GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Wild 2

EDMONTON, AB - The Oilers got the monkey off their back against the Wild on Friday, coming away with the 5-2 victory.
The win broke a seven-game losing streak to Minnesota and a five-game losing streak to their starting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
Leon Draisaitl notched his league leading 12th power play goal of the season, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored an empty netter and added a pair of assists to help propel the Oilers offense on the evening. Nugent-Hopkins has gotten off to a torrid start for the Oilers, recording 14 goals, 19 assists, and 33 points in the first 28 games.
Stuart Skinner turned aside 40 of 42 shots to pick up his ninth victory of the season, while the Oilers piled on 37 attempts of their own on Fleury in the win.
The Oilers will now head out on the road for two games, starting with tonight's opponent at the Xcel Energy Centre on Monday.

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FIRST BLOOD

The Oilers got the start they needed.
Less than three-minutes into the contest, Klim Kostin picked off an errant pass by Jacob Middleton deep in the Wild zone and fired a shot on Marc-Andre Fleury. Devin Shore dug the rebound out of the corner and fired a perfect pass to Derek Ryan for the quick tap in goal for his fourth of the season - giving him goals in back-to-back games.
Ryan nearly got his second of the game just a few minutes later, batting a loose puck from Fleury's far post, but the veteran netminder managed to get over in the nick of time to kick the shot away from danger.
The line of Kostin, Shore, and Ryan have shown a decent amount of chemistry since Head Coach Jay Woodcroft united the trio - combining for three goals and four assists in the last two games.

ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTIONS

For a 1:10 of game time, but a fair bit longer of real time, the Rogers Place faithful were put through the ringer.
The chaos all started with a Mats Zuccarello shot that snuck in behind Skinner and sat for what seemed like an eternity in the blue paint behind him. The Wild would crash the crease and jam away, but eventually the whistle went to halt play.
After a delay, the play was reviewed and it was determined that the puck did cross the line before the refs blew it dead. The announcement incited boos from the fans, as well as a coach's challenge from Head Coach Jay Woodcroft. After a second look at the play that already required a second look, the goal was overturned due to goaltender interference by Kirill Kaprizov who pushed Skinner across the line with his stick.
The Rogers Place cheers were short lived however, when Joel Eriksson Ek officially got the Wild on the board following a turnover behind the Oilers net. The centre cut out in front of Skinner, before cutting back and raising the puck over the Oilers goaltender's outstretched pad for his 10th goal of the season.

PENALTY PROBLEMS

The Wild fully erased the Oilers early advantage in the second period courtesy of a 5-on-3 power play. With Brett Kulak and Mattias Janmark in the box, Minnesota was able to whip the puck around the Oilers zone with relative ease.
After a ton of pressure -- including six shots and a Kaprizov laser off the goal post -- Zuccarello slid into some open space, received a pass, and ripped a perfectly placed shot into the top corner to tie the game.
The Wild ended the game with a 5-3 power play advantage, however the Oilers outscored the visitors by a 2-1 margin with the extra man.

CAN I GET TO THE YAMS

It hasn't quite been the start of the season Kailer Yamamoto, but the feisty Oilers forward is starting to get his game on track.
The 24-year-old missed 12 games this season with an upper-body ailment but has been back in the lineup for the last three games, including tonight. After a strong performance against the Coyotes where Yamamoto played 14:21 and picked up a pair of assists, he finally notched his first of the season against the Wild.
The goal came with 7:06 remaining in the second period, with Yamamoto redirecting play a point shot from Darnell Nurse past Fleury for what would be the game-winning goal.
The former Oilers first-round pick in 2017 emerged last season under coach Woodcroft, setting career highs in goals (20), assists (21), and points (41).

CONNOR MCDANGEROUS

Connor McDavid cannot stop scoring goals. The Oilers captain notched his 25th goal of the season 8:59 into the game while on a powerplay to extend his goal-scoring streak to seven games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins threaded a perfect pass through the Wild's penalty kill and McDavid expertly roofed the shot on Fleury.
It seems as if every year McDavid continues to find another level to his game. The 25-year-old now has an incredible 25 goals, 29 assists and 54 points in the first 27 games of the season. Last game against the Coyotes, McDavid became the quickest player since Mario Lemieux in 2002-03 to reach the half-century mark in a season at 26 games. That season was Lemieux's third-back from his second retirement - he would finish with 91 points (28G, 63A) in only 67 games.

PARTING WORDS

Zach Hyman on the Oilers performance over the home stand:
"I think before this home stand, I don't think we liked our home record. We want to make this place a hard place to play and I think all last year we did. This home stand has been kind of reminiscent of that, one blip in that Washington game, but other than that, I think some complete games -- especially tonight against a really good Minnesota team."
Hyman on the Oilers depth stepping up during this home stand:
"I think guys are stepping up. I think we have a lot of guys up front that are banged up and not playing and we got Yamo back, which is great. And he's obviously made an impact since he's been back -- big goal from tonight. Then guys are getting called up like Hamblin, playing just steady for a guy who's only got a couple of games in the league, doesn't make many mistakes."
"I think the last couple of starts have been good and I think it just gives confidence to everybody through the lineup. A lot of guys are playing more now than they had in the beginning of the year and they're contributing."

Hyman on how the win over the Wild fits the blueprint of how the Oilers are trying to play:
"I think we're finding our game. I think we have another level. I think throughout an 82 game season, you want to steady the rollercoaster as much as possible, but there's ups and downs and by the end of it, you hope to find out what type of team you are and how you're going to be successful in the playoffs. I think that this home stand has kind of gotten us back to what our identity is and being a hard team to play against at home. Were literally 28 games into the season, so rounding around that one third mark, it's a good time to figure out who we are."
Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on the play of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins:
"I think Ryan is an excellent teammate. He does whatever the coaching staff asks of him. He's well respected and he does a lot of little subtle things in the game that he's having success with. So it's doing it five-on-five, he's doing it five-on-four. I thought that line has been really effective and he's doing a lot of really good stuff."
Woodcroft on Mattias Janmark stepping up:
"I think Janmark has taken advantage of the opportunity that he's been given. His start to the year didn't go the way he wanted, he ended up in the American Hockey League, he went down and worked at his game, got to play big minutes, got in top shape, and he's come up and he sees the opportunity that he's been given I believe that opportunities multiply when they are seized and all of a sudden he went from a 10 or a 12-minute player, to tonight he was played 19 minutes in an important win."
Woodcroft on the Oilers working into their structure and getting better within it:
"There are different stages in the season and the important thing that we're stressing as a coaching staff is the ability to get better every day. Sometimes you might not have the day you want, but if you learn from it, that helps you get better. I think sometimes lessons come hard if you're deaf to them and we want to make sure that when we are taught some lessons in the season, that we're paying attention and we use it as a growth opportunity."
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on his line with Janmark and Yamamoto:
"I think it's been coming along. We have a good mindset of just keeping it simple early and building our game off that and putting pucks in (deep), obviously Yamo can get in there and create a lot of loose pucks, and I think we're our best when we're just playing a cycle game and working teams."
Nugent-Hopkins on moving back to centre from the wing this season:
"I mean, I've done both a fair amount now so it's not a huge deal for me to kind of step in on either side of things. Obviously played mostly centre my whole career, my life growing up, so it's more natural just kind of step back into that."