GAME RECAP: Oilers 6, Senators 3

OTTAWA, ON - Jesse Puljujarvi notched the game-winning goal just over three minutes into the third period on Saturday in a 6-3 victory for the Edmonton Oilers over the Ottawa Senators to begin back-to-back afternoon games to close out this four-game road trip.
Puljujarvi's fifth of the season started off an impressive final frame for the Blue & Orange after the Senators scored twice in the final five minutes of the second period to level the score at 3-3 heading into the final 20 minutes.
Connor McDavid recorded a goal and two assists to stretch his point streak to 15 games and make it points in 25 of his last 26 road games. The captain set up Ryan McLeod shorthanded in the second period with a sublime effort and feed for his 10th goal of the campaign before Derek Ryan scored Edmonton's second on the penalty kill for the insurance marker.
Zach Hyman hit 300 career points and matched his career-high 27 goals with a penalty-shot goal and assist, while Brett Kulak connected with two helpers in the win.
The Oilers head to Montreal to close out their four-game road trip and back-to-back matinees on Sunday afternoon at the Bell Centre.
"Every point is really important and we'll take those," Puljujarvi said. "Tomorrow is [another] game, so hopefully, we play good again tomorrow."

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FIRST BLOOD

In the opening three minutes, Connor McDavid called bank to continue his consecutive point streak and his crazy tear on the road.
The first two shots on net from the Oilers weren't much of a test for Senators netminder Anton Forsberg, but when the captain had the puck on his stick below the goal line, he didn't expect to be looking back to see the puck in the net.
Leon Draisaitl tried to find his partner in crime at the back door for a tap-in that didn't connect, but McDavid read the bounce off the backboards and quickly sent it back into the Ottawa crease for a potential stroke of good luck. Before Forsberg could reset, the puck already had struck the back of his skate and found its way over the line for an early 1-0 Oilers lead at 2:18 of the first period.
With the goal, McDavid has pushed his point streak to 15 games for the fourth time in his career, which is already tied for the fourth most in NHL history. On the road, the captain has been simply uncontainable, registering a point in 25 of Edmonton's last 26 road games for a whopping 13 goals and 21 assists after pencilling in with a goal and two helpers on the scoresheet Saturday afternoon.

HYGHER THAN EVER BEFORE

Already soaring past his career high for points and tracking to smash his best goal total in eight seasons, Zach Hyman's secondary helper on McDavid's go-ahead goal added the Toronto product to the 300-point club in the NHL.
"I don't think about it too much. You just kind of go out there and play," Hyman said. "When you're a young guy in the league, you just try to earn your spot every single day. Then as you get older, you just try to get better and just kind of continue to progress."
With his second-period go-ahead tally that game off a penalty shot, he's now matched his career-best goalscoring total of 27 he set during his first season as an Oiler in 2021-22... in 24 less games.

Flying in on a breakaway less than a minute-and-a-half after Jake Sanderson tied the game for Ottawa in the first minute of the second period, the winger was hooked to draw a penalty shot and give the Oilers the chance to answer back immediately. Hyman went to the backhand and beat Forsberg for the 2-1 advantage, while increasing his season output through 52 games to 27 goals and 35 assists.
"I like to go to the backhand on breakaways, so I just kind of thought that would be the first move," Hyman said. "But if I saw something else and they go down there, you kind of react, but it was there and it went in."

SAVE OF THE GAME

When you've won seven straight starts for the second-longest win streak of your career, it's pretty clear you've got things going for you.
Jack Campbell came up huge after the dust settled on an intense first four minutes to the second period when a missed pass to Tyson Barrie at the blue line gave former Oilers forward Derick Brassard the chance to equalize. Campbell was up to the task, stamping out Brassard's shot on a clear-cut breakway to keep the Oilers ahead 2-1 with over 15 minutes to go in the middle frame.

