GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Golden Knights 1 (Game 4)

EDMONTON, AB - If Wednesday night's contest is a preview of how the final games in this series are going to go, it's sure to be a feisty one.

Over 111 minutes of penalties were dolled out in Wednesday's 4-1 victory for the Edmonton Oilers over the Golden Knights in Game 4 at Rogers Place, with Vegas holding the lion's share with 64 PIMs on the night.

The contest was the rebound game everyone in the Oilers locker room expected. It seemed as if the home side was first to every puck battle, and the Golden Knights could not keep up with the Oilers physicality in the game. Noticeably, Edmonton's transition play was night and day compared to Game 3, and it completely negated the Golden Knights game plan of forcing the Oilers to defend deep behind Stuart Skinner.

"I thought we executed our game plan well," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We have a lot of really good hockey players that like to play fast. I thought the pace of our game was where it needed to be. I thought we got on their D and I thought we got on their goaltender."

Speaking of Skinner, the Oilers goaltender delivered a bounce-back performance roughly 48 hours after getting pulled this past Monday in Game 3. The 24-year-old Calder Trophy finalist was sharp all night, turning away 25 of 26 Golden Knights attempts in the game.

Supplying the offence for the Blue & Orange was Evan Bouchard, Nick Bjugstad, Mattias Ekholm, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- with the latter two all scoring their first of the series. Nicolas Roy scored the Golden Knights' lone goal with a solid solo effort in the third period, lifting a shot from in tight by Skinner for his first of the playoffs.

Edmonton will now head to Vegas for a pivotal Game 5 matchup on Friday at T-Mobile Arena.

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FIRST BLOOD

Make it four-for-four for first on the board.

As they have in every game this series, the Oilers opened the scoring quite early into the first period with Nick Bjugstad notching his first of the second round and third of the playoffs.

The play began at the Vegas blue line with Klim Kostin breaking up the Vegas outlet pass and forcing the play back towards netminder Adin Hill. After a shot by the Russian ripped just wide of the net, Bjugstad collected the puck and used his abundance of reach to wrap the attempt around the post and behind the out-of-position Golden Knights goaltender.

The goal came 6:36 into the game -- just after the two teams traded a pair of power-play opportunities -- and was the latest Oilers fans had to wait to see the red light go off in the series thus far.

POWERED UP

The Oilers vaunted power play does it again.

Before Shea Theodore's second penalty of the night could finish being announced over the Rogers Place speakers, the puck was already buried into the back of the Golden Knights' net.

After Leon Draisaitl won the important faceoff, all It took was a few quick passes and a blast from Evan Bouchard to double the Oilers advantage. The Oilers defenceman's fourth of the playoffs came just nine seconds after Theodore was whistled for slashing on Kostin, who had given the Knights blueliner a few hacks, but drew the penalty on the retaliation.

Bouchard's goal was the Oilers 15th PPG of the playoffs and helped keep their magnificent man advantage at over 50 per cent for the time being.

PUT ON BLAST

One thing was certain in the first period -- if there was a hard play that needed to be made, it was the Oilers who were going to make it.

With Edmonton up 2-0, the Golden Knights got their first Grade-A opportunity of the game when a loss of defensive coverage set Mark Stone in all alone on Skinner, who held his pad hard to the post and made the save.

Kailer Yamamoto came in and cleared Stone from the crease and another scoring attempt with aplomb, springing the Oilers on the counter. Mattias Ekholm gifted the Oilers the three-goal lead when he crept down into the left circle and unleashed a massive slap shot into the top corner behind Adin Hill for his first post-season goal since April 2018 with the Nashville Predators.

The Oilers physicality gave its finest display in the opening 20 minutes, with 20 bruising body checks handed out by the home team.

"I think we've been doing that all playoffs. We believe in playing the game hard, whistle to whistle, finishing your check in a legal fashion," Woodcroft said. "When you do that, you wear teams down and you create frustration. So it was a good game plan tonight, and the guys followed it to a tee."

NUGE BREAKS THROUGH

The monkey is officially off the back of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

After a sensational regular season that saw the longest-serving Oiler notch his first 100-point season and break his previous career high by 35 points, Oil Country was dying to release their fist 'Nuuuuuuuuuge!' chant of the playoffs.

It took until the Oilers 10th post-season game, but Nugent-Hopkins broke the mini-slump in trademark fashion. A buzzing Oilers shift in the Golden Knights' end culminated with the puck on Nuge's stick and a quick wrist shot low blocker on Hill for the Oilers fourth goal of the game.

The 4-0 tally came at the 14:45 mark of the second and sent the Rogers Place crowd and the Oilers bench into a frenzy. The Oilers concluded the first 40 minutes with a 27-15 shot advantage despite a middle stanza that saw the Golden Knights gifted with a trio of power plays.

