GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Golden Knights 2 (Game 1) 

LAS VEGAS, NV – Never down and out.

That is the Edmonton Oilers way.

After being tagged twice in the opening nine minutes, the Edmonton Oilers rushed back with four straight goals over the remaining two-and-a-half periods to claim their fifth straight playoff comeback victory, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night to take a 1-0 advantage in their Second Round series.

"We're a resilient group," defenceman John Klingberg said. "We've shown that we can come back in games, and that's obviously a huge thing in the playoffs. So I think we stayed really patient today, kept doing the things that we know work for us, and eventually, we got rewarded."

The Golden Knights scored their only two goals in the first half of the opening frame before veteran Corey Perry made it 2-1 before the intermission with his third goal of the postseason, setting the stage for a dominant final two periods from the Oilers where they reversed course in emphatic style to become the first team in NHL history to win five straight playoff games via the comeback.

"You don't want to be down in five straight games, but we have the experience that we can come back and fight our way out of it," Zach Hyman said. "You have to believe in your group when you're down that you can come back. If you don't, you won't win five in a row like that."

Edmonton outshot Vegas 12-1 in a scoreless second period before putting three past netminder Adin Hill in the final frame, tying the game on Leon Draisaitl's lucky bounce from below the goal line less than a minute into the period before Zach Hyman notched the game-winning goal with 3:02 left in regulation on an unstoppable wrist shot from the slot that gave his side the late 3-2 lead.

Just 1:16 later, winger Connor Brown added the insurance marker with a fantastic solo effort, skating all the way up ice alone and burning defenceman Shea Theodore in the neutral zone before potting his fourth of the playoffs under the left arm of Hill to secure the 4-2 victory and a 1-0 series lead for the Oilers.

"In the playoffs, you've got to know how to win in different scenarios, and knowing that you can come back in games with the kind of players we have here, we know we can do that. So that's a huge plus," Klingberg said. "But for the next few games, maybe we can play with a lead a little bit. You never know what's going to happen in the playoffs. You have to stay even-keeled, never get too high and or too low, and just move on to the next game."

Goaltender Calvin Pickard, making his fifth straight start between the pipes for the Oilers, stopped 15 of 17 shots to improve to 5-0-0 this postseason.

Leon Draisaitl finished with a goal and an assist, while Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard each contributed two helpers. Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also contributed assists on Hyman's game winner in the third period.

After erasing home-ice advantage for the Golden Knights, the Oilers will now look ahead to Thursday night's chance back at T-Mobile Arena in Game 2 to take command of the series heading back to Oil Country.

"It gives you a great opportunity," Hyman said. "Obviously, you steal one in their rink and now you have a chance at taking both, so we haven't been in that spot a lot. We've always kind of had to fight from behind in series, and it's nice to get the first one out of the way early."

FIRST PERIOD

It took Vegas scoring twice through captain Mark Stone in the first nine minutes before Edmonton finally found its footing in Game 1 when veteran Corey Perry made it 2-1 before the intermission after starting on a loaded top line with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

"It's important," Perry said of Edmonton's Game 1 victory. "I think our start was a little hectic with a four-minute penalty early and getting down by two... But I think after that, we settled in and played our style of game. It's great that we can come back, but it'd be nice to get on the other side of things and push forward with the lead at one point."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made it a difficult start for the Oilers before the game was even two minutes old by being assessed a double minor for high-sticking against centre Tomas Hertl, which was held up by review from the officials to put his side on an extended penalty kill to begin the series.

Just 40 seconds into the first minor, defenceman Shea Theodore's shot from the top of the zone took a double deflection off two Golden Knights on its way past Calvin Pickard, getting its final touch off the skate of Mark Stone to make it 1-0 for Vegas only 2:13 into the contest.

Approaching the midway mark, Leon Draisaitl had the puck on his stick coming over the Vegas blueline when he tried to make a pass to Connor McDavid that was broken up to send the Golden Knights back the other way on the rush, where they were one of the best teams in the NHL during the regular season.

