GAME RECAP: Predators 4, Oilers 3 (OT)

NASHVILLE, TN - Alex Carrier notched the overtime winner in his first game back as the Predators downed the Oilers by a 4-3 score in overtime on Monday night.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a pair of power-play goals, while Jesse Puljujarvi netted his first goal since Oct. 26 to help the Oilers battle back from three one-goal deficits throughout the night, but they were never able to fully come back against a motivated Predators squad.
"I think it speaks to the character of our group, the leadership of our group, that we believe even if you've given up a goal, that you can get right back at things," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said about the Oilers resolve. "The types of goals that we scored tonight I thought were very good. We got contributions from a lot of people and we came into a tough building and got a point. We're ready to take that and move on."
The Predators saw goals by Mattias Ekholm, Jordan Gross, Matt Duchene and the game winner by Carrier on the evening, while Juuse Saros turned aside 30-of-33 shots in the win.
The Oilers head to Dallas to wrap up their brief road trip with a 7:30 p.m. MT contest at American Airlines arena against the Stars.

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FIRST BLOOD

A third game against the Predators and a third time the Music City team opened the scoring.
Nashville came out strong to start the first period, outshooting the Oilers by a 5-1 margin, and it was that fifth shot that found the back of the Oilers net. The play started with a strong drive and a shot by the recently called up Tommy Novak, who fired a shot on Campbell which the goalie quickly turned aside. Unfortunately for the Oilers, the puck bounced directly to Ekholm sneaking in from the point to bury the rebound past the sprawling Jack Campbell.
The marker was Ekholm's second of the season, coincidently also scored as the first goal of the game against the Oilers back on Nov. 2. That tally came 34 seconds into the contest which the Oilers eventually won 7-4.

DROUGHT OVER

It might be cold in Edmonton, but it's Pool Party weather in Nashville.
With the Oilers trailing 1-0 midway through the first period and needing a spark, it was a long-awaited goal by Jesse Puljujarvi that deadlocked the game once again. The Finnish winger charged down the wing towards the Predators goal and fired a knuckle-puck at Saros that fooled the goalie and split his pads for the winger's second of the season.
"It was great. I mean, he's been working hard, shooting the puck a lot, and to see him make a nice play at the blue line and put that one in and also a big goal for a team at that time too," Nugent-Hopkins said about the goal. "Definitely happy for him and I think everybody was pretty excited on the bench."
The goal was Puljujarvi's first in 26 games, with his last marker coming all the way back on Oct. 26 against the St. Louis Blues. The 24-year-old is coming off a season where he potted 14 goals and 22 assists in 65 games.
Despite the intermittent offensive output, Puljujarvi has contributed in other ways, leading the Oilers with 69 hits coming into the evening.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Jack Campbell showed off his resolve on Monday night.
Nashville's second goal of the game was fairly indicative of the kind of luck Jack Campbell has had this season. Right off a Predators faceoff, Jordan Gross lofted a puck towards the Oilers net. The shot was going several feet wide until an unfortunate redirection sent the puck from the faceoff circle to the twine behind Campbell.
The unlucky event didn't phase the Oilers goaltender who played some of his best hockey in the third period. His best stop of the night came at 15:17 of the third period when he sprawled out to kick away a Cody Glass opportunity at his far post. The save was one of 31 on the night for the Oilers goaltender and it helped earn a point for the Blue & Orange.

TOP PERFORMER

Nugent-Hopkins and the power play went together like Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.
Nuge helped the Oilers claw back twice in the contest, both times on the man advantage. He scored his 16th of the season 4:22 into the second period, making a nice target out in front of Juuse Saros for Connor McDavid to find with the feed. Nugent-Hopkins popped it past the Predators goaltender to tie the game 2-2.

The Oilers found themselves back on the power play early on in the third period and once again it was Nugent-Hopkins to the rescue. The centre collected the puck at the top of the left circle and fired a wrist shot off the post and behind Saros for goal 17 of the year and his third multi-goal effort of the season.
The 29-year-old has been finding the back of the net at a career-best rate. Nugent-Hopkins is already just 11 goals away from matching his career high of 28 set back in 2018-19, with 49 more games to achieve the feat.

PARTING WORDS

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on the flow of the game:
"I thought their team played us hard tonight. Obviously, it seemed like a seesaw battle a little bit. We were never able to get the lead on them, but I thought our team fought hard in the end. It was decided in the overtime."
Woodcroft on the Oilers last three games:
"You never want to not win the game. We want to win the game and we had the opportunity to win all three of those games. We haven't found it, but for me, this game could have gone either way. In the end, they made a play in overtime and they found a way to get the extra point. I thought our team fought hard today."
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the Oilers recent stretch of games:
"Obviously that St. Louis game we all felt like we should have got that second point there. Against the Ducks was a bit of a frustrating result, but I don't know how we worked and we couldn't find an extra one, so we got to stick with it. It's a long season. You can go through adversity like this, but it's the way that you bounce back from adversity that kind of shows the character of your team. So obviously looking for a big one in Dallas."

Nugent-Hopkins on the Oilers 5-on-5 play:
"Obviously we want our 5-on-5 game to keep getting better and better, but at the same time, our power play needs to be able to score goals in timely situations and I feel like we've been doing that as of late, but it should bleed into our 5-on-5 play. I don't think that we played poorly 5-on-5, we just didn't find a way to put any in."
Nugent-Hopkins on playing a motivated Predators team:
"I think we definitely felt that, especially after just playing them a week ago in their building and beating them. It's not a team that goes away easily and we knew that coming in, so I thought they were pretty prepared for it. Yeah, like I said, we kept it tight with them all game."