GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Ducks 2

EDMONTON, AB – Forward Leon Draisaitl recorded his league-leading 28th goal and ninth game-winning tally of the season with 1:35 remaining in regulation on Friday night to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place.

After the Ducks tied it 2-2 on defenceman Jackson LaCombe's power-play goal in the third period, the German superstar took a redirected pass from Zach Hyman in the final two minutes and beat Anaheim goaltender Lukas Dostal under the crossbar to seal the two points and Edmonton's first win of 2025.

"I take big pride in stepping up when it's needed most, and it's always something that's really important to me," Draisaitl said. "Some years, it seems to go your way in certain moments, and other years, it doesn't. That's just the way this league works, but obviously, I'll take it."

Draisaitl pushed his point streak to 12 games and 25 points (11G, 14A) and passed Glenn Anderson for the fifth-most points in Oilers franchise history after delivering the decisive marker, increasing his lead to five goals in the NHL's goalscoring race ahead of four other players.

Defencemen Darnell Nurse had a goal and an assist, while Evan Bouchard contributed a helper on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' first-period marker to pick up his 200th career point in the bounce-back victory for the Oilers following their defeat to the Ducks last weekend.

"I think it was a much better team effort," Nurse said. "Wasn't perfect by any means, but when you have those leads, you want to make sure that you bring them home. We were challenged at the end, but we found a way to get that final goal we needed."

Goaltender Stuart Skinner held down the crease with 27 saves to earn his 15th victory of the season, improving to 9-2-1 over his last 12 starts.

The Oilers will be back in action on Saturday when they start a four-game road trip in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena with the second of back-to-back games against the Kraken.

FIRST PERIOD

It's not often you see that many career points in the penalty box.

With both Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid taking penalties in the first period, the Oilers had a combined 1,942 career points sitting in the box when their team's penalty kill was tasked with stopping the Ducks on a four-on-three opportunity midway through the opening frame.

Draisaitl has kept himself in Selke Trophy contention this season by taking only 10 penalty minutes through 37 games, going an impressive 30 straight games without taking an infraction coming into Friday night's meeting with Anaheim before his streak came to an end when he traded a Jacob Trouba cross-check with a slash to draw coincidental minor penalties at 11:23 of the period.

On the ensuing four-on-four, defenceman Jackson LaCombe ran interference on McDavid behind the Ducks' net, but it was the Oilers captain who'd be called for a soft penalty after running into the defenceman, putting Anaheim on the power play where Stuart Skinner and the penalty kill came up with the stop to keep things tied before both superstars had exited the penalty box.

McDavid had a long discussion during the TV timeout with referee Pierre Lambert as he pleaded his case, but the Oilers would receive their own opportunity with the man advantage almost three minutes later after Olen Zellweger high-sticked former Ducks forward Adam Henrique below the goal line.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got a lucky bounce off the left skate of LaCombe while attempting a shot-pass from the left circle that was intended for the stick of Zach Hyman, inadvertently directing it past goaltender Lukas Dostal for the opening goal with 3:06 left in the opening frame.

The Oilers were 7-0-1 this season coming into Friday when Nugent-Hopkins found the back of the net.

Evan Bouchard provided the primary assist on Nugent-Hopkins' ninth goal of the season to record his 200th career point in his 303rd career game, becoming the second-fastest Oilers defenceman to reach the mark behind only his Assistant Coach Paul Coffey (221), and the fifth-fastest among active NHL defenceman behind Cale Makar (195), Adam Fox (241), Quinn Hughes (242) and Erik Karlsson (272).

SECOND PERIOD

Connor Brown and Viktor Arvidsson both struck posts on odd-man rushes with the Oilers pressing for a second goal early in the middle frame before they inevitably found it at 7:57 of the period after Corey Perry took a hit to start the play.

The veteran forward offloaded a pass to Jeff Skinner before being taken down by a hit from Trouba, but after Skinner sent it into the slot for Darnell Nurse, the blueliner released a hard snap shot inside the left post that beat Dostal to double Edmonton's lead on his fourth of the season.

"He's been consistent and really, really good at times during big moments. Probably our best defenceman," Draisaitl said of Nurse. "So nothing surprises me and nothing should surprise you guys [the media]. I've seen it lots of times and it's fun to see a big year from him just playing to his ability."

