PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Avalanche

The Edmonton Oilers will finish off back-to-back games this weekend with a visit to Ball Arena on Saturday night to face the Colorado Avalanche.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 8:00 MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.

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PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Avalanche

DENVER, CO – It took plenty of character between periods, potent special teams and an unassisted overtime marker from their longest-tenured player for the Oilers to come away with the extra point in their first-ever meeting with Utah Hockey Club.

Now, the Edmonton Oilers look to follow up the emotions of that rallying performance in Salt Lake City on Friday in the second of back-to-back games on Saturday at Ball Arena against the Colorado Avalanche.

“Probably the biggest thing is the power play getting two power-play goals, and that's the difference in the game,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said post-game. “A lot of credit to Podkolzin scoring that first goal to give us a little momentum, and the special teams was a big one where the kill was good and the power play was outstanding.”

The Oilers trailed Utah 2-0 after 20 minutes and had some hard conversations with each other in the intermission about their effort levels in the first period, and their impressive response in the middle frame resulted from that accountability to one another in the locker room.

"We absolutely addressed that it wasn't good enough, and it's very powerful when it comes from the players," Knoblauch said of the intermission talk. "So if players are calling each other out, that's very good on them. They responded and played better, and I still think we have more to get better at, but they know that that's not an acceptable level of play. They know they can play better than that."

“I think we just found our legs and started to just take pride in playing with the puck," Leon Draisaitl said. "When you throw pucks away and don't take care of them, you're defending a lot because you don't have it. If you take care of the puck and value the puck and make good plays, then you're going to have it a lot more.

“That snowballs into looks and chances."

Vasily Podkolzin scored his second goal in as many games on a two-on-one near the midway mark of the middle frame before Edmonton’s power play took over. The Oilers’ penalty kill came up with an early stop in the period, improving to 17-for-17 over the last eight games, and set the stage for their power play to score twice to give Edmonton a 3-2 advantage through two periods.

Evan Bouchard made a great play to knock down a potential Utah clearance on their first man advantage, where Connor McDavid’s attempt at finding the stick of Corey Perry in front ended up hitting a stick and falling directly into the path of Leon Draisaitl in the right circle to score his 17^th goal of the season.

Perry scooped up a loose puck on Edmonton’s next power play and fed Draisaitl in the same spot for a chance that required a huge block from defenceman Mikhail Sergachev, but it found its way to McDavid at the top of the left circle to snipe his 12^th goal this campaign under the crossbar.

“Putting the puck in the net, that's part of it. But I thought they passed around well and it was very unpredictable,” Knoblauch said of the power play. “We had Connor on the right side, Connor on the left side, Leon in the middle, Leon on the right side and Nuggy moving around. There were a lot of nice little plays, and the McDavid goal, obviously that's a nice shot, but Bouch does a really good job to set that up with his deception to give him that pass to give him a little more time to get that shot. So just little details.

“And then probably the biggest thing was just winning puck battles. You look at how many times they had chances to get the puck out, and we were able to keep pucks alive. Corey jumps and keeps that one in. Bouche had a couple. Guys were fighting, and anytime you keep those pucks alive and they're not allowed to change, it's just difficult for them to kill.”

Calvin Pickard came up with a clutch pad save on Clayton Keller in the third period after Utah drew level before the Oilers missed the opportunity to win the game on a late power play.

Just 1:18 into overtime, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fought the puck off Matias Maccelli and picked his spot low blocker (where else?) on a partial breakaway against the left-handed Karel Vejmelka.

"He's the opposite hand, so I just tried to see the spot and I hit it," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I think quite a few times this year, I've either missed it by a couple of inches, or the goalie's made a good stop on it, or I hit the post or whatever. But obviously, it's nice to see them go in once in a while."

The game-winner was Nuge's third of the season, and in addition to the Oilers' power play that he's a major part of, the goals might start coming a little more often after being held to 10 points in 23 games this season.

"I thought he had a really good game tonight," Knoblauch said of Nugent-Hopkins. "I thought he was making a lot of nice plays, and obviously, the biggest play was putting the puck in during overtime. He worked hard to create that turnover and turn around to get that opportunity. But we're talking a lot about the power play tonight and how good that was. Ryan had a lot to do with that, too."

"Nuggy is a clutch player," Draisaitl added. "He plays really well in tight games and obviously, for him to get rewarded, we probably get more excited about it than he does. But a great play by him all around."