GAME RECAP: Oilers 7, Golden Knights 4

LAS VEGAS, NV - It was a performance 11 and a half years in the making for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
The longest-tenured Oilers player recorded his second-career five-point night -- his first coming way back during his rookie season on Nov. 19, 2011 against the Chicago Blackhawks -- as Edmonton completed the sweep of their road back-to-back with a convincing 7-4 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.
Ten different Oilers reached the scoresheet on Tuesday and three (Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid) had multi-point efforts as Edmonton climbed within three points of Vegas for first place in the Pacific Division. The Oilers are also just one point behind Los Angeles for second spot after the Kings were edged 2-1 by the Calgary Flames earlier in the evening.
The Blue & Orange return home to face the Kings on Thursday at Rogers Place.
"We know who we're playing, we know where they're at in the standings, we know where we're at and we're still pushing for home ice," Nugent-Hopkins said of the playoff implications.
"I think that does make a difference come playoff time. So I thought it was a great job. Obviously they took two points (in overtime on Saturday). We just got the one a couple of nights ago in our building, so we wanted to respond and did a great job tonight."

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FIRST BLOOD

As legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra famously said, it's déjà vu all over again, as Tuesday's game started pretty much identical to the previous night's bout between the Oilers and Arizona Coyotes.
On Monday, the home side scored the opening goal at the 3:50 mark of the first period, but the Oilers responded with a power-play marker from Zach Hyman just 50 seconds later. Fast forward 24 hours and the Golden Knights got on the board via Jonathan Marchessault just 72 seconds into the game, but Edmonton evened it up 37 seconds later with a PPG from Evan Bouchard.
After Alex Pietrangelo was called for holding at 1:41, Leon Draisaitl won the ensuing offensive-zone draw, Connor McDavid tapped the puck back to Bouchard at the point, the defenceman passed it over to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and the veteran forward volleyed it back to Bouchard for a top-shelf wrist shot blocker-side on Jonathan Quick with Hyman providing a perfect screen in front.

PLAY OF THE GAME

One night after scoring his 300th career goal, Draisaitl set up Evander Kane for his triple-century tally with one of the prettiest plays of the entire season to make it 5-3 at the 13:30 mark of the middle frame.
Draisaitl took a pass from Vincent Desharnais behind the Oilers net, picked up speed through neutral territory and passed it over to Yamamoto entering the attacking zone. The winger quickly gave it back to the centreman and Draisaitl proceeded to undress Vegas defenceman Alex Martinez before finding Kane streaking down the left side for a top-shelf finish on Quick. The 300th goal of Kane's career was also his 14th of the season in 34 games.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Somehow wedged in the 37-second span between the game's first two goals was a miraculous stick save by Quick on Draisaitl. The Vegas netminder misplayed the puck behind his net on an Oilers dump-in and Kailer Yamamoto's unsuccessful shot attempt left the puck on Draisaitl's stick for a look on what appeared to be a wide-open cage. However, Quick, who had over-committed in an attempt to stop Yamamoto's shot, stuck his paddle out for a perfectly-timed, last-ditch, mid-air effort to deny Draisaitl.

TURNING POINT

The Oilers took a slim 3-2 lead into the second period and surrendered the equalizing goal to Michael Amadio just 3:13 into the frame, but Darnell Nurse put the visitors back up by one less than three minutes later with a sneaky short-side wrist shot past Quick after corralling a dump-in to the corner by Warren Foegele. Nurse's go-ahead goal was the first of three in the period for the Oilers as they outshot the Golden Knights by an outlandish 21-6 margin in the middle 20.

TOP PERFORMER

With his five-point night, Nugent-Hopkins tied two career highs, matching the most points he's scored in a single game and extending his point streak to nine games. He has scored five goals and 13 assists over that span, bringing him up to 96 points on the season. His previous best point total was 69 in 2018-19.
"Offensively our team's been clicking all year," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I'm playing with some great players and just trying to help out a little more offensively than I did last year. I think when you have team success, individual success follows that."

PARTING WORDS

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on Nugent-Hopkins' career-best season:
"I see strong two-way versatility to Ryan. I move him all over the lineup. Left wing, right wing, centre. He plays in every situation, never complains, just does whatever the coaching staff and what teammates ask of him. He's finding the offensive groove this year, but his overall two-way play is at the highest I've seen as an Edmonton Oiler."

Coach Woodcroft on the Oilers closing the gap in the Pacific standings:
"I think a lot of people in this crowd right here might have wrote the Oilers off when it comes to where we're going to finish. As you hear me say every single day, we try to take it one at a time. We're going to get on our plane, get back to Edmonton, have a good rest day tomorrow, and make sure we're ready for a really good Los Angeles Kings team. We know what we're up against in them. We want to show well against a really good team and the points will take care of themselves. We just want to get our game in order."
Kane on the race for top spot in the Pacific Division:
"Obviously it's been tight all year. It's been like that I feel like for the last two months. One night can change the complexion of what the standings look like, and that happened tonight, so obviously games mean a little bit more down the stretch and you want to finish as high as you possibly can and try to get home ice."
Kane on Nugent-Hopkins' career year:
"He's had a hell of a season. He's a guy that has great poise with the puck, real heady, makes great plays, and has been shooting the puck a little bit more this year and is finding the back of the net. He's having a hell of a year."

Draisaitl on Nugent-Hopkins' season:
"He's just such a good hockey player. It's crazy. He doesn't get nearly enough recognition than he deserves. The things he does are so subtle, and most people don't realize what he does out there, but he's just a phenomenal hockey player."