the list of how many good defensive plays that we made tonight, so I kind of felt like that was on both sides. It was just a game of intelligence and smarts, and that's why it was such a tight game."

Two minutes into the period, last season's Art Ross Trophy winner with 144 points (44 goals) in Nikita Kucherov tried to pull a fast one on Skinner, faking the dangle and trying to go five-hole with a sneaky move that the netminder read and kept out to keep the Oilers ahead by a goal.

"I've never seen it on myself and I was like, 'It's about time that he tried something like that on me.'" Skinner said. "It's nice to make a save on Kucherov, because he makes smart plays like that all the time. He's obviously scored like that a few times, so that's what makes him so unpredictable. He's a heck of a player, so I'm just happy I was able to stay down on it."

The Oilers couldn't capitalize on their second power play before they needed a heroic penalty kill in the final minutes of regulation, seeing Ryan Nugent-Hopkins go off for tripping with 1:42 remaining to leave the Lightning with a six-on-four opportunity to tie the game.

Brayden Point knocked down a puck from above the crossbar in the dying seconds that could've given Tampa Bay a late equalizer, but the officials waved off the play and confirmed 'no goal' in an official review, sending the ensuing faceoff outside the Oilers' zone with eight seconds on the clock.

"It was pretty obvious we knew they were going to try to get a really good scoring chance, so they threw a nice pass, got a nice shot off, and then it was kind of a bit of a blur and I didn't really get to see the whole thing," Skinner said. "I kind of rushed to the bench and was asking the guys on the bench, 'What did you guys see on the review? Do you guys think it's a goal or no goal?' I was just more so concerned if it was. If it was going to be like what the call was going to be.

Edmonton saw out the final seconds to win their fourth straight game and their sixth home victory in their last seven games (6-1-0) at Rogers Place.