On the ensuing attack, Jack Eichel dropped the puck to Mark Stone in the slot, who avoided the sliding Corey Perry before throwing it five-hole on Pickard to double the Vegas advantage to 2-0 at the 10:57 mark of the opening frame.

"We gave up two goals fairly early – one on the penalty kill and one on a rush, something we know that Vegas is very good at," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I think getting over that was probably the turning point, considering that we scored [the next one]."

The Oilers haven't been strangers to comeback victories in these playoffs, having won four straight games in the First Round against the Kings via the comeback. The Golden Knights were the last team to do it before them, which unfortunately for the Oilers happened during their 2023 Second Round series against them after Vegas trailed in each game of their six-game triumph before winning their franchise's first Stanley Cup.

No one in NHL history has won five straight games by way of the comeback in a single postseason, and the Oilers would have to become the first team to do it if they were going to be victorious in Game 1 on Tuesday night.

Winger Trent Frederic struck the post a few minutes before Perry got the Oilers on the board with 3:34 left in the opening frame, starting with a long pass from John Klingberg to pick out Draisaitl at the far blueline.

The German forward sent it across to McDavid on the other side of the ice before the captain found Perry wide open in front, and with Adin Hill sliding towards him, the 39-year-old forward went back the other direction and slid home his third goal of the playoffs into the wide-open cage to cut into the Golden Knights' lead at 2-1 before the intermission.

"John [Klingberg] makes a great play to break that puck out and it leads to a good rush. Corey scores it," Knoblauch said. "That gave our bench a little bit of life. A lot of credit to our guys sticking with it, because we played a pretty good game, especially in the second period, and didn't have anything to show for it. We stuck with it and obviously capitalized on some chances in the third."

Perry notched his 57th career postseason goal in his 222nd career playoff game, moving past Brad Marchand for the fourth-most points among active players and tying Kris Draper for the ninth-most playoff games in NHL history. McDavid's primary helper was his 90th career postseason point in his 81st playoff game, becoming the second-fastest player in NHL history to reach the mark ahead of Mario Lemieux (97) and behind only Wayne Gretzky (63).

"It's huge to find a way to get one before the end of the period," Perry said. "That was our mentality after they scored. The second one was 'let's start going here. Let's get that next one and see where this goes from there.' Those two guys are world-class players, made some world-class plays, and I was a beneficiary on that one."

SECOND PERIOD

The Oilers came out of the intermission with a more complete effort in the second period, but the Blue & Orange lacked the goal they needed to even things up through 40 minutes.

"Being down 2-1 after the second, we liked our game and we just stuck with it and found a way," Pickard said.

Adam Henrique came close to equalizing early in the frame when his quick shot from the slot had Hill rooted in place inside the Vegas crease before the puck struck the right post, allowing the Golden Knights to escape early pressure from the Oilers in the middle stanza.

Edmonton applied one-way pressure against Vegas in the first half of the frame and managed to turn their hard work into a pair of power plays before the midway mark. However, they couldn't capitalize on either man advantage despite building on their momentum with each opportunity.

"We know that if we play like that, we have a really good chance of winning, and we don't focus on when we're going to score," Hyman said. "It's just a matter of time if we're playing that way."

McDavid had a great opportunity on the second power play with a wrist shot from the top of the circles that needed Hill to come up with a flashy glove save to maintain the Golden Knights' slender advantage that was coming under threat from the Oilers in the second period. Those would be Edmonton's final two power plays of the game, and they would need to take over the game at five-on-five if they were going to reverse the script in Vegas.

"The power plays are few and far between. There's only going to be a couple each game, so five-on five, you have to be good and you have to be strong," Perry said. "You have to win that territorial advantage, and they're a good team. They play well positionally; they play well defensively. They're well rehearsed and we found ways to create some offence tonight, and we will find some more ways."

The Oilers did win that territorial battle by outshooting the Golden Knights 12-1 in the middle frame, but Pickard said it was vital that he remained focused in the crease despite their opponents being limited to only a few real opportunities in the period.

