GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Blues 2 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB – Zach Hyman reached the 40-goal mark with a two-goal effort, while Connor McDavid scored the overtime winner for his first goal in 11 games on Wednesday night to earn the Edmonton Oilers the extra point in a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Rogers Place.

"He's a guy that brings it every single day; brings it with a positive attitude and a smile on his face," McDavid said of Hyman. "Even when things aren't going well, he shows up and is the same every day and it's great to see him get rewarded. He's been playing great this year. He's banging in goals left, right and centre and it's been great for our team."

Hyman scored his 39th and 40th goals of the campaign in the first and second periods respectively to erase a 2-0 St. Louis lead and reach the 40-goal milestone for the first time in his career, reaching the mark in only 56 games and becoming the 13th player in franchise history to achieve the feat.

After some stellar defensive plays from the Oilers during the final frame helped force overtime, McDavid scored with 25.3 seconds left in sudden death to win it for Edmonton, notching his 22nd of the season to go along with two assists on the night to extend his home point streak to 24 games – totalling 13 goals and 44 assists.

Stuart Skinner stopped 32 of 34 shots for his 27th victory of the campaign, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins contributed two assists for his second straight multi-point game.

The Oilers conclude their five-game homestand with a 2-2-1 record as they look forward now to Saturday's afternoon tilt with the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena.

FIRST PERIOD

Only five minutes into the match, the Blues had bounced themselves out to a two-goal lead thanks partly to their red-hot power play that caused Edmonton a lot of headaches during their last meeting back on Feb. 6 in St. Louis.

The Blues' power play cashed in twice on eight opportunities in that 6-3 victory that was marred with penalty trouble for the Oilers. On Wednesday, St. Louis was given an early opportunity to take the lead after Leon Draisaitl was tagged for a high-sticking penalty just past the two-minute mark.

St. Louis' power play has been particularly efficient as of late, going 19-for-65 (29.2 percent) in their last 18 games coming into tonight's matchup at Rogers Place, and it was their leading scorer Robert Thomas who fired them into an early 1-0 lead with a shot from the right circle that went in off the left post and behind Stuart Skinner.

The Blues added another only 2:30 later when Jordan Kyrou picked out Pavel Buchnevich from behind Edmonton's net for a one-timer that squeaked under the left arm of Skinner, marking the Russian forward's 24th goal of the season to give the visitors a two-goal lead with just over five gone in the first period.

"Obviously, a tough five minutes and we were lucky to get out of it just down two," McDavid said. "Not the recipe for success obviously, but we didn't let it get to three and we fought our way back in, scored a big goal at the end of the first and made it a game again. I thought were the better team for 50 minutes."

The Oilers were given an avenue back into the contest before the intermission on a Kevin Hayes tripping penalty on Evan Bouchard, setting up Edmonton's power play with the chance to pull within a goalwith less than two minutes on the clock in the opening period.

As usual, it was Zach Hyman parking himself in his regular net-front spot on the power play and doing the dirty work to record his 39th goal of the campaign.

The winger but his body between the net and Blues' defenceman Nick Leddy before opening himself up for a pass from Connor McDavid and burying the rebound past Jordan Binnington from one knee inside the St. Louis crease to make it 2-1 through 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

Hyman is having himself a career season; and now, he's got a new milestone to prove it.

A quick pass up ice from Evan Bouchard on a delayed offside for the Blues inside the first five minutes of the middle frame set up a two-on-one going the other way between McDavid and Hyman, leading to the Oilers captain offloading a pass to the back post for Hyman to hit the 40-goal mark this season with his second goal of the game.

"I play with the best player in the world, so I'm very fortunate and very aware that I'm pretty lucky," he said. "One of the big reasons I chose to come here was to have the opportunity to play with Connor, but [chemistry] doesn't happen overnight. You learn, and I think a lot of it just has to do with communication. He thinks the game so well, so if I'm able to think it with him and get to spots that he can get the puck to, then we'll have a good chance to score."

