Leon Draisaitl scored a tiebreaking, power-play goal with 2:13 remaining and the visiting Edmonton Oilers rallied for three third-period goals to win their season-high fourth straight, 3-1 over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.
After Winnipeg’s Gabriel Vilardi was whistled for holding Connor McDavid’s stick with 3:24 left, the Oilers made the hosts pay. Edmonton pressured, and with 2:13 to play, Draisaitl converted his 10th goal and the team’s eighth power-play tally in the last five games to go ahead.
Ryan McLeod added an empty-netter with 20 seconds left for the Oilers, who are playing the best hockey amid a disappointing start by winning for the seventh time in 10 games. The Oilers also sent the Jets to a season-high fourth consecutive defeat in the process.
Down 1-0 most of the night and stymied by Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck (36 saves), Edmonton leveled the game on a rather fluky goal. With 6:49 remaining in regulation, Darnell Nurse crossed the blue line and sent the puck at the net, past Dylan DeMelo, then off Hellebuyck’s glove to make it 1-1.
Meanwhile, Stuart Skinner was stout in the Edmonton net, stopping 25 of the 26 shots he faced to keep his team in it. However, it wasn’t until the final minute that Skinner’s teammates were able to reward his effort.
Though Edmonton threw 12 shots at Hellebuyck during the first period, while delivering spurts of seemingly relentless pressure, it was Winnipeg that recorded the only goal of the opening frame. On the power play, Mark Scheifele took a cross-slot pass from Kyle Connor, and then sent the puck to the net for Cole Perfetti to direct in the net with 1:33 remaining before the first intermission.
Edmonton sent 10 more shots at Hellebuyck in the second period, but also had nothing to show for it. However, Hellebuyck came up big with a little more than two minutes left in the middle frame by stopping Mattias Janmark’s short-handed breakaway attempt.
–Field Level Media
