GAME RECAP: Golden Knights 6, Oilers 4 (Game 1)

LAS VEGAS, NV - Leon Draisaitl recorded four goals, including his second-career playoff hat-trick, but that wasn't enough for the Edmonton Oilers, who fell in Game 1 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs 6-4 to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday night.

"Obviously, he led the way for our group tonight," Evander Kane said. "Great performance by him. It's a shame that we let it slip away."

The Golden Knights matched Edmonton's power play with two goals on the man advantage from Jack Eichel and Mark Stone, while Ivan Barbashev had a pair of goals at even strength, where Vegas was able to find the extra leg up on Edmonton over the 60 minutes.

"I don't think our team was anywhere near where it needed to be in order to walk away with a road win in the playoffs," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Leon had a great effort. He's been good all playoffs here, but our team can do things a lot better than we did tonight. That said, we stayed with it the whole game. We had a chance, but certainly there are some things that we can do to clean up the goals against."

Draisaitl netted his hat-trick goal early in the second period with Alex Pietrangelo in the box before the Golden Knights restored their two-goal lead with two goals from Barbashev and Chandler Stephenson in the two minutes that followed the German's historic goal that set a new franchise record for most goals (10) in the first seven games to start the playoffs and tied the mark for most goals in an Oilers playoff game.

"It's definitely a different looking team; different system, but just overall we weren't good enough," Draisaitl said. "It's not even close to how we play and how we play successfully, so we've got to move on and we'll better."

Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm all had two assists in a losing effort for the Oilers, and goaltender Stuart Skinner stopped 29-of-34 shots before Eichel added an empty-netter on the power play after the Oilers took a Too Many Men penalty with just over a minute remaining in regulation.

Edmonton and Vegas will continue their second-round series back at T-Mobile Arena with Game 2 on Wednesday night.

YOUR GAME-DAY ESSENTIALS

GAME DAY

Photo Gallery

Full Highlights

Look Back at the In-Game Blog

POST-GAME VIDEO

OILERS TODAY | Post-Game 1 at VGK

POST-RAW | Coach Woodcroft

POST-RAW | Mattias Ekholm

POST-RAW | Evander Kane

POST-RAW | Leon Draisaitl

POST-GAME UPDATES

Inside The Oilers Blog

FIRST BLOOD

Defending the Dynamic Duo this series might be a bigger challenge than the Golden Knights anticipated.

Vegas' first blunder came inside the first three minutes at the Golden Knights blueline, where Nicolas Hague ran heavy interference on McDavid off a dump-in to the Golden Knights' zone to set up the first opportunity for Edmonton's incredible power play that went 9-for-15 (60 percent) in the opening round against the Los Angeles Kings.

McDavid quickly found his counterpart in his regular right-circle location, where the German unleashed a one-timer that bat his former teammate Laurent Brossoit over the left pad 3:56 into the game.

Bouchard picked up the secondary helper to stretch his playoff point streak to seven games along with McDavid and Draisaitl, while Edmonton has now recorded a PPG in each of their seven total games played this postseason.

KNIGHTS RESPOND

For the Golden Knights, their path to victory in this series was always going to be through five-on-five dominance, playing fast north-south hockey, and finding a way themselves to find a few more goals on the man advantage. Vegas' response after Draisaitl's goal had a little bit of all three.

"I thought were a little bit loose," Woodcroft said. "We made some uncharacteristic individual errors and were made to pay. Not clean enough defensively."

The Golden Knights equalized 40 seconds after falling behind when defenceman Vincent Desharnais couldn't connect on a breakout pass, leading to a scrambled play in front of Edmonton's net that was finished on the second attempt by Barbashev.

"We scored the first goal, and then we give one up right away. That can't happen," Kane said. "We've got to start. We want we score first in this building, which is I think really important going back to games against them in the past. We can't give up goals in bunches and we can't give up goals after we score."

Michael Amadio and William Karlsson combined to show some of that Vegas speed in transition when the former received a pass on the weak side from the reliable two-way Swedish centre and sniped one short side on Skinner right before the 10-minute mark of the first period.

When the Golden Knights did receive their first power play after Brett Kulak marched of to the penalty box for interfering with Jonathan Marchessault, the enigmatic Mark Stone was positioned in front to deliver the tip on Reilly Smith's low shot to stake Vegas to a 3-1 lead with under two minutes remaining in the first period.

