GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Kraken 4

EDMONTON, AB – The Nuge was simply huge, but so was everyone without two of their superstars.

"I thought everybody stepped up and did a great job tonight," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Sometimes, a guy kind of gets rewarded for how the team plays, and I thought that was kind of what happened tonight."

Without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl available, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did the heavy lifting for the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night by recording his fourth career hat-trick in a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place, helping give the Blue & Orange two important points in the standings.

Nugent-Hopkins scored twice in the second period to help build the Oilers a 4-2 lead heading into the final frame, where his empty-netter with 2:17 remaining while playing shorthanded at six-on-four secured him his first hat-trick in nearly six years and ended up serving as the winning tally after the Kraken scored 14 seconds later to pull back to within one.

Adam Henrique opened the scoring in the first period with his ninth goal of the season on the power play, which went 2-for-4 on the night, and winger Jeff Skinner scored his third goal in two games with his 14th of the campaign during the second period to give Edmonton back the lead.

The Oilers would go on to win their ninth straight game against the Kraken, improving to 12-2-0 all-time against them.

Defencemen Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse were able to contribute two helpers apiece in the victory that keeps the Oilers within three points of the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division. Goaltender Stuart Skinner made 27 saves on 31 shots, while defencemen Jake Walman and Evan Bouchard along with forwards Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Kasperi Kapanen recorded assists in elevated ice time.

"I thought there was a lot of guys that did step up," Ekholm said. "I thought whether it was Skins or Nuge scoring goals, or if it was guys on the fourth line stepping up giving us some quality shifts, I think up and down the lineup we did a good job and it's nice to see guys do that. They don't usually get those minutes or maybe aren't in those certain situations, but they got them tonight and did a good job."

The Oilers have three days between games before wrapping up their four-game homestand at Rogers Place on Wednesday night versus the Dallas Stars.

FIRST PERIOD

After trading power-play goals over a span of 79 seconds in the final five minutes of the opening frame, we had ourselves a tie game after one.

The Oilers had the liveliest start, looking the most likely to score early with some good possession in Seattle's zone before the visitors had two quick chances from the line of Jaden Schwartz, Shane Wright and former Oilers winger Jordan Eberle to nearly break the deadlock.

Wright just missed a tap-in at the right post set up by Eberle with Stuart Skinner unable to get across in time, and the fourth-overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft then had another open look inside the left circle off the rush that he fanned on to allow the Oilers to escape danger early in the game.

Past the midway mark of the period, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was slashed coming over the Seattle blueline by another one of his former teammates in Adam Larsson, giving Edmonton's new-look power play without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl a chance to impress – which they did with eight seconds left in the man advantage to open the scoring.

Defencemen Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm went D-to-D along the blueline before Adam Henrique went bar-in from the top of the left circle to convert for Edmonton's second-unit power play, picking up his ninth goal of the season for the 1-0 lead with 5:30 remaining in the opening frame.

"We got two [power-play goals], so that's a successful night," Ekholm said. "Obviously, you take two of those guys out and it's pretty major on the power play that has been pretty good, but I thought we did a decent job to fill their shoes and obviously got two. Would have maybe liked to get another one – we got a four-minute one there and we could've got another one – but we're happy with two and to keep working on it."

It was Henrique's 272nd career goal and second all-time against the Kraken, but first as an Oiler, while an assist for Nurse gives the team's long-time defenceman eight consecutive seasons with 20 or more assists.

But the Oilers would give it right back on the power play, with Brett Kulak taking an interference penalty on Schwartz just 44 seconds later that wound up being converted by Kaapo Kakko after the Finnish forward put away the third whack at the puck inside the blue paint off rookie Jani Nyman's initial shot.

The Oilers were eyeing up their ninth straight win over the Kraken, having gone 11-2-0 all-time against them since the 2022 expansion side joined the NHL.

SECOND PERIOD

No Leon or Connor? Luckily, there's a lot of players on this Oilers team that can score goals.

None more huge that the Nuuuuuuuuuuge.

"Confidence plays a big part of this game, and sometimes, when it doesn't go in for you, you can lack some confidence," Nugent-Hopkins said. "But you try to stay with it and try to do the little things right and hope it pays off."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his first of two goals in the middle frame when he gave the Oilers back the lead four seconds after a hooking penalty to Henrique expired, coming down the right side in a one-on-one against Brandon Montour before letting go of a wrist shot that got a lucky deflection off the defenceman's stick to send the puck over the Seattle goaltender and into the back of the net.

Nugent-Hopkins' 18th goal of the campaign gave him points in eight straight games against the Kraken, as well as a point in 12 of his last 13 games against Edmonton's Pacific Division rival.

"Our mindset was kind of shoot the puck, go get it and play off of that," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I thought we did a really good job in the first period of doing that. We got away from it a little bit in the second, but we still found a way to get it done."

No. 93 for the Oilers wouldn't be the only player on Saturday night to score twice after Kakko netted his second of the game for the Kraken under four minutes later. The Finn broke up an attempted pass from Evan Bouchard at the blueline before Nyman found the puck and sent him in on a breakaway that he converted to tie things up at 3-3 just past the seven-minute mark of the frame.