"Obviously our fans have been supporting us this whole year, and I'm happy to give them something to cheer about tonight," he said. "It's long from over and we got to keep moving on here. Happy to get one tonight, but more so just happy to contribute to a big win for us."

THIRD-LINE GRIND

While you won't see their name on the scoresheet, the line of Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, and Derek Ryan put in one heck of a performance on Wednesday night. The trio consistently put the Vegas defence into the spin cycle with several excellent shifts deep inside the Golden Knights' zone.

The trio held Vegas without a shot on goal at 5-on-5 when they were on the ice together and sported a 6-0 Corsi-for advantage on the night, as per Natural Stat Trick.

"I think they play fast. I think they play forward. I feel comfortable with them on the ice against any line of the other team," Woodcroft said. "I think specifically when Derek missed the first game of the series because he was ill and it was beyond his control, beyond anyone's control. But when he wasn't in the lineup, you saw what you missed.

"He's kind of the conscience on that line, and I think Warren Foegele is playing excellent. I think he looks dangerous every time he's in the offensive zone. I think McLeod's pace really gives teams issues, and the three of them put together, they're pretty dangerous. So we're thankful they're on our team."

SORE LOSERS

As much as the physicality toed the line for most of the night, with 1:27 left in the game, Alex Pietrangelo hacked that line to bits.

With the Vegas net empty, Draisaitl powered his way down the right wing and dumped a backhander towards the open goal which went wide. Moments after, Pietrangelo took a filthy two-hand slash to the German superstar's hands, warranting a Connor McDavid scrum, a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the Vegas blueliner.

It was a play that will likely be looked at in depth by the league prior to Game 5 in Vegas.

"I think time, score, clock -- the league is going to have to look hard at that one," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Obviously, it's not really a hockey play. We kind of know what he's trying to do and that's all I have to say about it. We're up 4-1 at that point and its the end of the game and he takes liberty on him. I think they're going to have to look hard at that."

The Golden Knights goonery did not end there, with Darnell Nurse eventually dropping the mitts with Nic Hague in the final minute of the game. The two tough customers traded bombs, but Nurse got the better of the Vegas defender. He left the ice to a riotous ovation from the Rogers Place crowd and Hague's blood smeared all over his name bar.

The game in total saw 111 minutes in penalties, with 14 different infractions being called in the final half of the third period.

PARTING WORDS

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on not allowing the Golden Knights to battle back after the Oilers got the lead:

"That's something we work on during the year, nobody sets out to give up a goal immediately after you've given one up or you've scored one. I think we put an emphasis on that next shift and then that next shift, and coming at teams in waves. Tonight, I thought we executed at a high level."

Woodcroft on the play of Darnell Nurse on Wednesday night:

"I thought he was really good, really good. He's, in terms of a leader, the guy does it right on a daily basis. His care level is off the charts. He's a positive influence on the next generation of Oilers here just by the way he conducts himself on a day in, day out basis. I thought his game tonight was excellent. Big factor in the penalty kill, big factor in helping us move pucks up the ice and getting on top of the other team. I thought he was a real good player for us. Then to acquit himself nicely in that fair fight, I thought he did a good job."

Woodcroft on the back-and-forth nature of the series so far:

"That's hard to explain. I would say this. There wasn't much distance between where the Golden Knights finished and where the Oilers finished. You saw how close it was down the stretch. Two good hockey teams that are now set up to play a best of three. Our challenge is to play two good ones in a row here."

Nick Bjugstad on playing physical on the Vegas D-corps and the Pietrangelo slash:

"I can't speak for them, but on our end, we focus on playing between the whistles. We learned in the first series it kind of cost us a few times taking penalties after the whistles. So I don't know, try to frustrate them with hard play on our end, but I think it was pretty dirty play. If you watch the video, he's winding up for a good few seconds. It's not like he's trying to make a hockey play so out of our control, but just thankfully Leon is okay."

Stuart Skinner on picking up the win on Wednesday:

"Yeah, felt good. I mean, again, just a huge win by the group, so that's the most important thing. Just the way the guys battled tonight was impressive."

Skinner on what the Oilers need to do to string a pair of performances together:

"Bringing the same effort every single night? I think sometimes we can get a little bit lackadaisical or slow, and that starts with me first, so I got to be able to make those saves in the first period to give our team a chance to win. I think if we do that and we play hard and we play fast and do what these guys know what they're going to do. So I'm very confident in this group."

Connor McDavid on the shifts after goals in Game 4:

"Those are big shifts. We talk about that all the time, the shifts after a goal. I thought we did a great job of grabbing the momentum after we scored one and continued to play our game the way we want to and play with pace and I thought we did a good job."