GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Golden Knights 4 – OT (Game 2)

LAS VEGAS, NV - Get ready, Oil Country.

We're gonna have the chance to end this Second Round series at home.

Forward Leon Draisaitl scored the overtime winner with 4:40 remaining in sudden death of Game 2 on Thursday night, capping off a 5-4 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena to take a 2-0 series lead back to Edmonton for Game 3 on Saturday night at Rogers Place.

Draisaitl converted a pass from Connor McDavid on a two-on-one that was made possible by Corey Perry's skate-to-stick pass near the Vegas bench after the Oilers failed to convert a five-minute power play in overtime when Nicolas Roy was assessed a major penalty for cross-checking Trent Frederic.

Zach Hyman and McDavid then missed two excellent individual chances to end the game, but Draisaitl came through in the clutch with the help of Perry & McDavid to seal another comeback playoff victory for the Oilers that extended their already-established NHL record to six games and the series lead to 2-0.

"It wasn't pretty. Not pretty at all," McDavid said. "I thought Picks held us in. We were fortunate to find a way to be up two a couple of times there, and obviously, we didn't close it out. We found a way, though, and we would've liked to score one on the power play there for five minutes. Not our group's best, but we found a way."

Jake Walman and Vasily Podkolzin each scored their first-career playoff goals as two of Edmonton's three unanswered tallies in the second period before Evander Kane added his third of the playoffs two minutes into the final frame to extend the lead to 4-2. Vegas forced overtime with tallies from winger Victor Olofsson and defenceman Alex Pietrangelo in the final frame.

Goaltender Calvin Pickard was excellent with 28 saves on 32 shots to pick up his sixth straight victory, including a handful of amazing saves in the middle frame with the Oilers trailing 1-0 off Victor Olofsson's first of two power-play goals in the contest that came 8:32 into the first period.

"He's been solid giving us a chance to win every game since he came in, and tonight we needed a little bit more than other nights and he was up for the task," Hyman said. "So just a huge effort by him to really steal one here."

The Oilers will head back to Oil Country with a 2-0 lead and a chance to take command of the series on Saturday night in Game 3 at Rogers Place.

FIRST PERIOD

Looks like we're going to have to stick to the script.

After it was Mark Stone who opened the scoring for the Golden Knights courtesy of the power play just over two minutes into Game 1, it was Victor Olofsson's turn to break the deadlock on the man advantage just under nine minutes into the opening frame of Game 2 after Adam Henrique aired a clearance over the glass with one second left on a spirited penalty kill from the Oilers.

Stone had a golden chance to open the scoring less than a minute in on a wide-open redirection that the Vegas captain put wide of Calvin Pickard's net before a risky breakout pass from Evan Bouchard meant for Trent Frederic resulted in the winger taking the game's first penalty by tripping Brandon Saad.

Edmonton's penalty kill did a great job keeping the Golden Knights from generating any chances on their first power play, but it was Henrique who ultimately put his attempted clearance over the glass with only one second remaining on Frederic's minor penalty to send Vegas to a brief five-on-three opportunity.

Olofsson finished off a low feed from the right post that was delivered onto his tape by Stone to open the scoring 28 seconds into Henrique's delay of game penalty, putting the Oilers behind 1-0 for the seventh time in eight games this postseason.

Luckily, Edmonton is no stranger to these situations after having just set an NHL record in Game 1 with their fifth straight comeback victory – a record they were going to have to extend on Thursday night if they were going to take a 2-0 lead in this series back to Oil Country.

The Oilers came close to tying the game heading into the intermission when Connor Brown hit the inside of the left post on the rush before the puck came out the other side of the crease behind goaltender Adin Hill, who was beaten on the play but saved by the iron to allow Vegas to keep their 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

Remember that script? It often writes itself with this team.

But this time, it was Calvin Pickard who was the primary author of a terrific middle frame from the Oilers with a handful of five-star saves in the first eight minutes of the second period that allowed them to go forward with confidence and score three straight goals to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.

The Oilers failed to capitalize on their first power play of Game 2 in the first five minutes of the period, with Pickard making his first major intervention by squeezing a shot from Nicolas Roy under his right arm on a three-on-two rush for Vegas after the winger exited the box from his high-sticking penalty.

Pickard then made a remarkable stretching save to deny Ivan Barbashev on what looked like a wide-open net for the Vegas forward, but the Oilers netminder managed to get his right skate to the forward's Grade-A chance from between the hashmarks to keep it 1-0 for the Golden Knights.

Under a minute later, Pickard made another incredible stop on Barbashev when Shea Theodore's point shot produced a big rebound for the Russian winger, but the Edmonton shot-stopper was there once again to stretch out with his right pad and send the golden chance for Vegas to the wayside with a big stop.

The Oilers were on the penalty kill before the eight-minute mark with Bouchard in the box for holding Barbashev, where Pickard once again remained up to the task coming up with a sublime maneuver to get his glove to Olofsson's shot from the right circle on the exact same play that Vegas scored on in the first period.

What followed from the Oilers in front of him wouldn't have been possible without their netminder's exploits, keeping the Vegas lead at 1-0 with three high-danger saves before Edmonton exploded for three straight goals in a 5:46 span of the third period to build themselves a 3-1 lead.

Less than a minute after the last of Pickard's flurry of saves, defenceman Jake Walman teed up a one-timer set up by Vasily Podkolzin that caught a small piece of Brayden McNabb's right leg on its way through to beat Adin Hill and tie the game, giving him his first-career postseason goal and growing his league-leading plus-minus in the playoffs to +10 before extending it soon after when Edmonton took the lead.

