GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Golden Knights 0 (Game 4)

EDMONTON, AB – One more victory to eliminate Vegas and move one step closer to the Stanley Cup.

Adam Henrique scored two goals, and Stuart Skinner preserved the shutout with 23 saves on Monday night as the Edmonton Oilers took a 3-1 series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights to leave themselves one win from advancing to the Western Conference Final with a 3-0 victory in Game 4 at Rogers Place.

Henrique scored both of his goals in the first period before Evander Kane added insurance in the middle frame with his fourth goal of the playoffs, with Vegas seemingly having no answer for the complete team effort that the Blue & Orange brought to Game 4 after Saturday's heartbreaking late defeat at home.

Stuart Skinner was steady in his second straight start following the injury to Calvin Pickard in Game 2 of the series, securing his second career playoff shutout and first win of the 2025 playoffs by making all 23 saves to outduel a rattled Adin Hill at the opposite end in the Vegas crease.

"That's the only thing I can really do. Everything in the past happens, and what you can do from there is just learn from it and keep moving forward and not panic," Skinner said. "So I just gotta keep on sticking to my process, and I think that's what we've been doing so well as a team, too, is not trying to chase after wins or anything like that by just sticking to what we do best. "

Edmonton got into the heads of Hill and the Golden Knights early with their physicality and tenacity, and they never looked back.

"We always want to have some hits and play that physical style when we can without running around and getting out of position, and I just think the guys were dialled in tonight," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They knew it was a big game. There was huge disappointment from Game 3 with the way we played and how it ended, and they knew they had to step it up tonight."

Connor McDavid added a helper on Kane's tally to stretch his playoff assist streak to eight straight games, becoming the fourth player in franchise history to record an eight-game assist streak in a postseason. McDavid has now collected 14 assists through the first 10 games of a postseason for the third time in his career, alongside 2022 (17) and 2024 (16), with the Oilers captain leading the club in playoff scoring with three goals and 14 assists in 10 contests.

Edmonton improved to 15-2 in the postseason (9-0 at home) when Evander Kane finds the scoresheet, with the physical forward leading the Oilers with a team-high six hits on Monday night to go along with his second-period goal and a helper on Henrique's opening marker during the first period.

The Oilers will try to bring the same effort when they can eliminate the Golden Knights and move on to the Western Conference Final for the third time in four seasons with a victory in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday night.

FIRST PERIOD

"ADINNNN! ADINNNN!"

Outside of witnessing an absolute adrenaline thrill ride of an opening period of hockey from the Oilers, who knew coming into Game 4 just how critical this contest was to the balance of this series – responding in kind with the type of energy and animosity you'd expect – we'd say that was a pretty good start.

The Oilers did a great job early of getting involved physically and getting under the skin of Vegas netminder Adin Hill, who looked rattled in the Golden Knights' crease right from the moment that Adam Henrique potted his first of two goals in the opening frame from the hard work that was put in by Edmonton's third line forcing a turnover off an offensive zone draw just 1:27 into the first period.

"I think that's when we're playing our best hockey when we're coming out banging, and all four of our lines and three D pairs can play that way," defenceman Jake Walman said. "It's probably one of the identities of our team, just getting the forecheck and making it hard on them, and I think the finishing of checks tonight was a key success for sure."

Despite Tomas Hertl winning the faceoff to get the puck to Zach Whitecloud, Connor Brown's hard track on the defenceman as he went below the Vegas goal line produced a turnover and the opportunity to work it in front to a wide-open Henrique, who roofed the opener top shelf with his quick release to put the Oilers up in front 1-0 less than two minutes into regulation.

The Oilers needed to have a quick memory from Reilly Smith's late winner with 0.4 seconds left in Game 3, and led by their third line, they were able to bounce back quickly with their fastest goal to start a playoff game since Game 6 of their 2023 Second Round series against the Golden Knights (0:55).

"We talked about playing with energy right off the bat, and Kaner gets in there, mixes things up, and other guys are following suit, just shift after shift," Henrique said. "So I think for us, you want to play on that line, and we ended up with a few more penalties in the first than they did, but I thought we did a good job. Our penalty kill stepped up. They did a good job killing those off, and we continued to push on that line and played with energy from start to finish."

Visibly irritated in the opening 20 minutes, Hill's anger and frustrations started to be taken advantage of by the Oilers after their opening goal when the netminder reacted poorly to Zach Hyman being in his crease during a stoppage, shoving the winger to the ice to justify a penalty that wasn't called.

It was fitting, then, of course, for Vegas to be given the game's first power play when Hill tumbled to the ice from having Mattias Janmark pull at his skate with his foot as he came through the crease during another break in play. That promptly led to the Swede getting swarmed by a handful of Golden Knights, resulting in a scrum and winger Trent Frederic dropping the gloves with Nicolas Hague and taking some punches for the first fighting majors of this series.

But all it did was embolden Edmonton's cause to keep pressing and put the pressure on Vegas, which they did to great effect in the first period with the added injection of Kasperi Kapanen into the lineup, who contributed three energy-boosting checks on the same shift to fire up the crowd and the bench.

"It drags our team into a bit of a fight early," Kane said. "We obviously wanted to have a good start. It gets our crowd involved. It gets everybody feeling good. From a hockey perspective, it wears other teams down, and it keeps guys on their toes out there. I think we got some turnovers off that. We were able to create some offensive opportunities, and we didn't take our foot off the gas, which was good."

The Oilers killed off the ensuing power play for the Golden Knights thanks to a clutch keep-out by goaltender Stuart Skinner, stopping Ivan Barbashev on a partial breakaway that came off a lucky bounce on the zone entry after he shut the five-hole to keep out the shot as Janmark got out of the penalty box.

