GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Golden Knights 3

LAS VEGAS, NV - Leon Draisaitl led the way with a pair of goals as the Oilers extended their win streak to three games with a well-executed 4-3 victory over the Golden Knights on Saturday.
Jack Campbell back-stopped the squad with 27 saves while Klim Kostin continued his scoring with the game-winning goal and Mattias Janmark lit the lamp against his former team.
The Oilers improved to 24-18-3 and sit tied in the Western Conference wildcard with the provincial rival Calgary Flames. It'll be another big Pacific Division matchup when the team is back on home ice on Tuesday as the Seattle Kraken visit Rogers Place.
The NHL's newest team has won eight straight games including a perfect 7-0-0 road trip.

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FIRST BLOOD

Hot starts have been the name of the game for the Oilers this week as they went up 4-1 on Anaheim and 2-0 on San Jose through 20 minutes, and it was more of the same in Vegas as Mattias Janmark made it 1-0 just 45 seconds after the opening faceoff against his former team.
Janmark, who played 67 games for the Golden Knights last season after getting dealt from the Chicago Blackhawks at the trade deadline the year before, extended his point streak to three games when he roofed a wrist shot over goaltender Logan Thompson's blocker after getting sprung on a partial breakaway by Tyson Barrie.
The Swede now has four goals and 12 points in 31 games this season, with all four of his goals coming against his former teams -- Vegas, the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks.
"I don't know, it just brings a little out of me I guess," Janmark said. "Means a little more, so that's when you want to score."
Just 57 seconds later, Leon Draisaitl batted a rebound from a Connor McDavid's shot out of mid-air and past Thompson to extend the Oilers lead to 2-0. It was the first time Edmonton has scored twice within a game's first two minutes since Feb. 1, 2020 against the Calgary Flames.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Klim Kostin's hot stretch continued with a timely goal in the middle frame, his seventh tally in the last nine games. Just 19 seconds after Paul Cotter scored for Vegas to cut Edmonton's lead to 3-2, Kostin received a lengthy pass from Janmark just before the Golden Knights blueline and burst into the zone on a two-on-one with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The lone defender Kaedan Korczak opted to defend a pass to Nugent-Hopkins, allowing Kostin to bear down on Thompson and beat the netminder far side with a hard wrist shot off the post and in for the eventual game-winning goal.

SAVE OF THE GAME

William Karlsson cut the Oilers lead to 4-3 with a goal in the final minute of the middle frame and he was hunting for the equalizer with seven minutes to go in the third, but Jack Campbell managed to redirect a high, hard wrist shot up into the netting to keep his team ahead, one of his 27 saves on the night.

TOP PERFORMER

With his two-tally performance, giving him 26 on the season, Draisaitl became the fifth player in Oilers history with 50 career multi-goal games, joining Hall of Fame legends Wayne Gretzky (137), Jari Kurri (104), Glenn Anderson (76) and Mark Messier (70).

PARTING WORDS

Draisaitl on winning three straight following the loss to Los Angeles:
"I think we're finding our game a little bit, finding our identity as a team, and I think guys individually are starting to slot into where they're most successful, and that obviously goes a long way. So yeah, it was good effort again. I think we've been playing some good hockey lately, so just got to continue that."
"This is always a tough building to play in. The momentum swings seem a little higher here than any other rink maybe, but I thought we played a really good third period. Soupy standing tall in there was really good again, so that's a recipe for success."

Draisaitl on picking up his scoring with four goals in three games:
"Yeah, I feel a little better. Obviously a little frustrated with not hitting the spots that I'd like to hit, but that's just the way it goes. Sometimes they go in, other times they don't. Just got to continue to pick spots and fire away."
Woodcroft on stringing together another good performance on Saturday:
"Without being under siege, without taking a foot off the gas, I think we just played our game in that third period. So credit to our players. We talked a lot about continuing what we were doing to build the lead, making sure that their defense had to go back and fetch pucks and work through five of us in order to get back to our end. So I thought it was a really competitive, entertaining hockey game. There were some moments we'd like to have back in it on the defensive side, but for the most part, I thought we controlled most of that game."

Woodcroft on the road trip overall bringing Edmonton's road success (14-7-1) to home ice at Rogers Place (10-11-2):
"You know what, and I thought you (media) said that the first game didn't go our way. I actually thought five on five, we did a lot of really good things in that game. It was our penalty kill that needed to get touched up. It did get some work the next day in Anaheim. I thought we've seen some results since that. There were just moments we could do better, but we've pieced three in a row here together.
"Now it's about going back home, getting a little bit of rest here, getting a good practice in and start attacking the record at home. It's time everybody knows that's an area that we can better. We want to bring our simple, straightforward, direct road game back to home ice for the best fans in the world."
Janmark on the building of momentum by the Oilers in the playoff race with three wins in a row:
"This part of the year for us is kind of where either we go down, or we start climbing. If we're going to climb, we're going to have to string wins together and we're going to have to beat teams like this in buildings like this to do it."