GAME RECAP: Wild 7, Oilers 4

SAINT PAUL, MN – The Oilers woes in the final frame continued on Tuesday as they were outscored by the Minnesota Wild 5-1 in the third period to drop a 7-4 decision on the road at Xcel Energy Center.

Edmonton took a 3-2 lead into the closing 20 minutes on the strength of two goals from Warren Foegele, one from Evan Bouchard and some stellar goaltending from Jack Campbell, but it fell apart down the home stretch as the Wild scored five of the next six.

Ryan Hartman led the way for the Wild with a hat-trick and five points, while Kirill Kaprizov had three assists and Filip Gustavsson turned aside 25 of 29 Edmonton shots.

The Oilers are back home Thursday to host the New York Rangers at Rogers Place, as the team will add Doug Weight and Charlie Huddy to its Hall of Fame during a pre-game ceremony.

FIRST PERIOD

For the second straight game, the Oilers got off to a hot start and scored the opening goal within the first minute and a half of action.

The line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins between Warren Foegele and Zach Hyman started the game for the visitors and generated a pair of early chances, ultimately leading to an offensive zone faceoff that saw the Evander Kane, Leon Draisaitl and Mattias Janmark line tag in.

Draisaitl won the draw back to Kane, who slid the puck to Evan Bouchard at the point, and the defenceman unleashed his patented Bouch Bomb™ past the blocker of Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson with Janmark screening in front for his second goal of the season and second in as many games, just 54 seconds after the opening puck-drop.

Edmonton then had a golden opportunity to extend its lead when they were dealt a two-man power-play advantage for 75 seconds as John Merrill tripped Dylan Holloway and Jonas Brodin hooked Kane.

The Wild weathered that storm, though, and were able to find the equalizer at the 7:46 mark when Marco Rossi parked himself in front of the net and redirected a pass from Ryan Hartman past Jack Campbell for his second goal of the season.

Hartman had a glorious chance to give the Wild a 2-1 lead later in the frame when the Oilers turned the puck over in the neutral zone on the power play and the Minnesota forward had a shorthanded breakaway on Jack Campbell. Edmonton's netminder read Hartman's forehand deke and forced a shot that missed the top corner to keep the game knotted at one.

Kane's fight with Brandon Duhaime with 2:04 left in the period upped the intensity even more and the Oilers were able to capitalize with the 2-1 marker 37 seconds later when number 37 Foegele buried a loose puck in the slot after Bouchard's point shot was blocked.

The lead was short-lived, though, as Hartman got his revenge from his breakaway miss when he banged home a rebound in front after the point shot by Jake Middleton squirted free from Campbell's clutches with 58.6 seconds left in the frame.

SECOND PERIOD

The hot start to the first period was so enjoyable for the Oilers they decided to do it again as Foegele scored his second of the night with an absolute snipe in the top corner over Gustavsson's glove for his third of the season just 33 seconds into the middle frame.

Edmonton's second too-many-men penalty of the game allowed Kirill Kaprizov to unleash back-to-back sharp angle one-timers from "Leon's spot" but the first attempt rang off the post and the second was denied impressively by Campbell's pad.

The Soup was just warming up at that point as Kaprizov was at it again back at even strength, bursting in one a two-on-one rush with Pat Maroon and finding the former Oiler with a cross-ice feed, but the netminder made a miraculous diving stick save across his crease to keep Edmonton up by a goal.

Campbell made several more stellar stops to close out a red-hot, perfect 12-save stanza.

"I thought the second period for Jack might have been one of his best as an Edmonton Oiler," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said of the netminder's middle-frame masterclass.

THIRD PERIOD

For the third consecutive period, a goal was scored in the opening minute, but it was the Wild's turn this time as Hartman struck again for his second of the night to make it 3-3 just 38 seconds into the final frame.

Kaprizov continued his dangerous night as he zipped a pass down to Mats Zuccarello and the puck bounced off his skate directly to Hartman in front of the net for a bang-bang play past Campbell.

Minnesota's top line tallied the 4-3 go-ahead goal as well in fine fashion as Hartman got the puck behind the net and passed it out front to Kaprizov, who darted it across to Zuccarello for the no-doubt one-timer.

Joel Eriksson Ek extended the Wild lead to 5-3 midway through the period, but the Oilers found new life with a power-play goal by Kane just over two minutes later to cut the deficit to one.

With Dakota Mermis in the box, Bouchard blasted yet another potent point shot that was redirected by Kane past Gustavsson for his first of the season to make it 5-4.

But Hartman completed his hat-trick with 4:10 on the clock and Marcus Foligno made it 7-4 with an empty-netter to conclude the final-frame onslaught for the home side.

PARTING WORDS

Campbell on the Oilers losing the game in the third period:

"Super competitive game through 40 minutes, I'd say. Just a disappointed feeling in here. You know, we scored enough to win. They made some really nice plays and capitalized. And of course I'd love to make some more key saves for the guys and get two points, but they made some good plays. I've got to go back to the tape tonight and watch it and see what adjustments I can make. And as a unit, I know we can tighten things up, too."

Foegele on Edmonton's performance against the Wild:

"There was some back and forth, but we stuck with it. Soupy was unbelievable, made some crazy saves and then the third, it was just a couple of easy goals against. We're kind of hurting ourselves on those ones. This group has it in us to get out of this funk and we've just got to continue to be competitive, but we've got to do it for a full 60 when Jack is making saves like that."

Woodcroft on the team's strong start but poor finish:

"Our players displayed some character and guts there through the first 40. Obviously, the third period, you give up that many amount of goals, it's far from ideal. Lots to clean up there.

"And I thought there were moments in the game that we could have handled better. And not just defensively – certainly defensively – but we had a five-on-three power play early where we could have converted at a better clip. That I felt that was an important juncture in the game. We're up to one end of the first period. We win a faceoff clean. We can execute a whole lot better in that situation as well.

"I thought our players gave us what they had tonight, but in the end, we struggled to contain their big line in the third period there, and were made to pay."