"It makes you feel really good, obviously. It gives you a little bit more confidence just making those big saves," Skinner said of his important save. "I think being timely, too, is important for the momentum shifts. It could've been a different game, so that's what I'm here for, and I gotta keep on doing that."

When the puck turned the other way, McDavid connected with Janmark on an odd-man rush to give the Swedish winger a prime opportunity to double the lead, but Hill came up with the blocker save he needed before the Vegas netminder started using his equipment for different reasons not long after.

Skinner made another important save near the period's midway mark by stopping Brayden McNabb's redirection in front and laying on the puck for a stoppage, with Brett Howden digging at the puck after the whistle to spark another melee around the crease, which resulted in Edmonton's first power play.

Edmonton looked dangerous on the man advantage, and despite not finding the scoresheet, an incredible through-the-legs finish from Henrique inside the blue paint to flip the puck under Hill's arm produced a 2-0 lead and an emphatic knee slide for the winger on his second goal of the game.

"Hymsy made a great play to the corner and I tried to bring it to the net," Henrique said "I just tried to get some position and get it to that far side of the net, so I thought it was great play by him and then just trying to trying to get an ugly one in front."

Meanwhile, it was all kicking off near the Vegas crease.

Things got ugly after the goal when Evander Kane crashed through the crease from getting cross-checked in the back by Brayden McNabb, wiping out Hill as Henrique's effort was put into the back of the net. The Oilers winger took a blockered punch from Hill in retaliation and set off fireworks as Darnell Nurse came in to defend his teammate against the incensed goalie and every Golden Knights' skater coming to their goalie's defence.

"We know it's tough to get to the Vegas net," Kane said. "They have two D-men there that just kind of stand by the net the entire time, so it's hard to get inside, and you have to battle to do that. I don't know if we were purposely trying to get in his head or get to him, but he seemed to be taking some slashes at us, and it's tough to avoid contact when you're getting cross-checked into them.

"We want to go there hard and play within the rules and not have goals disallowed, so that's important."

Despite Hill's actions, the Oilers were back on the penalty kill for another successful stop, ultimately improving to 3-for-3 in the opening frame and exiting to the intermission with a 2-0 lead after preventing the Golden Knights again from capitalizing with the man advantage on Kasperi Kapanen's late tripping call.

Edmonton was in Vegas' kitchen and inside the head of Hill, outhitting them 14-8 and outshooting them 15-5 through 20 minutes on Monday night.

SECOND PERIOD

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

These Oilers can beat you however you want to play, and the Golden Knights simply had no answer for what they were bringing to the table in Game 4 on Monday night, with the Oilers extending the lead to 3-0 and coming one period closer to going up 3-1 in the series.

As things started to settle down physically in the middle frame and for Hill's emotions, the Oilers kept their foot on the gas pedal offensively, stretching their advantage to three at 7:38 of the period via winger Evander Kane, who has the ability to beat you in different ways no matter the situation.

After running through Hill during the second period on Henrique's second tally of the night, Kane had the entire neutral zone to accelerate with the puck off a quick breakout play started by Connor McDavid, beginning a partial odd-man rush that he elected to take himself all the way with Henrique on the other side.

As the defending Brayden McNabb made a diving attempt to take away the shot while Pavel Dorofeyev took away the pass to Henrique, Kane released a quick snap shot that solved Hill through the five-hole for his fourth goal of the playoffs, lifting the Oilers' lead to 3-0 with 12:22 left in the period.

The Oilers improved to 15-2 and a perfect 9-0 at home in games where Kane found the scoresheet, while an assist for McDavid made him the fourth player in franchise history to assemble an eight-game playoff assist streak.

THIRD PERIOD

Now THAT is how you respond.

If you're Stuart Skinner and the Oilers, this was a much-needed answer to Saturday's heartbreak, and they did it the right way to get their 3-0 victory through to the final buzzer to take a 3-1 series lead going back to Vegas for Game 5 on Wednesday night.

Vegas outshot Edmonton 12-7 in the final period as they tried to battle their way back from a multi-goal deficit, but the Oilers were prepared to battle harder, first in the opening two periods both physically and offensively before they locked it down defensively in their own zone in the final frame to claim the shutout that was a product of every skater helping out their netminder.

"All I can really say is thanks to the guys playing in front of me. They were amazing tonight," Skinner said. "They made my job a lot easier. They were battling and blocked a lot of shots, and the way that we played defensively was superb. So a lot of credit to the guys."

McDavid sacrificed his body on a blocked shot against Shea Theodore in the first five minutes of the final frame, eating a puck to prevent a potential dangerous opportunity as the Golden Knights tried to put pucks on net and pound the blue paint around Skinner while chasing a three-goal deficit.

Skinner fought for the clean sheet with 23 saves over the full 60 minutes, including 12 in the third where he had to battle to make every crucial stop, fighting off Brett Howden's prime opportunity in the right circle before the 15-minute mark and again on the winger with his close redirection past the halfway mark.

With no penalties or goals in the third period, it ended up being a confident final frame for Edmonton from a defensive standpoint. Troy Stecher contributed in his first game of the 2025 playoffs for the Oilers with the fourth-most minutes at even strength, while finishing plus-1 in 16:46 of total ice time.

"I thought the pairs were really good and they were rolling them over," Knoblauch said. "It's easier to play when you have your regular partner, and I think Nurse and Stech have played a lot of time together. With Stech coming back into the lineup, it was an easier transition for him to come back with his regular partner – a guy with whom he's played a lot and feels comfortable. So that I think that helped."

The Oilers confidently saw out their vital victory, taking a 3-1 series lead to earn the chance to eliminate Vegas on Wednesday in Game 5.