PLAY OF THE GAME

It was another sprinkle of McDavid magic to set up McLeod shorthanded.
The captain wasn't the one who put the puck in the net, but the effort to make the goal happen and the sublime set-up feed all came from number 97 with Derek Ryan in the box for hooking. McDavid pursued Thomas Chabot into the Ottawa zone and stripped the defender of the puck, brushing off the responding pressure from two Senators before throwing a backhand pass through the black jerseys and onto the tape of Ryan McLeod unmarked at the back post.

McLeod snapped the ensuing shot past Forsberg and pointed over to his captain after the play in appreciation for his effort to create the chance out of nothing.
"I was on Chabot right away and was just trying to get the puck back somehow and make a chance," McDavid said. "I got it back and I didn't like the look I was going to get and just tried to find him..."I saw [McLeod] when I turned up and then I saw him bust the back door. I just tried to throw it over there and I think I got a little bit lucky. I think Chabot actually played it well, and I think it just kind of went through him."
McLeod notched his 10th goal, while another multi-point game for McDavid makes it 42 goals and 55 assists for 97 points in 53 games. Generational.

TIED THROUGH TWO FRAMES

The Oilers were ahead by a pair heading into the final five minutes of the second period, but the lead soon evaporated.
The Senators conceded the shorthanded goal to McLeod but got it right back before the penalty to Ryan was done when Claude Giroux got a stroke of luck when Ridley Greig's centring pass has decelerated by the stick of Darnell Nurse before going in off the Ottawa forward's skate just 17 seconds after McLeod made it a two-goal game.
Before the intermission came, Erik Brannstrom walked down the left when entering the Oilers zone and shot across his body and around Barrie into the far side of Campbell's net to make it 3-3 heading into the third period.

PULJU-JARS-ONE

"We just talked [in the intermission] about how we wanted to crank it up there in the third period," Woodcroft said. "We went out and Jesse scored a huge goal for our team."
Puljujarvi took the opportunity to bury his first goal in nine games in a big way by notching the game-winner 3:05 into the third period. The Finnish winger accepted a two-line pass from Brett Kulak as he entered the Ottawa zone before resetting himself to rip his fifth goal of the season clean past Forsberg on the far side to make it 4-3 Oilers with just over 17 minutes to play.
"Yeah, it was really fun to be in the lineup again and I tried to really help the team," Puljujarvi said. "It was fun to come here and get a couple of points, and it's fun to score, too."

Jesse's goal opened the Edmonton floodgates, with Ryan notching Edmonton's second shorthanded goal of the contest six minutes and change after with Puljujarvi with a quick release off Kulak's centring pass, marking the Stony Plain product's second assist of the game.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins finished off a mad goalmouth scramble on the power play before the five-minute mark that was challenged by the Ottawa bench but upheld by the officials. Concern was directed to the Senators crease and Forsberg soon after, however, when he was unable to get up after Hyman was forced into the goalie before the puck was put in by Nugent-Hopkins. The Swede had to be carted off the ice and was replaced by Cam Talbot for the final five minutes.

"Oh, it's awful," Hyman said post-game. "You hear him go down and you hear him in pain. I [couldn't] do anything. I'm stuck on him because there's a guy who's on top of me pushing me in, so if you watch the replay, I go in and try to avoid him, and then all of a sudden, I get a cross check in the back.
"It's not a fun play to be a part of. I almost stopped playing there because we locked eyes and he was just in pain, so I hope he gets better soon. Just a tough play."
The Oilers organization sends its thoughts and well wishes to the former member of the club.

PARTING WORDS

Hyman on McDavid's magical effort and set-up on McLeod's second-period goal:
"I mean, he's the best player in the world, so he just pushes the envelope. I don't know if you're surprised necessarily, but I think you're always kind of amazed and only he can do those types of things. It's fun when you're on his side."
McDavid on defeating a Sens team that won four straight before the All-Star break:
"We knew the Sens were playing really well before the break. They were really gaining some momentum and we didn't know what to expect. They hadn't played in a long time. We tried to get them early and we got off to a little bit of a lead, and they did a great job battling back. It's not easy to do that after a twelve-day break, so credit to them and we got contributions from all over the line up today and it was really big."