GAME RECAP: Penguins 5, Oilers 3

PITTSBURGH, PA – Leon Draisaitl scored his league-leading 30th and 31st goals of the season, but goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic came up with 40 saves on Thursday night for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 5-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at PPG Paints Arena.

After earning the shutout in Boston on Tuesday, the Oilers conceded four goals in a period for the first time this season after finding themselves down 4-1 following the opening frame in Pittsburgh, pushing the Blue & Orange to up their urgency and outshoot the Penguins 36-13 over the final two periods.

"We weren't ready. They outworked us and outskated us. Attention to detail wasn't there," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "We had a heck of a game effort-wise against Boston, and tonight, in the first 20 minutes, we absolutely took them off, and the deficit was too big for us to overcome."

Despite the Oilers working their way back in the middle frame with goals from Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nedeljkovic was solid between the pipes for the full 60 minutes, putting in a first-star performance that was critical in snapping Edmonton's four-game win streak and seven-game run against Pittsburgh.

"Obviously not the start we wanted, but at the time, it was just a matter of looking forward," Mattias Ekholm said. "Can't really do much about the past, so I thought we came out better in the second, gained some ground on them, but at the end of the night, we can't dig ourselves that big of a hole. It's hard to climb out of it in this League, and we certainly had to pay the price tonight."

Captain Connor McDavid had three assists, while Evan Bouchard had an assist and 10 shots on goal for the Oilers to go along with solitary helpers for Zach Hyman and Mattias Ekholm in the losing effort.

The Oilers wrap up their four-game road trip at United Center on Friday against the Chicago Blackhawks.

FIRST PERIOD

The Penguins came to play tonight.

Having lost their previous seven games to the Oilers by a combined score of 37-9, the Penguins shipped four goals in the opening frame past goaltender Stuart Skinner, who was victimized for four goals on 14 shots after he stopped all 27 shots he faced in Boston last game for the unofficial shutout.

"I think they just had a better start than us. They were faster," Brett Kulak said. "They were putting pucks in, forechecking hard and coming hard to the net. Simple as that."

It was hard to blame the Edmonton-born netminder, with the Penguins seemingly winning every battle in the opening 20 minutes and getting on the board first through leading scorer Rickard Rakell 3:19 into the period.

Defenceman Marcus Pettersson's shot was knocked down in front by forward Bryan Rust and then put home on the rebound by Rakell to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead, staking the Oilers to an opening deficit for the first time in their last seven games.

Sidney Crosby was denied an assist on Rakell's opener but wouldn't be denied his 34th helper of the season when he fed Pettersson to follow up with a pass to Rust in the left circle that he sniped off the post through traffic to double the host's lead at 12:38 of the period.

Just two and a half minutes later, former Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi broke up an attempted pass up the wall from Brett Kulak before it was picked up by Drew O'Connor, who found Kevin Hayes wide open in front from below the goal for a one-timer that beat Skinner for the 3-0 lead.

Leon Draisaitl gave the Oilers a lifeline when Zach Hyman had a fast breakaway stopped by a poke-check from Alex Nedeljkovic, but the Pittsburgh shot-stopper was unable to stop the German as he back-handed home the rebound for his league-leading 30th goal of the season – his 23rd at even strength.

Draisaitl officially recorded his seventh consecutive season of 30 or more goals, making him just the fifth player in NHL history born outside of North America to have at least seven straight 30-goal campaigns – joining Alex Ovechkin (15), Jaromir Jagr (15), Jari Kurri (10) and Ilya Kovalchuk (9).

However, the Penguins quickly restored their three-goal lead, scoring 1:08 later on a clean shot from O'Connor in the left circle that was set up by a cross-ice pass from Rust, who finished the first period with a goal and two assists. Crosby grabbed his second assist to tie Joe Sakic for ninth all-time in NHL points (1,643) before he'd pass Burnaby Joe early in the second period with a goal.

Facing a 4-1 deficit after 20 minutes, the Oilers allowed four goals in a period for the first time this season.

SECOND PERIOD

After a strong fightback from the Oilers during the middle frame, we had ourselves a game in the Steel City.

Crosby became the ninth leading scorer in NHL history on the power play to make it 5-1 for the Penguins, making it look like it'd be a long night for the Blue & Orange in Pittsburgh before the League's leading scorer added his second to start building the comeback just before the 11-minute mark of the frame.

"It was not the first period we wanted, obviously, and we expect a lot better out of ourselves to start games for sure," Kulak said. "We pride ourselves on that, but we just came back in and regrouped, we addressed it, and we knew we didn't like it. We just wanted to try to simplify and get back to winning battles, moving pucks, making tape-to-tape passes, building off that and testing their goalie."

Draisaitl took one rip from his spot in the right circle that Nedeljkovic fought off before he got it back a few seconds later in the same spot from Connor McDavid, letting go of another quick one-timer that found its way through for his second goal and his 31st tally of the year.

The goal increased his lead in the NHL's scoring race to seven and marked the 260th career multi-point game of his career and 63rd multi-goal game.

The Oilers were able to cut into the lead at 5-3 on the power play in the final minute of the period, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins staying hot by extending his point streak to five games (4G, 1A) with his 11th goal of the season.

The longest-tenured player in Blue & Orange was lurking between the circles and took a pass from Connor McDavid before firing it low blocker on Nedeljkovic with 45 seconds remaining in the frame, giving him 10 points (7G, 3A) over the 12 games since Dec. 12.

It was game on at PPG Paints Arena after the Oilers outshot the Penguins 20-7 in the middle frame.

THIRD PERIOD

On more than a few occasions, the Oilers lifted their heads to the sky in disbelief that they couldn't get any closer to the Penguins in the final frame.

Pittsburgh winger Michael Bunting took a careless roughing penalty with under nine minutes to go in regulation by dragging Darnell Nurse to the ice in front of Edmonton's net, but the Oilers couldn't come up with the timely goal they needed.

Evan Bouchard had an assist in the second period on Draisaitl's second of the night and would finish with 10 of Edmonton's 40 shots, but Nedeljkovic was the story on Thursday between the pipes for Pittsburgh.

"I thought we had some looks there in the third for sure, and he made some good saves," Ekholm said. "We've obviously got to bear down a little bit better, but he played good tonight."

Before the five-minute mark, Draisaitl had two chances to make it a one-goal game – once on a clear-cut chance from the slot that was blockered away and again on the rebound a few moments later – lifting his stick to his head as Nedeljkovic stood tall to stymie Edmonton's strong third-period push.

The netminder was bailed out not long after by his own defenceman Pettersson, who pulled another Draisaitl attempt at a hat-trick right off the goal line to make one of the few saves the Nedeljkovic didn't have to come up with on Thursday.

The Oilers pulled Skinner for the extra attacker in the final minutes, but nothing would come from it as they were left to rue their four-goal opening period in a 5-3 defeat that snapped their four-game win streak.

"I still think there's things you can learn from it. I don't want to flush it completely. We don't want it to happen again," Ekholm said. "So we have a chance here on Saturday to have a three-in-one road trip, which is pretty good, so that's the focus right now."