GAME RECAP: Maple Leafs 4, Oilers 3 (OT)

TORONTO, ON – 🎶 'Cause baby, now we got bad blood (hey!) 🎶

With Taylor Swift in Toronto on Saturday night, the Oilers couldn't come up with the magic and claim their third straight overtime victory, seeing their three-game winning streak end in a 4-3 defeat to the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

Forward Mitch Marner scored 40 seconds into extra time to give Toronto the extra point after Leon Draisaitl tied the game with Edmonton's net empty in the final two minutes of the third period.

The Oilers held a 2-1 lead through 40 minutes off goals from Adam Henrique and Connor McDavid, but the Maple Leafs scored two fortunate goals in 59 seconds of the final frame, forcing the Blue & Orange into needing an equalizer in the final seven minutes of regulation.

Bobby McMann recorded two of Toronto's goals on Saturday night, while Marner's overtime winner for the Maple Leafs was his 200th career goal.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each finished with a goal and an assist, but defenceman Darnell Nurse was forced to leave the contest early in the second period after taking an illegal check to the head from Ryan Reaves, who was issued a five-minute match penalty and ejected from the game.

"Nursey means a lot to this team, so hopefully, he's alright and will be back soon," Henrique said.

The Oilers will continue their three-game road trip on Monday night on Amazon Prime in the first of back-to-back games against the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators.

FIRST PERIOD

The Oilers struck first only 1:42 into the period on a terrific deflection by Adam Henrique, getting his stick to the back-hand feed from Mattias Janmark and putting it under the crossbar to end his 13-game goalless run after Connor Brown started the play with a flick off the glass in the defensive zone.

Janmark's helper gives him five assists over his last three games, while Connor Brown now has four points (2G, 2A) over his last four contests. The Oilers scored only their ninth first-period goal of the season and were 5-1-1 when scoring first coming into Saturday.

"Obviously, you want to see us lock it down there late in the game, but we gave up the tying and go-ahead goals," Henrique said. "I thought we did a great job going right back out to get pressure and find a way to tie it. I ended up getting the point there, but obviously, you want two points, and you want two in regulation if you can."

It was a 'Swift' response from the Maple Leafs, responding just 2:11 later off a hard forecheck from Bobby McMann, who won the puck off a hard forecheck before he pushed in a second opportunity inside the crease to make it 1-1 before the four-minute mark had passed.

After Evan Bouchard cleared the puck over the glass, the Oilers had to kill off their first penalty and managed to keep out the Maple Leafs despite two good opportunities for Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly.

Edmonton killed off another Maple Leafs' next-man advantage in the final two minutes of the frame, getting a big block from Darnell Nurse on William Nylander that led to Connor Brown getting a short-handed chance at the other end that Anthony Stolarz stopped by getting a piece of his glove to the winger's hard shot.

Nurse took ten shifts for the Oilers during the first period and was critical to helping create Edmonton's late short-handed chance, but the defender's night came to an end early in the middle frame.

SECOND PERIOD

After Connor McDavid tapped home on a power play early in the period, concern for the Oilers quickly fell to Nurse, who'd be forced to leave the game from a high and dangerous hit delivered by forward Ryan Reaves on the next shift.

Leon Draisaitl had his shot from the right circle catch a piece of Zach Hyman's leg before redirecting into the path of McDavid to score his seventh goal of the season and give the Oilers the 1-0 lead.

The tally was the captain's 1,002nd career point, while extending the points streaks of both McDavid (4G, 6A) and Draisaitl (3G, 4A) to four games.

Just 50 seconds later, Ryan Reaves was charged with a five-minute major for an illegal check to the head of Darnell Nurse as he came out from behind the Oilers net, catching the defenceman up high and ultimately taking him out of the game. The hit was high and dangerous, and losing one of their biggest contributors on such a reckless play wasn't something the Oilers enjoyed seeing.

"I think it's a dangerous play," Nugent-Hopkins said. "He's got to know that Nursey doesn't see him coming, and he needs to choose the right path there and he doesn't. It's tough to see one of your teammates on the ice like that, so, a dangerous play. You don't ever want to see something like that."

"I think the call on the ice, that was the right call, but they obviously should take a good, hard look at it."

Beyond the concern for Nurse, he'd been playing excellent as of late with two goals and five assists in his last ten games, including a three-point effort in Thursday's win over Nashville. So any potential absence of No. 25 on the back end would be felt by the Oilers.

"He's big back there," Henrique said. "He's been playing great for us. He's just solid everywhere and all over the ice. He chips in offensively, and he's been playing great defensively all over the ice making plays out of the D zone. He makes it easier on the forwards."

Edmonton's power play would've loved to score on the ensuing five-minute power play to make up for Reaves' dangerous hit, but they could only generate two shots on the extended man advantage.

Then, the responsibility fell on Edmonton's other six defencemen to elevate their games in Nurse's absence, starting with 57 seconds of five-on-three power-play time for the Maple Leafs a few minutes later with McDavid and Ekholm in the box.

Defenceman Troy Stecher came up with a clutch clearance on the kill before Vasily Podkolzin cut in for a short-handed chance as the power play expired to force Stolarz into an important save.

"Fortunately, we had seven defensive dressed tonight and those guys really stepped up," Knoblauch said. "Stecher, Dermott, Emberson – those guys stepped up with his absence. But, you can't replace Darnell. It's obviously jarring to see him go out the way he did."

The Oilers killed off four penalties on Saturday – two in the middle frame – to make it eight straight kills over their last three games.

THIRD PERIOD

Two bad-luck bounces for the Oilers quickly turned the game on its head, but the Oilers showed their calm in the final minutes to get a goal back with their net empty and force overtime.

Toronto tied the game on a turnover when Evan Bouchard struck Connor McDavid with an attempted cross-ice pass, knocking it down into the slot where Matthew Knies picked up the puck and buried it glove side of Stuart Skinner to tie things at two with 6:52 remaining.

Just 59 seconds later, it was Bobby McMann scoring his second of the game to give the Maple Leafs the shock 3-2 advantage, beating Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard to a breakaway that came all the way into Edmonton's end after McDavid ended up clearing it off an opponent and out of the zone.

"You just can't get too high, you can't get too low," Henrique said. "You've just got to put your foot on the gas immediately and respond. I thought we did a good job of that."

The Oilers didn't back down, pulling their Skinner for the extra attacker in the final two minutes where Leon Draisaitl paddled the puck past Stolarz off a goalmouth scramble to level things at 3-3 with 1:29 left in regulation.

The Oilers hoped to win their third straight game following previous OT victories over the Islanders and Predators.

THIRD PERIOD

Connor McDavid skated up the ice with speed on the overtime period's first rush where he took on Mitch Marner one-on-one and forced Stolarz into a right-pad stop.

When McDavid and Draisaitl had a two-on-one broken up, Marner picked up the loose puck for an odd-man rush with Tavares where he kept it himself and sniped off the far post, claiming his 200th career goal to give the Maple Leafs the overtime victory.