Add Jeff Skinner to that list of capable goalscorers the Oilers have at their disposal, and the six-time 30-goalscorer and one-time 40-goal man would restore Edmonton's lead on a wicked snipe from the slot exactly five-and-a-half minutes after the Kraken had tied it to give himself three goals in his last two games.

"I think the way that he stays positive, and I was talking about myself before, but focusing on the little things he does that day in and day out," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Obviously, he's been around for a long time. He's scored a lot of goals in this league and we know that he has that ability, and he's got some big ones lately for us."

Skinner found space between the circles for winger Connor Brown to find him wide open with a pass that he released quickly and buried top shelf beyond goaltender Joey Daccord for his 14th goal of the campaign.

The 32-year-old has now recorded a point in five straight games against the Kraken (6G, 3A), and Mattias Ekholm recorded his second assist of the night for his second multi-point game since returning from a six-game absence against Utah (three games).

"I thought Janny and Brownie played great today," Skinner said of his linemates. "I think even on the goal there, Brownie knocks it out of the air, makes a great pass into the middle, and I think Janny had a couple of really good looks."

"When guys have success, it's usually a result of four other guys on the ice at the same time making good plays and reading off each other, and I think tonight those two guys played great. I think we read off each other pretty well."

There are three constants in life, and those are death, taxes, and Nugent-Hopkins going low blocker - where the longest-tenured Oiler placed his shot through the legs of teammate Zach Hyman to put some breathing room between his team and the Kraken with 1:49 remaining in the middle frame.

Nugent-Hopkins notched his second multi-goal game of the season after scoring twice back on Jan. 25, 2025 in a 3-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on home ice. Hyman and Bouchard were attributed the helpers as Edmonton took a 4-2 lead into the second intermission off the strength of their second PPG of the contest.

Nugent-Hopkins had only three career hat tricks coming into Saturday night, recording his most recent one back on March 26th, 2019 against the LA Kings. Would we see his first one in nearly six years tonight with superstars McDavid and Hyman out of the lineup?

"Ryan's been playing really well, especially since we moved him to centre, and it's just an easier transition for him," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "He's got the puck more, he's moving, he's a great disher, and the two guys that he's playing with are playing really well, too.

"So those three have had some great chemistry, and once you get some points and get some goals, you feel a lot better about your game and he made some nice plays on the power play."

THIRD PERIOD

After a coach's challenge for goaltender interference didn't work out on Thursday for the Winnipeg Jets, the Oilers did the exact opposite to the Seattle Kraken and overturned what would've made it a one-goal game with plenty of time to spare in the third period.

Winger Eeli Tolvanen appeared to have jammed the puck under Stuart Skinner's left skate at the post, but after seeing Jared McCann push the Oilers netminder into the net from inside the blue paint, it made for a quick challenge from the bench and a quick review to overturn the original call.

"The fact that he went into the blue paint and pushed Skinner backwards, that freed up the puck and then there was the stick on the pad," Knoblauch said. "We've seen that before, where they can take liberties on that puck and push it in. I believe we challenged one of those earlier this year, but before jabbing it in, there was a little bit of contact that pushes him backwards, leaving the puck exposed and they put it in."

Andre Burakovsky did eventually get it back for Seattle when the winger snuck a wrist shot short side on Stuart Skinner through traffic, making it 4-3 with 5:57 gone in the period and pulling the Kraken within a goal with under three quarters of the final frame still to play.

A Vasily Podkolzin high-sticking penalty on defenceman Jamie Oleksiak with 3:26 left in regulation put Edmonton on the penalty kill in a similar fashion to Thursday versus Winnipeg, where they needed a late kill to get themselves to overtime to earn a point.

But this time, with the Seattle net empty to make it six-on-four as they searched for a late tying goal, a full-ice clearance from Nugent-Hopkins sealed his hat trick while shorthanded and wound up being the game-winning tally that Edmonton needed to earn the two points.

A rimmed puck by the Kraken was intercepted along the wall by defenceman Jake Walman, who left it for Nugent-Hopkins to move to his forehand inside the left circle before taking aim at the empty net and finding it for his fourth career hat trick by making it 5-3 with 2:17 remaining.

"The way he pulled that puck off the wall under pressure and fired it down there, that's not just an easy gimme empty-net goal," Knoblauch said.

That nearly 200-foot marker from Nugent-Hopkins proved to be necessary, as the Kraken were able to make it 5-4 only 14 seconds after the Oilers had thought they'd put away the game when Jared McCann got the puck along the wall and put it across to Jaden Schwartz, who deflected it past Stuart Skinner at the far post.

After the Kraken pulled their goalie again, a tripping penalty against McCann on Ekholm along the boards allowed the Oilers to get an offensive-zone faceoff before they saw out Seattle's final rush up ice to secure a huge victory in the absence of two of the League's best in McDavid and Draisaitl.

"It's about building your game so that you're hitting your peak right when playoffs start, and I think the last little, while we've done a really good job of that," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I thought against Winnipeg, we still played a great game. That's obviously a really good team and we battled right to the end, so tonight was another good step."