GAME RECAP: Oilers 6, Golden Knights 3

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 6-3 on Saturday afternoon to pull within three points of Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division with their fifth straight victory at Rogers Place.

After being blanked last week in Vegas, the Oilers scored five unanswered goals against the Golden Knights, building themselves a five-goal lead and securing the two points to improve to 8-1-0 over their last nine games.

"The way we're playing right now, we're going to give ourselves a chance every night and that's all you can ask for," Mattias Ekholm said.

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, setting up goals for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor Brown to extend the German's streak with multiple points to six games before he added his league-leading 22nd goal of the season as part of a four-goal middle frame from Edmonton.

"I like our game right now," Draisaitl said. "I think we're playing well. I think we're starting to find our roles a little bit. We're starting to find our rhythm a little bit better and have some really good teams coming up here. We're just looking to continue that."

Brown and Nugent-Hopkins each recorded a goal and an assist, and goaltender Stuart Skinner made 38 saves to improve to 6-2-0 over his last eight starts.

"It's a good time for us to play these good teams because we're playing so well, so another good test on Monday," Brown said. "We thought we played a good game in Vegas against them and couldn't get on the scoresheet, so this was one against a divisional opponent who we're going to see a lot. It was nice to come out and play our game."

The Oilers improved to 18-10-2 this season and will try to continue their winning ways on home ice on Monday night in a rematch of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers.

"That'll be an exciting match," Ekholm added. "We haven't seen them since, but we have new players and they have new players. Their core is pretty much the same and so is ours, so I'm sure it'll be a great game and a good measuring stick for our group with how well we're playing right now. We'll have to bring it again on Monday."

FIRST PERIOD

Stay hot Stuart Skinner, why don't you?

The Oilers had their goaltender to thank – who'd been in terrific recent form with a .935 save percentage or better over his previous five starts – for making a few key saves in the opening frame that enabled Edmonton to push forward late in the period and take a 1-0 lead on the power play.

Defenceman Troy Stecher took the game's first penalty trying to slow down forward Keegan Kolesar seven-and-a-half minutes in when the puck popped over his stick at the Golden Knights blue line, creating an odd-man rush for their fourth line that Kolesar couldn't finish off on a back-door feed from Tanner Pearson.

On the ensuing Vegas man advantage, Skinner made two glove saves and robbed centre Jack Eichel alone in front for his best save of the period, getting the Oilers' penalty kill out of an early jam with an important stop that improved their short-handed efficiency to 19-for-22 (86.3 percent) over their last ten games.

Vasily Podkolzin almost gave the Oilers the lead on a four-on-two rush for the Oilers, where the Russian forward was denied his net-bound rush from the left side by the pad of Adin Hill as he tried to put it around the Vegas shot-stopper, who was selected over Skinner as one of the three goalies who'll represent Canada at the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Not long after, forward Pavel Dorefeyev hit the post on a deflection off the shot delivered by Shea Theodore, beating Skinner but not the iron on Vegas' best chance at scoring before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins broke the deadlock on the power play before the intermission.

With Brett Howden in the box for holding, the Golden Knights missed an opportunity to score off a short-handed rush before Connor McDavid was weaving his way into the Vegas zone to drop a pass to Nugent-Hopkins in the left circle, who roofed his effort over a screened Adin Hill to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead with 2:24 left in the period.

The Golden Knights hit their second post on the next shift before Evan Bouchard rattled the crossbar on an open look from the right circle as the last action of an exciting opening 20 minutes at Rogers Place.

SECOND PERIOD

The Golden Knights didn't have an answer until the damage was done, but the onslaught from the Oilers was ruthless and unrelenting after they built themselves a five-goal lead with four goals over an 11-minute stretch of the middle frame against their Pacific Division rivals.

"They're all fun one way or another. They're a good team," Draisaitl said. "They're division rivals and it's fun beating them. They'd say the same on the other side, but we wanted to have a good showing tonight and continue what we've been building."

Following an offensive-zone faceoff, captain Connor McDavid lost the draw, but Edmonton's top line of Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid and Hyman showed determination to win the puck back for No. 93, who threw a spinning pass in front to Hyman for the winger to finish off his eighth goal of the season and fifth goal in last six games just 1:13 into the period.

