GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Golden Knights 4 (SO)

EDMONTON, AB – Stem the tide and seal the extra point.

After the Vegas Golden Knights fought back from a two-goal deficit in the final 6:30 of the third period, the Edmonton Oilers were able to secure the extra point in the shootout off goals from Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and extend their win streak to three games with a 5-4 victory on Tuesday.

"Obviously they came back, but we showed some resiliency in the end," defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. "Huge win for us. We're working towards a game that can be successful every night."

McDavid recorded a goal and two assists, stretching his point streak to five games where the captain's now recorded four goals and 11 assists over that span, while the Blue & Orange also received tallies from Sam Gagner, Mattias Janmark and Evander Kane in the victory.

Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 23 of 27 shots in opposition of Logan Thompson, who made 30 saves on 34 shots in the second of a back-to-back for the Golden Knights, but the Vegas goalie couldn't prevent blocker-side shots from McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins in the shootout to keep the comeback in reach for the visitors.

Edmonton's penalty kill went 5-for-5 and has killed off 13 straight penalties over their three-game win streak, while their power play went 1-for-3.

"You want to play freely and not always worry about taking a penalty, and I just find the best teams typically have good penalty kills," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They can kill and they defend really well five-on-five, and right now over the last three games, I thought we've done a pretty good job of that and we have to continue doing that."

The Oilers improve to 8-12-1 on the season and switch gears to Thursday night where they'll face the Winnipeg Jets in a one-off road trip at Canada Life Centre.

FIRST PERIOD

Pretty sneaky, Sam Gagner.

The 34-year-old was a late addition to the lineup because of Zach Hyman's absence due to illness, and the forward made an impact early to open the scoring and record his third goal of the campaign.

Centre James Hamblin won an offensive-zone draw to Gagner at the left hashmarks of the right circle before he cut across the circle, turned and fired a sneaky wrist shot on goal that snuck under the left arm of Thompson, who got the start for the Golden Knights on the second of a back-to-back on Tuesday.

"It's nice to see Sam, who hadn't played in a couple of games," Knoblauch said. "He was the guy that came in the lineup and we were just talking about it in practice. He scores a lot in practice because he's always shooting to score, and immediately he shoots that and it's a bad angle, but he knew what he was doing. It was a good play."

With the assist, Hamblin is on a certified hot streak with points in back-to-back games after scoring his second career NHL goal on Sunday night in Edmonton's 8-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

It could've been a different story for Blue & Orange entering the first intermission up 1-0 if it wasn't for their resurgent penalty kill, which was called into action twice in the opening 20 minutes to keep the Golden Knights power play at bay before the break.

SECOND PERIOD

The Oilers kept putting pucks on net and good things continued to happen.

The second period started off on the wrong foot for Edmonton when Vegas captain Mark Stone put a deflection on Kayden Korczyk's point shot at 1:11 of the middle frame to put the visitors on the board and make it 1-1 with a lot of time left.

But Janmark, who was elevated into a top-line role on Tuesday for the Oilers against his former team due to Hyman's absence, got rewarded by going to the net and setting the screen on his Swedish countryman's open look at the top of the left circle four minutes later.

"I thought he played a really good game, especially on the penalty kill," Knoblauch said. "He made a lot of big plays, but you need guys going to the net and he absolutely benefited by going to the net."

Mattias Ekholm delivered a shot that struck the chest of Thompson and popped up into the air before hitting the back of Janmark and creeping across the goal line despite the best efforts of Alex Pietrangelo, who received plenty of boo's on the night from the Oilers faithful in attendance at Rogers Place for his antics with Leon Draisaitl in these two teams' meeting in the second round of last season's Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It was a quick response from the Golden Knights to make it 2-2 just 43 seconds later when Michael Amadio found space quickly off a faceoff to backhand the tying goal top shelf beyond Skinner, but a lucky break for McDavid and a sweet finish on a breakaway restored their lead.

McDavid was the last back-checker on a Vegas rush up ice that led to the puck rimming around the boards and out into the neutral zone, where the captain was fortunately located for a break-away opportunity that he cashed in with a backhander jsut under eight minutes into the middle frame.

McDavid made it another casual three-point night by picking up the secondary helper on Kane's power-play tally before the break to make it four goals and 11 assists as part of his five-game point streak.

Kane was another player elevated with Hyman out of the lineup when he took the role of net-front presence on Edmonton's vaunted power play that's been picking up steam in recent games for the Oilers along with their penalty kill.

The winger secured his 11th goal of the season by putting away the rebound that came off Evan Bouchard's blast from the top of the zone, giving the Oilers a 4-2 lead heading into the third period.

"[Bouchard] shoots it so well," McDavid said. "Sometimes it's hard for us to get pucks back. He shoots it so hard because it kind of goes and sprays and we can't get it back, but it's such an asset back there. The goalie can't see it.

"Either it's going in or we're getting a chance off it, so he's great shooter and a great power-play quarterback."

THIRD PERIOD

Just when the Oilers were looking like they'd escape this one with a regulation win, the Golden Knights pushed back.

You can't expect anything less from the Stanley Cup champs.

"I thought it was a lot of good a lot of really good signs. I liked a lot of our third period," McDavid said. "I felt like they were opportunistic to tie the game, but they're a good team and that's what they do."

Ben Hutton converted a broken play from the left circle with 6:30 remaining by putting a snapshot from one knee through the legs of Adam Erne, setting up a tense final few minutes where Vegas completed the comeback to force overtime.

Zach Whitecloud floated an aerial pass to the back post with 2:08 remaining that Keegan Kolesar read and redirected impressively into the back of the net to tie the game and ultimately earn the point with a spirited comeback from the visitors.

OVERTIME & SHOOTOUT

In the extra five minutes, the Oilers tried to piece something together and it took until the very last moment for the Blue & Orange to get their best chance.

"I thought it was a slower pace overtime," McDavid said. "But ultimately we won and that's all that matters."

McDavid and Bouchard had an odd-man rush in the dying moments that could've ended the game, but the captain's back-door feed wasn't converted by the defender, who had the puck roll off his stick and hit the back boards.

This game would be settled in a shootout, where McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins scored blocker side on Thompson while the Golden Knights missed the net through Jonathan Marchessault before Jack Eichel struck the post in the third round to give Edmonton the extra point.