The Edmonton Oilers will look to tie their second round series against the Golden Knights in Game 4 on Wednesday night at Rogers Place.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet and CBC or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.

Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock the Pre-Game Show that will begin at 7:30 p.m. MT, along with more exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content.

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GAME DAY VIDEO

OILERS TODAY | Pre-Game 4 vs. VGK

PRE-GAME RAW | Coach Woodcroft

PRE-GAME RAW | Stuart Skinner

PRE-GAME RAW | Mattias Ekholm

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RAW | Coach Jay Woodcroft

RAW | Evan Bouchard

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RAW | Brett Kulak

BY THE NUMBERS

Oilers Statistics

Golden Knights Statistics

Stats Comparison

Game Notes

RECENT BLOGS & ARTICLES

BLOG: Defending the blue paint

GAME RECAP: Golden Knights 5, Oilers 1

BLOG: Oilers flex toughness

VIEWING INFORMATION

You can watch Wednesday's game on Sportsnet West at 8:00 PM MT.

INSIDE THE OILERS

News and notes from Oilers practice at Rogers Place on Tuesday, including the club putting a focus on defending the front of their net after their Game 3 defeat.

**>> READ MORE IN THE INSIDE THE OILERS BLOG**

PRE-GAME REPORT

EDMONTON, AB - One goal, two goals or five goals. Doesn't matter.

A victory is all that's on the mind of the Edmonton Oilers.

"Whether that's through a tight overtime win or whether it's a more decisive win by us, that doesn't really matter," defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. "It's about wins this time of year.

"There are a bunch of different scenarios the game can be played out as, but at the end of the day, it's the win that matters. That's what we're looking for."

After running the Golden Knights out of T-Mobile Arena during Game 2 with a 5-1 victory, Vegas reciprocated the favour with a major response by blowing out the Oilers by the same scoreline at Rogers Place to re-take the series lead 2-1 heading into Wednesday's Game 4.

Edmonton will look to answer back from their defeat like they have all 2023 playoffs so far, having yet to lose two games in a row during the postseason. Another one of those answer-back efforts will be needed on Wednesday night if the Oilers don't want to fall behind 3-1 in the series and leave themselves on the brink of elimination.

Within the Oilers dressing room, no factors are being weighed other than the ones that will help lead them to victory.

"We weren't happy with our last effort, so obviously, we're looking for a response tonight and in our home building," Ekholm added. "I think it's a great opportunity for us to make a stand for the team and come together and put together a big performance.

"It's a key time in the series."

After breaking down the game tape from their loss in Game 3, the Oilers know they have to do more to win the five-on-five battles and shore up the areas surrounding their own crease, where the Golden Knights had the upper hand in the series-leading victory that played into their fast transition game, strong forecheck and depth in their four forward lines.

"Number one is you've got to make sure you do your work, and that's something that our coaching staff takes a lot of pride in is our process; win or lose, we follow that process," Woodcroft said. "We've been doing it for the last year and a half here in the NHL. When you do your work, I believe that allows you to see things correctly or see things clearly.

"For us, there are things that we can improve from our performance in game number three. Nobody's happy with it, but at the same time, we're not dwelling on it. We're moving on. But we're moving on with the understanding that we've learned a lesson. We're moving on with the mindset to be prepared to execute heading into game number four."

Preaching patience in these regards was a major theme of their evaluation at Tuesday's practice according to Ekholm.

"Even the game we won, we were better than them five-on-five, but we obviously got some big goals on the power play early on, so that helped us carry that," Ekholm said. "But as you're saying, we need a little bit more patience in the five-on-five game I think."

"I think last game, they got a couple of goals on us and all of a sudden, we wanted to do everything in the next shift and that usually doesn't work well. Then you open up defensively, so I think we've got to stay structured defensively and have some patience in our five-on-five game. I think we'll sort that out."

If the Oilers are able to bring out their best game, Coach Woodcroft sees everything falling the way it should on Wednesday night, including a better effort defending in their own zone.

"Priority one for us is to play our game tonight. That's where our focus is; it's not worrying about the series and it's not worrying about anything other than playing our best game tonight," he said.

"We think when we do play our best game that all areas of that game get taken care of, whether that's shorthanded, whether that's on the power play or whether that's five-on-five. The bottom line for us is we're looking for a complete 60 minutes in every single aspect."

PROTECT THE PAINT

A little bit more consistency in their defending is where the Oilers hope to land in Game 4 and for the rest of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"We like to play tight defensively. We obviously don't want to give up a lot, but as of late, that has been [the case]," Ekholm said.

The Oilers showed much better defence in their Game 2 victory, but carrying that over game-to-game has been the issue.