Nugent-Hopkins was working on a multi-point performance after picking up the assist, giving him eight points (2G, 6A) in his last eight games.

Over five minutes later, the Oilers transitioned out of their own zone quickly to create a two-on-one for Leon Draisaitl and Connor Brown, where the winger finished off his fifth of the season to make it 3-0 after his German counterpart picked him out with a pass to the back post.

It was a special goal for Brown with his young son Nolan in the building to watch his dad play, and Connor was overjoyed to get a goal for him.

"It's nice to score one in front of him, obviously," Brown said. "It's pretty surreal and always something I always dreamed about, so it was a pretty special day for us. He's been to a few warmups, but he was banging on the glass and loving it, so it was a great day."

Draisaitl then delivered his league-leading 22nd goal of the season before the period's midway mark, finishing off a back-door feed similar to Brown's goal after the Golden Knights turned over the puck in the neutral zone to start a fast break for the home side that resulted in their fourth goal.

Mattias Janmark offloaded a pass to Darnell Nurse, who followed it up with a feed to Draisaitl at the back post to finish off the play. With a goal and an assist on Saturday afternoon, Draisaitl has recorded a multi-game point streak of five games or more six different times over his career and trails only Connor McDavid (12) among active NHL players in that category.

Forward Corey Perry then made it five unanswered goals for the Oilers, sniping a loose puck top shelf on Adin Hill from the slot with over seven minutes left in the second period.

Saturday was the seventh time that the Oilers scored five goals this season, having gone 6-0-0 in those games before today after scoring a season-high seven goals in Minnesota two days earlier.

Skinner made 22 saves through two periods for the Oilers, but the netminder's shutout bid ended with under five minutes remaining in the frame after Victor Olofsson was left alone in front to convert Tomas Hertl's back-hand pass that came from below the goal line.

Just 26 seconds later, Ivan Barbashev tipped in Noah Hanifin's point shot despite the goal originally being waved off for goaltender interference. A coach's challenge from the Vegas bench overturned the initial decision, clawing the Golden Knights back within three heading into the final 20 minutes at Rogers Place.

THIRD PERIOD

Stuart Skinner did so many good things on Saturday night that it was his teammates' turn to bail him out for giving up a goal he'd wish he could have back.

"Stu was our best player tonight," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I thought he played extremely well. He made one mistake tonight, but that was maybe our worst game that we've defended. The amount of chances that we gave up tonight, he just made save after save."

During a carry-over power play early in the third period, the Oilers netminder coughed up the puck to Brett Howden behind the goal to give the Golden Knights an easy short-handed goal that made it 5-3 with plenty of time left for Vegas to keep trying to fill the hole they dug themselves.

"You need your goalie to make those saves, and I think our goaltenders have been really good in the last few weeks and winning us games," Knoblauch added. "We're obviously very happy with Stu, and we need goaltending like that if we're going to have long-term success. This is the goaltending that I saw pretty much all of last year."

Luckily, Skinner was bailed out by the other Skinner.

"That was a tough one to give up at the start of the third, but it's nice to get one back right away and kind of settle things down," Mattias Ekholm said.

Jeff Skinner got the goal back for his goaltender, recovering Mattias Ekholm's rebound between the hash marks and firing his sixth goal of the season past Adin Hill just 37 seconds after they lost their three-goal lead.

"It was a big goal by Skinny there," Draisaitl said. "That sets them back again a little bit. So obviously, you'd like to keep it at two, but these things happen and you gotta go on the flow. I thought we played well for the most part."

Despite giving up Vegas' easy third goal, Stuart Skinner wasn't deterred after making 14 more saves in the third period, back-stopping the Oilers to a fifth straight win at the expense of their division rivals with 38 saves on 41 total shots on Saturday.

"I thought we managed the game really well and that's what it's going to come down to here," Ekholm added. "And for the rest of the year, we've got to be able to defend leads, and obviously, we might not have wanted to concede those two at the end of the second, but that'll happen.

"It was nice to see that we kind of locked it down after that."