"I think we can be a lot better, especially in the first period coming out of the gate and just getting behind the ball right away," Ekholm said. "It's not the way we want to play. So to be honest with you, I didn't enjoy the game tonight too much. I thought we gave them a B- or a C-game.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Goodness me, Leon.

Draisaitl has been the lead driver of Edmonton's offence in these playoffs, scoring seven goals and registering 11 points in six games during their opening series against the Kings, and the German had two more to add to his tally by the time the first period had concluded.

Phenomenal vision shown by the German from below the goal line led to Leon seeing an opening to bank a shot off Brossoit's mask and doing just that to score a sensational goal and bring the Oilers back within one before the break.

With two goals in the first period, Draisaitl equalled the Oilers franchise record for the most goals in the first seven games of playoffs with nine, matching Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

SAVE OF THE GAME

It's hard to fault Skinner on any of Vegas' three first-period goals, but any potential comeback for the Oilers over the final 40 minutes would be incumbent on the 24-year-old resetting and shutting the door. Luckily, rebounding from goals against with a clear mindset is one of Skinner's core abilities.

Skinner made 12 saves in the second period, coming up with his biggest on a partial break for Marchessault, who tried to cut inside to the far post but encountered the glove of the Edmonton product for a monstrous glove save that kept the Golden Knights' lead at 3-2 with 13:38 remaining in a scoreless middle frame.

HOW MANY MORE?!

Leon, already with two goals to his name and the Oilers still fighting back, kept loading up.

"He shows it night-in and night-out, and he's the one driving the bus for us right now. It's great to watch," Ekholm said. "He's such a good hockey player and I love the way he plays. I like the bite that he has to his game as well, and he's just a tremendous hockey player."

With Pietrangelo in the penalty box to start the final frame for roughing Bouchard in the second period's last moments, the Oilers record-setting power play was given a massive opportunity to tie things up. Draisaitl waited at the right post waiting for the opportunity to strike and register his second-career playoff hat-trick, and the chance came when Hyman took a whack at a loose puck in front off a shot by Ekholm before Draisaitl pounced on the rebound to score his 10th goal of the postseason.

But he wasn't done there.

Draisaitl's hat-trick goal kicked off a three-goal stretch of 2:01 in the third period that saw the Golden Knights quickly restore their earlier two-goal lead on Barbashev's second goal of the game and Stephenson's deft deflection between the hashmarks at 3:26 of the third period.

On an odd-man rush before the midway mark of the period, McDavid found his other half of the Dynamic Duo alone gliding into the zone before the German wristed his fourth goal of the night far side on Brossoit.

Draisaitl's fourth goal emboldened the Oilers for a hard push over the final 10 minutes of the game that was slowed with 1:03 remaining after they were charged with Too Many Men penalty after a player left the bench early when Skinner came to the bench for an extra attacker.

"Later on we're all over them, but that's usually the game we play from minute one, right?" Draisaitl said. "So we'll get back to that. We've got to regroup, learn from it and move on."

PARTING WORDS

Ekholm on Game 1's free-flowing theme:

"Yeah, I mean, even though it's free flow, you've got to play defence at times, right? So we gave them too much space, we gave them too much time, and obviously when they got their chances, they had high execution and buried them, and that's on us. We've got to make sure to keep them more to the outside and don't give them those high-quality chances as we did tonight.

Kane on individual mistakes and breakdowns leading to the defeat:

"Yeah, they definitely had some zone time, but I thought we didn't give up a whole lot when they had that zone time. I think a lot of their goals were on our stick and very preventable."

Draisaitl on Vegas' systems play having a factor in the loss:

"It's nothing they did. They're a good team, we know that, but nothing that we can't handle or haven't seen. This is just on us not bringing our best game."

Woodcroft on Draisaitl's four-point night and overall incredible returns through seven playoff games:

"He typically raises his game at this time of the year. I think he's one of the highest points-per-game players in the history of the game. His name is right up there with some of the top people in the history of the game. So am I surprised, or have I seen anything different? No, I just think he raises his game and elevates his game at this time of year."

Woodcroft on the status of Derek Ryan and Mattias Janmark, who left in the first period:

"Derek was ill, so that's why he missed today's game. And for Matthias? No, I haven't talked to our doctors or anything like that. But we'll see. Should have an update in the morning."