In Game 3, Vegas had a much easier night generating chances by owning the down-low battles below the goal line and around Edmonton's crease, leading to two goals directly off net-front battles and races.

"In Game 2, I thought we did a really good job, but we have to be more consistent with it," Ekholm said. "Whether that's because we're scoring more goals or what have you, I have no idea, but we like to keep it tight defensively and hopefully that's something we'll be able to accomplish tonight."

The solution to the Oilers players and coaches surrounds playing a much-more physical and direct defensive game and not allowing the Golden Knights to enter the danger zones. If they do, they're going to want to make it a hard battle for any Vegas player to have space to make a play.

"I think we can be harder for sure," Ekholm said. "Playoff time, you can't let up any easy goals and you can't let them just stand around in front of your net. You know they're going to get some pucks there and get goals eventually, so you got to try to keep it clean in front, have your goaltender see every puck coming in there and just make it harder for them to get access to the paint."

NO STEWING FOR STU

Calm, cool, collected and capable of performing on the big stage are some of the ways that Head Coach Jay Woodcroft describes his rookie netminder whom he's seen make good on opportunities like these.

Most importantly, someone who's capable of bouncing back.

"There are eight teams left in the NHL, and Stuart's a big part of the reason why we're in the position that we're in," he said. "Having seen him over the years, I see somebody who's calm, I see somebody who responds, I see somebody who has all the necessary tools to help a team win a hockey game."

For Stuart Skinner, his second withdrawal of the playoffs in Game 2 after yielding four goals on 23 shots was just another lesson for the 24-year-old Calder Trophy nominee, who's viewing his defeat as just another roadblock to rally from and improve on to come back even stronger in Game 4.

"I mean, it's the same thing. I think in the playoffs, the highs feel high and the lows feel low, and being able to stay even keel is huge," he said. "That's the same thing with the regular season. You can have lots of ups, lots of lows, and it just depends how you respond to that.

The Edmonton product has a 3.60 goals-against average and .888 save percentage through nine starts in the playoffs. Much like the collective belief inside the Oilers dressing room, Skinner knows he has more to give.

"I think I've been alright. I've shown some good games, I've shown some good moments, but there are a couple of goals that I probably want back. That's all part of hockey. All season long, all my life, there's been goals that I want back and it's just learning from those mistakes and moving forward. I'm looking forward to playing tonight. It'll be a good challenge."

It's the support between one another that keeps the group level-headed and focused on the next task.

"I think for us, we know where we're at," he said. "We know the group in here, we all feel really good in ourselves, we feel very confident in ourselves, so it's pretty well the same thing."

LINEUP NOTES

Zach Hyman didn't participate in the morning skate on Wednesday at Rogers Place, so the status of the Oilers winger is unconfirmed for Game 4 against the Golden Knights tonight.

Winger Mattias Janmark has been skating with the group for a few days since his Game 1 tumble into the boards at T-Mobile Arena which led to his omittance from the lineup for Games 2 & 3 of this series.

The Swede has the potential to be an option tonight for the Oilers, but keeping with his consistent messaging during the playoffs relating to injured or absent players, Coach Woodcroft said, "we'll see what comes out of the gate tonight."

-- Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com

PREVIEW

OILERS vs. GOLDEN KNIGHTS

STREAM: 8:00 p.m. MT; televised on Sportsnet West

Oilers Team Scope

The Oilers enter Wednesday night's contest against Vegas in the exact same situation as their first round series against the Kings, trailing 2-1 heading into Game 4.

As far as their Game 3 performance was from their high standards, the Oilers know they are more than capable of bouncing back in the following matchup and won't dwell on a tough result on Monday night at Rogers Place.

"Yeah, we seem to forget or lose our memory, which is a good thing at this time of the year, and focus on the next game," Evander Kane said. "Unfortunately, we've been in these situations a couple of times, but I know we have a lot of belief in our group, and we're going to bring our best tomorrow night."

The game started well for the Oilers, who opened the scoring early for the third consecutive game when a hard drive to the net by Warren Foegele was rewarded with his first playoff goal with Edmonton. The 27-year-old had recorded eight goals in 33 playoff games with the Carolina Hurricanes but had yet to score in 21 post-season contests with the Oilers. Foegele has still been effective, picking up plenty of opportunities with 19 shots on goal, but his tip on Derek Ryan's net front feed broke the slump.

Unfortunately for the Oilers, Foegele's goal would be the last one they would score in Game 3 as the Golden Knights controlled the rest of the game. Jack Campbell would see game action for the second time in the playoffs, spelling Stuart Skinner who allowed four goals on 23 shots in 32:03 of action. Campbell allowed one goal on 10 shots in relief, as well as another goal that was called off after a coach's challenge for an obvious goaltender interference call.

