Nugent-Hopkins' OT goal lifts Oilers past Utah Hockey Club

SALT LAKE CITY -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored at 1:18 of overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 win against the Utah Hockey Club at Delta Center on Friday.

Nugent-Hopkins skated in on a breakaway and beat Karel Vejmelka blocker side from the right circle.

“I think quite a few times this year I'm either missing it by a couple inches or it is goalies making a good stop,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Obviously, nice to see them go in once in a while.”

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers (12-9-2), who have won three of their past four games. Calvin Pickard made 28 saves.

Edmonton went 2-for-3 on the power play, scoring multiple goals with the man-advantage for the first time this season.

“The biggest thing was the power play, getting two power-play goals, and that's the difference of the game,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. "A lot of credit to (Vasily) Podkolzin scoring that first goal to give us a little bit of momentum, and then definitely the special teams was a big one where the kill was good and the power play was outstanding.”

Logan Cooley, Alex Kerfoot and Lawson Crouse scored for Utah (9-10-4), which has lost five of seven (2-4-1). Vejmelka made 28 saves.

“Their power play, it’s really tough to contain,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said. “They wore us down, basically. When we got tired they scored their goals.”

Kerfoot gave Utah a 1-0 lead at 6:17 of the first period, tapping in a cross-crease pass from Kevin Stenlund on a 2-on-1.

Cooley extended the lead to 2-0 at 17:15. He knocked in a rebound in the crease after Juuso Valimaki's shot from the point trickled past Pickard.

“Obviously, we just needed to get going, we weren't playing to our standard,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Sometimes you need to kind of have a hard talk within our group. ... Nobody was calling each other out, nothing like that, it's just everybody knew that we had [to be] better, and obviously we showed that in the second and third.”

Podkolzin cut it to 2-1 at 9:44 of the second period, beating Vejmelka five-hole after electing to shoot on a 2-on-1.

Draisaitl tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal at 14:01. He shot into an open net from the bottom of the right circle after McDavid's centering pass deflected to him off Ian Cole.

“I think we just found our legs a little bit and started to just take pride in playing with the puck,” Draisaitl said. “If you take care of the puck and value the puck and make good plays, good hockey plays, then you're going to have it a lot more. And that snowball effect turns into looks and chances.”

McDavid scored another power-play goal at 16:22 to put the Oilers ahead 3-2. He roofed a shot past Vejmelka's glove from the left circle.

Crouse tied the game 3-3 at 3:42 of the third period, taking a pass from Nick Bjugstad and beating Pickard glove side from in tight.

“I think it just speaks volume to our character in our room, and there's no quit on our team,” Crouse said. “We went right to the end. It's unfortunate we didn't get it done in overtime, but like I said, it's a quick turnaround. Take the positives away from this, move on, and get ready for a big matchup tomorrow (against the Vegas Golden Knights).”

NOTES: McDavid (five goals, four assists) and Draisaitl (four goals, four assists) each extended his point streak to four games. ... Cooley has six points (two goals, four assists) during his own four-game point streak.