Draisaitl scores twice, Oilers defeat Golden Knights

LAS VEGAS -- Leon Draisaitl scored two goals for the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-3 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Draisaitl has five goals in his past six games after failing to score in his previous seven.
"I feel a little better (about my game)," he said. "I'm obviously frustrated with I'm not hitting the spots that I know that I would like to hit. That's just way it goes sometimes. Sometimes they go in, other times they don't. I just got to continue to pick spots and fire away."
Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist, and Zach Hyman had two assists for Edmonton (24-18-3), which has won three in a row. Jack Campbell made 27 saves after also playing in their 7-1 win at the San Jose Sharks on Friday.
"It was a really competitive, entertaining hockey game," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "There were some moments we'd like to have back on the defensive side. For the most part, we controlled most of that game. … We got contributions from all of our 11 forwards. I thought the seven (defensemen), in different ways, affected the game tonight. I thought it was a mindset that's going through our group."
Keegan Kolesar, Paul Cotter and William Karlsson scored for Vegas (28-14-2), which is 5-7-2 against the Pacific Division this season. Logan Thompson made 33 saves.
"We will emphasize it more clearly (about divisional games)," Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. "We might not know the place in the standings of every team, most players don't, but understanding the value of divisional points and coming out ready to play is disappointing. I'll put it on me to make more of an emphasis."

Janmark scored 46 seconds into the game to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. All four of Janmark's goals have come against teams he previously played for (Vegas, Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars).
"It just brings a little out of me," Janmark said. "It means a little more. That's when you want to score. When you go through a little drought, these are the games you kinda hope that you come through. It just so happens to be that way this year. So I'll take it for sure."
Draisaitl scored 57 seconds later to push it to 2-0, shooting into an open net off a bouncing rebound from Connor McDavid's initial shot.
"Really big, having played last night. A team knowing that and aware of that, they're going to jump on us. I thought we handled it very well," Draisaitl said. "It's always easier to play with a lead. To start the year, we never planned on going down early in every game. It just seemed to happen that way. We've been digging lately from the get go."

Kolesar cut the lead to 2-1 at 18:46 when his attempt at a backhand centering pass from below the goal line bounced off Campbell into the net.
Draisaitl responded for Edmonton to make it 3-1 at 7:22 of the second period, electing to shoot from the right circle on a 2-on-1 with Darnell Nurse.
Cotter again cut it to 3-2 at 13:39 with a backhand off a rebound.
"Paul played his game," Cassidy said. "The bottom of our lineup came to play. They played effective in the right way against a team susceptible to that."
Klim Kostin gave the Oilers a 4-2 lead at 13:57, beating Thompson glove side on a rush. He has four goals in his past three games.
Karlsson made it 4-3 at 19:18 of the second, one-timing a pass from Jonathan Marchessault.

NOTES: It was Draisaitl's 50th two-goal game in the NHL. … McDavid has 11 points in his past seven games. ... Vegas forward William Carrier left the game with an undisclosed injury in the third period. "We'll reconvene tomorrow," Cassidy said. "We're going on the ice tomorrow. We'll have a better idea then on how he is."