Since returning from injury in Columbus on Dec. 5, the Hamilton, Ont. product has a goal and seven assists in 13 games, including three multi-point efforts, to go along with some steady defensive play.

"Anytime you set a new standard for yourself, you want to build off it, and I know for me, I just want to play to the way I'm capable of playing," Nurse said. "And not just once in a while. It's got to be every night for our team, so I'm just trying to contribute and play with the confidence and the capabilities I have."

Just like last Sunday, though, the Ducks weren't about to go quietly, having won three straight games since coming back to defeat the Oilers 5-3 on home ice last weekend with four unanswered goals over the final two periods that were all scored at even strength.

"They played us hard in both games," Draisaitl said. "Those rebuild years, they're not easy. They're hard. Something clicks within your group and you finally find a way to make your team harder to play against, and it seems like they're finding ways to do that right now."

Anaheim outshot Edmonton 19-16 through 40 minutes and turned a mishandled pass by Bouchard along the blue line into a breakaway for forward Brett Leason, who fired Anaheim's first under Stuart Skinner's right pad with 1:28 left in the period to get the visitors within one heading into the final frame.

"We played a heck of a period, but unfortunately, we gave up that break-away goal at the end of the second period with a minute-and-a-half left when we were pushing," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Then a mistake gives them life and puts them back in the game.

Despite seeing a lot of the puck in the second period, the Oilers were guilty of a few too many giveaways, Draisaitl admitted, giving the Ducks openings to work their way back into the game before the intermission. The German took some of the blame post-game, but his chance to make up for it in the third period was about to happen.

"I think we had a lot of good shifts. We had a lot of good looks," Draisaitl said. "Their goalie made some big stops, but I think all in all, especially on my behalf and our line, just too many turnovers. We would have it, and then, a turnover would happen, and it'd just be kind of back and forth. But that's mainly our line tonight, so mainly me. But it happens. Those games come along every once in a while and you just learn from it."

THIRD PERIOD

The Ducks were determined to fight back again, but the Oilers showed their resolve to pick up the late victory on Draisaitl's league-leading 28th of the season and ninth game-winning goal in the final two minutes of regulation.

Despite the Ducks trailing the Oilers entering the final 20 minutes, the signs of another strong effort from the Pacific Division side were all over the first two periods, leading to the visitors tying the game on their second power play of the game inside the seven-minute mark of the stanza.

The Oilers had a few chances in quick succession to restore their two-goal lead earlier in the period after a missed shot on a Ducks' breakaway went all the way around the boards to Zach Hyman, creating a partial break of his own that the winger couldn't bury before resulting in a flurry of chances around Anaheim's net for Edmonton's newly-formed third line that weren't converted.

With Henrique in the box for high-sticking, Anaheim tied the game on the ensuing power play 6:23 into the period, where LaCombe sifted through a shot through from the top of the zone that beat Stuart Skinner and the traffic in front to tie things up at 2-2 with over half the third period still to play.

But the Oilers wouldn't let the Ducks spoil the party this time, and who else other than the League's leading scorer to deliver the final blow?

The Oilers had No. 29 on the ice with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman in the final two minutes when their urgency to end the contest before overtime came through, finding the late winner when Hyman's slight deflection put it right onto the tape of Draisaitl to place the perfect shot into the top-right corner to lift the Oilers into a 3-2 lead with 1:35 on the clock.

The Ducks immediately pulled their goalie for the extra attacker, but the Oilers did a good job of killing off the final minute-and-a-half to avenge last weekend's loss at the Honda Center in Anaheim and start off the 2025 calendar year with a victory.

Friday night's victory was another strong reminder for the Blue & Orange never to quit, Nurse said, even when it's looking like it might not be their night.

"Every game's different. Every game teaches you different lessons," he said. "Some of the time in those five-nothing games, you're finding a lesson on how to stay with it and put a team to sleep. And in these ones, it was about, 'How do we stay resilient?'

"Even when things weren't going our way, we found that last goal, so that's the lesson that we take from this one and we'll move on to another big one tomorrow in Seattle."