GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Kraken 3 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB – Evander, are you kidding me?!

Evander Kane scored twice in the final 6:32 of regulation, including the tying goal with 46.2 seconds on the clock, before notching the natural hat trick with the overtime winner for the Edmonton Oilers in a heroic 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

The Oilers winger erased a two-goal lead for the Kraken with three straight goals in less than a 10-minute span of the third period and overtime after the visitors scored three times in the middle frame to lead 3-1 through 40 minutes following Connor McDavid's opening goal.

Kane becomes only the second player in Oilers franchise history to complete a hat trick in overtime and the sixth player in NHL history to finish off a natural hat trick in the extra period.

The natural hat trick was Edmonton's second in as many games against the Kraken after Zach Hyman accomplished the feat no more than five days ago – a game that the Blue & Orange won 5-1 at Climate Pledge Arena over their Pacific Division opponents.

Evan Bouchard contributed three assists, while Leon Draisaitl pitched in with two helpers of his own in the victory. Netminder Stuart Skinner is now 3-0-0 in his last three games and has now stopped 83 of his last 88 shots for a .943 save percentage over that span.

"I try to just stick to the script, do my job and make every save that I can," Skinner said. "And from there, it's the guys in front of me that just did a great job being able to battle back. Obviously, if you get down 4-1, it's a little bit tougher to get by. But again, the guys in front of me, they stuck to it. We didn't change anything even though we were down two goals and that was massive."

The Oilers are winners of three straight games after securing their first comeback win of the season as they begin an important four-game road trip out East on Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"Obviously going into a long road trip here, to get a couple of wins in a row at home is nice," Kane said. "We've come back before down when going to the third period and it was nice to be able to do that for the first time this year."

FIRST PERIOD

The Oilers coughed up the puck a few too many times in the opening period, but the score remained tied heading into the first intermission.

Seattle benefitted from a 5-0 advantage in giveaways committed by Edmonton, along with winning the takeaway battle 4-2 after outshooting the Oilers 14-11 in the opening 20 minutes.

Skinner was called into action early when he snapped up a wrist shot from Oliver Bjorkstrand two minutes into regulation after the puck was mishandled by Evan Bouchard in the corner off a rim around the boards from behind the Edmonton net.

Defenceman Cody Ceci showed some surprising speed almost nine minutes into the frame, beating Jamie Oleksiak through the neutral zone for one of Edmonton's best chances of the period.

Before the break, a giveaway by McDavid led to a good chance for Brandon Tanev at the back post, but the Kraken winger couldn't complete the tap-in after the puck bounced over his blade. Turnovers were definitely a theme for the Oilers that would've been addressed in the intermission by Head Coach Kris Knoblauch.

"It was definitely about us just making sure that were getting the puck out when we get the puck from on the sides, but the guys battled hard tonight," Skinner said. "I want to say, the PK was outstanding and that's a huge reason why we won."

The Kraken couldn't capitalize on one power play and put plenty of pucks on net in the period, but the Oilers were able to block 11 shots and take some of the burden off their netminder.

SECOND PERIOD

A lead-off goal from McDavid didn't do much to quell the Kraken, who continued to capitalize on Edmonton's mistakes.

"I thought I saw a 50/50 game in the first period. I saw a team relax and make a lot of mistakes after we made it 1-0," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said.

The Oilers captain scored his fourth goal of the season on a nifty dangle against Kraken netminder Joey Daccord after the puck was kicked to him wide by Draisaitl during an odd-man rush. McDavid came in one-on-one with speed against Daccord and slid an easy back-hander into the back of the net at 14:39 of the middle frame, putting Edmonton ahead 1-0 albeit for only a short time.

Former Oiler Jordan Eberle, making his return to the lineup from a week-long absence due to a skate laceration, put a puck toward goal two minutes after McDavid's opener that was guided into goal by the skate of Jared McCann. There was no kicking motion, so the equalizer stood up as fair and kickstarted a three-goal second period for Seattle.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare put a deflection on Vince Dunn's wrist shot through traffic for his second goal of the season 2:04 after Seattle took the lead through McCann. Another former Oiler, winger Kailer Yamamoto, took the puck off Bouchard earlier in the play to pick up a meaningful contribution in his return to Edmonton despite not getting an assist on the play.

In the final three minutes of the period, the Kraken stretched their lead to two goals on a spin-o-rama in front by Alex Wennberg, who caught Skinner sliding across and sent it back the other way on the Oilers netminder for his first of the campaign.

