GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Predators 2

EDMONTON, AB – Officially streaking.

The Edmonton Oilers earned their second consecutive win on Thursday night by battling their way to a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators in the first game of a two-game road trip at Bridgestone Arena.

Defenceman Brett Kulak scored twice to register the first two-goal game of his career, while Connor McDavid notched his first goal of the season and the game-winner late in the middle frame to set the Blue & Orange up to lock it down defensively over the final 20 minutes with the lead.

"It's always fun scoring goals, for sure, but it's more fun when the team builds its game," Kulak said. "We did and it feels like we're getting our game back on track."

Winger Jeff Skinner extended his point streak to four games with his second goal of the season midway through the second period, and goaltender Calvin Pickard made 25 saves on 27 shots to backstop the Oilers to victory with a strong bounce-back effort in his second start of the campaign.

The Oilers conclude their road trip on Saturday afternoon with a matinée meeting at American Airlines Center against the Dallas Stars.

FIRST PERIOD

Despite the Oilers holding the Predators to zero shots in the first 10:06 of the opening frame, it was the hosts who struck first.

The Oilers had a healthy 8-0 lead in shots early in the contest, almost finding the back of the net first on a few high-danger chances that started with captain Connor McDavid's half-break in the first minute of play. The captain found a lane on the right side and cut around the Nashville defenceman on his backhand before trying to flip it back across netminder Juuse Saros, but the 'Juice' came up with the stop.

Less than a minute later, Vasily Podkolzin forced a turnover from defenceman Dante Fabbro behind the Nashville net, allowing former Predators' forward Viktor Arvidsson to pick up the loose puck and force Saros into stretching to the left post to take away his countryman's wrap-around attempt.

Edmonton couldn't set up in the offensive zone on their first power play 3:18 into the period before the Predators found their first shot on goal with five seconds left on their own man advantage just under five minutes later.

After over-passing in the offensive zone during the first 10 minutes, Nashville started putting more pucks on net and were eventually rewarded.

On an attempt from the top of the zone from Roman Josi, forward Filip Forsberg got his stick to the waist-high shot in the slot and put it back across Calvin Pickard to open the scoring 11:46 into the period, lifting the home side into a 1-0 lead.

But just like in Tuesday's victory over the Flyers, a fight helped give momentum back to the Blue & Orange bench when Darnell Nurse & Michael McCarron dropped the gloves in the neutral zone for a heavyweight tilt that sized up to a total of 10 feet, 10 inches and 447 pounds.

On Edmonton's next foray into the offensive zone, it was Brett Kulak who had two chances to let it fly from up top and converted on his second opportunity, taking advantage of a handful of gold & white jerseys in between him and the net to place a pin-point shot inside the left post behind a blinded Saros.

The Parkland County kid now has points in back-to-back games after posting an assist earlier this week in the win over Philadelphia.

SECOND PERIOD

The Predators gave the Oilers a two-man advantage for 16 seconds near the period's midway mark to prompt Knoblauch into use his timeout and give his power-play options a chance to recover, but the Blue & Orange couldn't cash in on the five-on-three, dropping their PP% early this season to 1-for-13 through four games and two periods.

Despite going 0-for-4 on Thursday, the Oilers were able to gain some momentum with the power play and feel like they're on the verge of opening the floodgates.

"I think it was only 15 or 16 seconds, but I think the power play before the five-on-four, they did a great job of sort of hemming them in," Skinner said. "Obviously, they drew a penalty, so I think our PP's gonna start to click, and when you start seeing signs of sort of having them in and getting opportunities, I think it's a matter of time before pucks start going in for us."

"Our top unit had some good looks and it's only a matter of time before they're putting pucks in the net," Knoblauch added.

That failed two-man advantage didn't matter, however, after Corey Perry showcased his Hart Trophy-winning hands to help orchestrate Edmonton's response with a sublime dangle below the goal line around a Predators' defenceman Luke Schenn, who celebrated reaching 1,000 games on Tuesday by getting dangled by the 39-year-old.

Jeff Skinner was the benefactor of Perry's move after getting the last touch on the puck during a chaotic scramble inside the Nashville crease with 10:50 left in the frame, making it 2-1 by picking up his second goal of the season that was ultimately pushed over the goal line by a Predators' defenceman.

"That was [a nice move]. I got a good view of it, too," Skinner said. "I haven't played with him long, but I know him from around the League. He's pretty slippery around the front of the net, and he's got some really good hands. Originally, he was kind of looking for me back door and kind of had a tap-in, but it hit something in front. It was a great play by him to start it off. I think even just before, he won the battle behind the net. A couple of good plays in a row by him."

With his second tally in an Oilers uniform, Skinner extends his point streak to four games (2G, 2A), which is his 27th streak of four games or more over his career spanning 1,011 NHL games.

The winger also maintains his point-per-game pace versus the Predators with 23 career points (14G, 9A) in 23 career games.

"I think every day, every game, I'm feeling more comfortable," he said. "I think I've felt better as its gone along. I think guys have done a great job off the ice making me feel welcome right away, but obviously, there are a lot of guys in here that have been together for a while and have some great chemistry.

"I think to kind of play off some of those guys, I think it's going to be an adjustment, but I think it's gotten better every time I've been out there and hopefully can keep building."

After Podkolzin was guilty of a double-minor for high-sticking with 5:40 left in the period, the Oilers nearly killed off their lengthy man advantage but were undone by a smart redirection from former Vegas Golden Knight Jonathan Marchessault with 35 seconds left in their lengthy infraction.

The newcomer to Nashville this offseason was coming through the inside of Edmonton's zone when he redirected Roman Josi's pass to the middle back across Pickard, levelling the contest at 2-2 with 2:15 on the clock in the middle frame. Saros started the play from his own end with the long stretch pass up ice to Josi, which caught the Oilers as they made a quick change.

But before the break, McDavid would pick a great time to score his first goal of the season.

The Oilers captain had all the time in the world while Saros was stretched out so he could lift the go-ahead goal into the top corner before unleashing a huge one-knee fist pump while wheeling away to the right corner. Believe it or not, but that's the longest it's taken McDavid to find his first goal of the season after he was able to snap a four-game goalless drought to begin the campaign.

Mattias Ekholm recorded the primary assist, while Leon Draisaitl continued his dominance of Nashville over his career with the secondary helper.

THIRD PERIOD

Lock it down – and that's certainly what the Oilers did in the final 20 minutes.

"They've got some skilled guys that are playing pretty hungry," Skinner said. "They're looking to take advantage of opportunities and I think we did a good job of limiting them. When they did have some opportunities, we closed them up as quickly as we could."

After outshooting the Predators 28-14 in the first two periods, the Oilers held out with some strong goaltending from Pickard and defensive work in front of him, leading to Kulak coming through with the empty-netter with 36 seconds left to secure the Oilers their two-goal victory and officially make it a streak with their second victory in a row.

"In the third period, I thought Nashville definitely had the better period," Knoblauch said. "That was their strongest push and we knew it was coming. I thought we played strong and were just responsible."

With the victory, the Oilers are now 6-0-2 in their last eight visits to Bridgestone Arena, with their last loss coming in January of 2018.

"We kept it pretty simple and we kind of understand it's not always going to go perfect, and I think that's put a lot of pressure on ourselves at first to start the season," Kulak added. "I think in the first few games we got so discouraged when it wasn't going perfect, but I thought it was like that tonight. We just kind of stuck with the game plan and just chipped away and found a way to get the puck in the back of the net."

The Blue & Orange (2-3-0) will look to keep it rolling and get back to an even .500 win percentage against Dallas on Saturday afternoon.