GAME STORY: Oilers 7, Hurricanes 3

RALEIGH, NC -Leon Draisaitl netted four points (one goal, three assists), including the 200th of his NHL career to help lead the Oilers to a 6-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Tuesday night.
In all, five Oilers had multi-point games with Draisaitl's four points, Pontus Aberg with a goal and two assists plus a goal and an assist for Ryan Strome, Yohann Auvitu and Jesse Puljujarvi.

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"We enjoyed that," said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan after the game. "The players have worked hard nightly, they finally get rewarded with some goals."
Five minutes into the game, Brock McGinn's backhand attempt went off the skate of Matt Benning in front of the net and then off of Auvitu past Cam Talbot to put Carolina on the board early.
Only 16 seconds later, Drake Caggiula completed a nice three-way passing play from Aberg and Draisaitl to tie it up.
Exactly two minutes after the tying goal, Matt Benning pinched in and fired a rebound and then on a rebound on his rebound, he swatted the puck out of the air from behind off the back of Darling and in to put the Oilers up 2-1. Assists for the goal went to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid, making McDavid the first Oiler since Mark Messier and Jari Kurri (1988-89/1989-90) to record 90 points or more in back-to-back seasons.
For Benning, it was an outstanding goal and one that was purely reactionary for the sophomore blueliner.
"He actually made a really good save on the first opportunity. I think I hit him in the toe cap and the puck went up in the air. I tried to wait until the puck came down so I didn't get high sticking and I tried to throw it at him. I was actually trying to hit him in his pads but it hit his back," Benning began.
"That's reactionary. You try to get pucks on net."
The defenceman was asked what McDavid thought of the goal.
"I think he was surprised that I hit it in. Now he's calling me an offensive defenceman. I'll take it," he laughed.
Coach McLellan offered his thoughts on that.
"I think the offensive defenceman puts it into the open net, he doeesn't bat it in from behind," McLellan laughed.
"That's the type of relaxed environment you can have when you play well."
With 10:43 to go in the first, Ryan Strome's shot snuck under the pad of Darling to extend the Oilers lead to 3-1 just over nine minutes in. That completed a stretch of four goals (by both teams) in only 4:40.
"Strange night, especially in the first period. You talk about scoring first, we did so when (Auvitu) scored in his own net," McLellan chuckled.
A penalty to Iiro Pakarinen with less than six minutes to go in the opening frame gave the game's first power play to the Hurricanes.
42 seconds into the man advantage, Sebastien Aho's shot from the point beat Talbot on the glove side to narrow the Oilers lead to one.
Shots on goal after one period were 14-12 for Carolina.

Draisaitl created a turnover and quickly fed the puck to Aberg at the left side of the net. Aberg had a wide open cage and put it in for perhaps the easiest goal of his NHL career and his first as an Oiler only 1:32 into the middle frame.
Less than three minutes later, Teuvo Teravainen's quick shot from the left circle beat Talbot to make it a one-goal game once again.
Yohann Auvitu wristed a shot from the bottom of the left circle over the shoulder of Darling to extend the Oilers lead to 5-3 with 8:06 to play in the second and 3:43 later, Draisaitl teed up a one-timer from the right circle after a nice feed from Jesse Puljujarvi to give Edmonton a three-goal lead.
"He scores first and then he scores. Leon, great vision to find him late. He did a tremendous job freezing the goalie," McLellan noted.
"When you score as much as we did and do as much as we did correctly, you can enjoy the game. It's nice to get a win on the road."
The goal was Draisaitl's fourth point of the game.
"He's been a very good player for us all year," added McLellan. "He's been able to produce offensively and defensively. We saw that tonight on the penalty kill. He's had a pretty admirable year. You forget he was hurt for awhile at the beginning of the year and he is hard on himself. When you want to be the best, you often are. You've got to forgive yourself sometimes."
After being sprung on the rush by a McDavid pass, Puljujarvi scored on a rebound -- his second successive backhand -- to extend the Oilers lead to 7-3.