The Oilers were responsible for four more giveaways and takeaways in the middle stanza as their inability to manage the puck became more and more of a theme for the Blue & Orange on Wednesday. Seattle benefitted from a 15-7 shot advantage in the second period and held a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes.

"That last twelve minutes of second period was almost rock bottom in my opinion," Knoblauch said. "I didn't think we played well at all, but in the third period, we just showed a lot of passion and perseverance to stick with it."

"I think some of the goals we gave up, we could have been a little harder and a little firmer," Kane said. "I think we did a good job of not being deterred and not having a letdown going to the third period after that second and pushing to get a victory."

THIRD PERIOD

You can thank Kane for leading a heroic third-period Oilers comeback.

"We talked about it in the second intermission. We've got to create some energy, we got to flick the switch, and I thought we did a pretty good job," Kane said.

Edmonton was looking like they wouldn't have much of a response to the Kraken's two-goal lead until Kane put a perfect deflection on Bouchard's pass along the ice that was prime for a redirection. The winger's fifth goal of the season led to Edmonton having the opportunity in the last few minutes to pull their goalie for the extra attacker and chase an equalizer in the dying moments of regulation.

And they would find it.

With less than 50 seconds on the clock, Draisaitl handled a bobbling puck along the goal line and sauced it out in front for the 32-year-old Kane to bury over Daccord on the second try, tying the score at 3-3 and sending us to overtime.

"These last couple of games we've had big third periods and they've propelled us to wins, and I think we're starting to find our groove a little bit here," Kane said.

If it wasn't for an important intervention from Darnell Nurse in the neutral zone with the net empty, along with a massive glove save by Stuart Skinner with the game in the balance, it was a comeback that would've never happened.

"We got into little penalty trouble in that first half of the third period, and our penalty did a great job," Kane said. "Stu was big and made the saves he had to, and Nursey saving that empty net goal off the face-off, that was a huge play to help us win the game. So that was a great play."

"It was able to get the guys going," Skinner said of his glove save. "I mean, the guys were going the whole entire period. I just needed to come up with that save and being able to do that, the guys took over from there, got a big huge goal with about five minutes left, and the guys just did their job and battled hard. We won a lot of puck battles in the third period. That's just a huge thanks to the guys in front of me."

OVERTIME

The Blue & Orange completed the dramatic comeback at 2:03 of the extra frame.

With Edmonton mounting pressure in the last half of sudden death after conceding the possession to Seattle early in the extra period, Bouchard worked the puck low to Zach Hyman, who put a pass onto the tape of Kane to one-time over the sliding Daccord and secure Edmonton the extra point.

"What happened was we started off with two defensemen and forward. They were out there for about a minute and a half," Knoblauch said. "Obviously, McDavid's going to be the next forward out there. Nugent-Hopkins is the next forward and Draisaitl after taking a long shift needing to catch his legs and catch his breath. So we need two other guys go out after that. And those are the two that we sent [Hyman and Kane]."

PARTING WORDS

Kane on Edmonton scoring the majority of their recent goals in a five-foot radius around the net:

"Yeah, I mean, that's where we have to score goals right now. I think a lot of our goals are coming from around the net, as you mentioned, and guys are going there and when we put pucks there. It makes it more important to go there and it creates guys wanting to go there when pucks are going to the net."

Skinner on his three straight wins and .943 save percentage in his last three starts:

"Yeah, it's definitely improved. It's got a lot better. And at the same time, the guys in front of me have been doing just a fantastic job. Again, talking about the PK, I don't think we've let in a goal in the last three games. Maybe one. I'm not too sure exactly what it is, but that's massive. Being able to do that allows you to win games. So again, just huge credit to the guys in front of me."

Coach Knoblauch on his early observations of Skinner:

"I've been very impressed. I think he's played really well. I think the chances that we gave up, and he only gave up three tonight, I think he played really well. And so that's two games I've seen him play and been very happy. Obviously, we would like him to continue what he's doing."

Coach Knoblauch on the emotional value of this victory:

"The season is never going to be easy and there's never going to be no adversity. The more things that you work through and fight through and have success when it's all done, it's great for team building. Guys feel good and then, the next time things are in a difficult situation, they know they can handle it and they know what they can do. Would I have liked us to win 5-0 and would have been easy because we played perfectly? Yes, but hopefully the way that we won today makes us a better team in the long run."