Skinner is the likely starter for Game 4, but Head coach Jay Woodcroft kept his cards close to the vest in Tuesday's media conference. Regardless of who will man the Oilers crease, there is all the confidence that the teams as a whole will rebound.

"I think we're a team that's unified in its purpose and a team that's deaf to doubt," Woodcroft said. "So for me, we head into today. No one was happy with the game last night. We took our medicine and we made sure to use today to set us up to have some success tomorrow. The way you do that is by making sure you do your work, you honestly self assess and you address the areas that have to get cleaned up."

Golden Knights Team Scope

Vegas must feel as if they are hiding an ace up their sleeve.

What could have been a disaster struck 11:44 into the game on Monday when Laurent Brossoit stretched across to make a stop on an Evander Kane rebound attempt and the goalie immediately crumpled over in pain, causing a stoppage in play. Brossoit had to be helped off the ice and Adin Hill was inserted into the 1-1 game without a warm-up, yet the cold netminder turned in a red-hot performance stopping all 24 Oilers shots he faced for the win.

An injured goaltender is far from unfamiliar territory for the Golden Knights, who had five different goaltenders suit up for them in the regular season, not including Robin Lehner who missed the entire year.

"We've tried to play the same way no matter who's in net," Vegas Head Coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Obviously, goalies have certain ways, styles of play that will let you adjust a little bit, but not in the big picture. You're trying to play the same way. I think it's helped our goaltenders and whoever's come in has done a good job, so that's the positive of it. It's tough luck for the goaltenders, but Adin was one of those guys that got injured earlier. He's playing well, he's healthy again. Got a chance last night, responded well."

After the Oilers opening goal, the Golden Knights poured on the pressure, specifically below the Oilers goal line where they were able to control the puck and force the Oilers to go 200 feet in order to counter on offence. Jonathan Marchessault scored the first two goals for Vegas, with the first coming from right down near the goal line and less than two minutes after Foegele notched the Oiler lone goal.

The Golden Knights did not sit on their 2-1 lead, firing another three goals past Oilers goaltenders in the second period with a short side snipe by Zach Whitecloud, a wrister under Skinner's glove by Jack Eichel, and a hustle redirection by Chandler Stephenson to cap off the scoring. Vegas nursed their advantage for most of the final frame, making the Oilers retrieve the puck and skate back up the ice to no offensive avail.

With the style of play firmly tilted in their favour, the Golden Knights don't expect many changes in their game plan, but they know they need to be wary about a motivated Oilers squad.

"Well, we're not going to change a lot of our style of play, we're going to change what we feel we need to continue to get better," Cassidy said. "Most playoff series there is push back, in this one particularly. but I think as we go along we have to recognize that we still haven't played our best game yet. That's got to be our goal every time, no matter what happened the night before. We have to continue to get better playing a very good hockey team. So that's how I'm looking at it. Again, we looked at some things early on. Their rush game was very good. I think we have to better in that area the first ten minutes. If they convert on some of those chances, it might have been a different hockey game."

By The Numbers

The scoring chances in Game 3 were very even at 31-31, but the Golden Knights had the big advantage in high-danger chances at 18-11... The Oilers opened the scoring for the third straight game of the series and the seventh time in the postseason... Edmonton was 32-9-4 in the regular season when scoring first and 4-3 in the playoffs... The Oilers 16 first-period goals is the most in the playoffs, five more than the second place Seattle Kraken (prior to their Game 4)...

Jonathan Marchessault snapped a seven game goalless drought with his two goals on Monday... Vegas is 14-3 all-time in the playoffs when he scores a goal... The Oilers are 3-0 in games after a contest where Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were held off the scoresheet... Edmonton is 0-2 in games this postseason in which McDavid does not register a point... The Golden Knights have won four consecutive Game 4s, outscoring their opponents 15-4... Vegas is 5-1 in playoff series when they lead the matchup 2-1... The winner of every game of the series has scored at least five goals...

Edmonton is 45-5-3 when they score at least four goals (regular season and playoffs) while Vegas is 43-1 with their lone loss coming against the Oilers... Edmonton is 3-0 following a loss the postseason and have scored at least four goals in all those games... Each of the Oilers last two Game 4s was decided in overtime...

Injury Report

OILERS - Mattias Janmark (undisclosed) is day-to-day.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS - Laurent Brossoit (undisclosed) is day-to-day; Logan Thompson (lower body) is day-to-day.

-- Michael Arcuri, EdmontonOilers.com