"Yeah, for sure," he said. "The first period had some shot attempts and they got some looks. They had some shots that went wide, and then with our team, we have the puck usually more than the other team, and we were rolling around in the o-zone and they were just chipping it out. We were just rolling them over and we had to stay ready.

"They had a couple of looks that missed the net, and only one shot was counted, but that's my job. The next shot, I gotta save it and keep my team in the game."

THIRD PERIOD

Don't call it a comeback – we've been here many times already in these playoffs.

Why not do it again and make NHL history?

No lead is safe against the Oilers, and they proved that again in Game 1 on Tuesday night by becoming the first team in NHL history to have five straight comeback victories in the same postseason, starting with Draisaitl's lucky bounce from below the goal line less than a minute into the third period.

"I just think our game doesn't change," Perry said of Edmonton's dominance in the third period and overtime of these playoffs, outscoring opponents 18-6.

"You look at how we've played and scored – yeah, we scored some six-on-five goals, but tonight, our game didn't change. We didn't turn the puck over. We just kept coming at them, putting the puck deep and eventually made some plays off the rush. Hyms with a great shot, Brownie a great individual effort, and that's how it's done. I can't say enough about our team game."

After McDavid crossed the Vegas blueline, the next shot delivered on goal by Evan Bouchard took a deflection to send it just below the goal line, where Draisaitl quickly threw it back into the crease for it to bounce kindly off the netminder's pad and slowly trickle over despite Hill trying to take a swipe at it.

"We have two generational players who are playing together. We have the luxury that they're playing together, which I think gives us an advantage because I don't think anybody can match when those two are together," Hyman said. "And then you have Perrs, who's amazing around the net. So Leon makes plays like that, Connor makes plays like that, and when the Grade-A chances aren't going in, something like that will go in. That's when you have to keep pushing and playing well."

Draisaitl tied it 2-2 with his fourth goal of the playoffs, and it was over half a period later when Zach Hyman completed the comeback with a snipe off the rush that was anything but lucky.

Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins exchanged passes coming into the Vegas zone before picking out the trailer in Hyman, who was alone in the slot to pick his spot cleanly over the left shoulder of Hill to make it 3-2 for the Oilers with only 3:02 remaining in regulation. With McDavid and Draisaitl together on the top line, Hyman was shifted to the second line with Kane and Nugent-Hopkins and provided another terrific showing from the team's depth.

"At times when we're playing our best, I think we're fast," Hyman said. "And when we're fast, we wear the other team down. It's hard to generate because you're tired and you have to change, and I think for us, we have to get to that game right from the start and make it easier on ourselves not being down in games. But I think we have experience to win games in many different ways – a lot of untraditional ways."

The Golden Knights didn't even get the opportunity to pull their goalie for the extra attacker, because Connor Brown was about to assemble one of the nicest individual goals of his career to put the game out of reach for the hosts with under two minutes left in the third period.

Brown took off with the puck after it fell to him in the right circle of Edmonton's zone, making a terrific move at centre ice on Shea Theodore to turn him inside out going the wrong way before speeding in on a breakaway and firing the insurance marker under the glove of Hill before finishing it off with a massive celebration at the bench with his teammates.

Following his clutch performance in Game 6 against the Kings with a goal and two assists, Brown added another goal tonight after taking a goaltender interference penalty in the period that needed his teammates to come up with the vital penalty kill six minutes into the frame.

"He's awesome. I think you're seeing a really confident Brownie," Hyman said. "I think he's making plays with the puck when he has it, and in the playoffs, a lot of guys, when the moment gets too big, you tend to tense up and rush a play or force something. But Brownie's a guy who's been here. He can not only play his game, but elevate his game, and he's got a strong sense of self-belief.

"I've known Brownie for a long time. He's a heck of a player. I think this team is built for the playoffs. We're built for the guys who have experience, have been here, and can take their game to another level."

"I still think we have a long way to go here," Hyman added.