Hyman becomes just the 13th player in Oilers franchise history to hit 40 goals in a single season by doing it for the first time in his nine-year NHL career.

The 31-year-old from Toronto, Ont. is the second player in the NHL this season to reach the mark behind Toronto's Auston Mathews, with his previous career best being the 37 goals he scored last year in his second season with Edmonton.

McDavid's assist was his second of the game, marking his sixth straight two-assist performance that pushes his home point streak to 24 games, totalling 12 goals and 44 assists.

Over his last 11 contests, the captain hadn't scored (more on that later), but he'd registered a whopping 25 helpers over that span to put him on pace for well over 100 assists this season.

Evan Bouchard's unlocking feed from inside Edmonton's blueline was his 57th point in 57 games, passing Chris Pronger to become the highest-scoring Oilers defenceman since Paul Coffey recorded 67 points during the 1986-87 season.

We have a pretty good feeling that he can become No. 1 on that list before the regular season is over.

THIRD PERIOD

If not for some stellar defensive efforts from both their skaters and their netminder, the Oilers could've been whistling a much different tune at the end of the third period.

"You need efforts like that and plays like that to be successful," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said.

With four-and-a-half minutes gone in the final frame, Skinner was called upon to make a monstrous blocker save on a partial two-on-none for the Blues between former Oil Kings forward Jake Neighbours and Zack Bolduc.

The Edmonton product slid across and got his blocker to the quick release from Bolduc, who along with the Blues bench couldn't believe the goalie had got to it in time to keep both teams locked into a 2-2 tie as the "Stuuuuu!" chant echoed through the bowl at Rogers Place for the goalie's terrific save.

The "Stuuuuu!" was soon replaced with "Nuuuuuge!" when the longest-tenured Oiler back-checked with incredible fervour to take away a breakaway for Robert Thomas inside the final 10 minutes of regulation. Nugent-Hopkins lifted the stick of St. Louis' leading scorer on his in-alone opportunity to take a golden opportunity away from the centre, setting us up for an exciting overtime period that would decide the extra point in a close-knit battle between the two playoff-hopeful sides.

"I think of those moments as winning games," Skinner said. "When Nuge did that, I thought in my head that if we win this game, that's a huge moment. That's a huge reason why. When guys put in that type of effort doing the things that are hard and ultimately doing the hard things, you'll win games."

"If you want to talk about underrated players in the league, he had a 100-point season last year and I still think he's underrated," Hyman added. "I don't know how much more underrated you can get."

OVERTIME

Late in sudden death, McDavid's teammates left him no choice. He had to shoot, but thankfully, he did.

"There was no one to pass it to," McDavid laughed. "I thought Hyms would be on the backside, but he quit on the play I guess."

Despite not scoring and registering 25 assists over his last 11 games, McDavid has rarely made the wrong play in his decision-making and he was right again when he put a tricky shot on Binnington from the left circle in the final minute of overtime.

"I'm always trying to make plays and set guys up," McDavid added. "Scoring goals has been hard to come by, but I don't know if there's a zone or anything like that. I'm always trying to produce any way I can. I'm not trying to not score goals. It's just been that the pass has been there, and I've been maybe making too many passes here and there, but they've been working.

After a few exchanges with Mattias Ekholm in the neutral zone, McDavid winded his way into St. Louis' zone before putting his effort on goal that struck the left shoulder of Binnington and settled into the top-left corner, winning the extra point for the Oilers with 25.3 seconds left in extra time.

"I was pretty tired. Ek was tired," McDavid said. "I kept giving it back to him. I felt bad for him. He was just trying to get off the ice, but he kind of gave it to me there and I just tried to give it one last dash. I know there was not much going on in that play. I just tried to get it to the net somehow, and fortunately, it went in."

With the overtime triumph, the Oilers finish their five-game homestand 2-2-1 as they set their sights on Saturday's afternoon contest at Climate Pledge Arena against the Seattle Kraken.