"It was a great play by that line, and I think they've been doing that all playoffs so far, and it showed up on the scoreboard tonight," Walman said. "I was fortunate enough to get a pass with an open lane and I think that just kind of shows how deep our team is and anybody can contribute at any point."

Before tonight's contest, Podkolzin had been the only Oilers forward to suit up this postseason who hadn't managed to find the back of the net despite the Russian winger posting five assists in eight playoff games, including the primary helper on Walman's equalizer. That was all about to change just over four minutes later when he followed suit with his teammate to score his first-career playoff goal that gave the Oilers a 2-1 advantage.

Podkolzin took a layoff feed from Viktor Arvidsson near the Vegas bench in the neutral zone before weaving his way over the blueline and into the slot, where he fired a hard wrist shot on goal that snuck through under Hill's glove to give the 30-year-old his first-career playoff goal and multi-point game.

Edmonton's fourth line of Podkolzin, Janmark and Arvidsson helped contribute two goals in the second period, but McDavid said post-game that the trio is far from being identified as anything less than a capable combination, and their depth continues to shine through at big moments in these playoffs.

"It takes everybody," McDavid said. "We know that, everyone knows that, and it takes everyone up and down the lineup, and we're getting help all over."

"That Janmark line has been really good since they've been together. I guess you could call them the fourth line, but they're hardly the fourth line. They're playing great. Same with that Nuge line [with Kane and Hyman], and Henrique's line [with Frederic and Brown] scored a bunch the other night too. So we're getting help all over. The back end scored a couple, and Picks was great."

With his first goal in the playoffs to go along with an assist, Podkolzin's now up to six points (1G, 5A) through eight games this postseason.

The Oilers then made it a 3-1 advantage just over two minutes later when Darnell Nurse found his favourite spot in the slot to beat Hill clean to the blocker side for his second goal of the postseason and second goal in three games.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was the one who picked up a careless pass from Brayden McNabb at the top of the left circle before finding Nurse wide open as he came over the Vegas blueline, extending Nuge's playoff point streak to a career-best six games (3G, 4A) to break his previous best run of five from May 1-14, 2024.

The offence continued to flow in the middle frame just 53 seconds later in the final two minutes before the intermission – but this time, in the direction of the Golden Knights, who drew one back to make it 4-3 on a deflection from William Karlsson that finally solved Pickard before the break.

THIRD PERIOD

Nothing without a little drama to set up the climax in overtime.

Evander Kane made it 4-2 for the Oilers when his in-close opportunity off a turnover collected by Zach Hyman along the wall was put in front by the winger before it got its final touch off Pietrangelo before rolling over the goal line.

Kane's marker was his third of the postseason, with Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins picking up the helpers to help extend their team's lead early in the third period, which soon became under siege at the fortress of T-Mobile Arena.

The hosts looked the likeliest to score the next goal despite being outshot 11-9 in the third period, and their persistence wound up paying off.

McDavid was in the penalty box for an unlucky high-sticking penalty before the five-minute mark, where Jack Eichel set up Olofsson for his second power-play goal on the ensuing man advantage that cut the Oilers lead to 4-3 with over three quarters of the period remaining.

Vegas was on the front foot after pulling to within a goal, and the hosts leveraged that pressure into making it 4-4 with 11:52 gone in the period when Alex Pietrangelo – playing his first game of the series after missing Game 1 with an illness – beat Pickard low to the right corner from the point with Tomas Hertl providing the screen in front.

The Oilers nearly scored the late winner with Corey Perry inside the crease hounding for the loose puck before the puck popped out to Draisaitl to try and send it through bodies in the blue paint, but somehow the puck was unable to cross the goal line.

For the second time in these playoffs, the Oilers were heading to overtime, having already triumphed once in extra time during Game 4 against the Kings on a goal scored by none other than... Leon Draisaitl.

"Obviously, they had us on our heels a little bit there for a little bit," Draisaitl said. "But we weathered it, got it into overtime, and at that point, all you need is one hockey play."

OVERTIME

If the overtime period had not ended as it did, we would have been talking about this one for a long time.

But the script wasn't about to be rewritten, and we're heading back to Oil Country with a 2-0 series lead.

"Not our best, not my best, but we found a way and that's what we get paid to do," McDavid said. "We're paid to score goals at big moments, and we found a way tonight."

After Calvin Pickard stopped Tomas Hertl on an early breakaway, Trent Frederic took a cross-check to the face from Nicolas Roy in the defensive zone to draw a major penalty and a five-minute power play, where you'd be confident that Edmonton's vaunted power play would be able to put it away.

But those Golden Knights are resilient, and despite the extended man advantage for the Oilers and a chance to end this thing, neither one of their two power-play units could capitalize on their amazing opportunity, let alone generate many good looks to keep this overtime period going with under 10 minutes left.

"They did a good job on the kill. We didn't create overly much," Draisaitl said. "And then, I think human nature and your brain goes to 'they're going to throw one on net and it's going to go in and it's over.'"

The Oilers could say the bounces were going their way as well, with Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid getting Grade-A chances following the extended power play when the puck magically fell to their blades on two separate instances with Adin Hill in desperation mode.

Hyman was in the slot first when the puck fortuitously bounced off Kane's skate and right to him in the danger area before hitting the crossbar with his wide-open effort. Soon after, McDavid was in a similar situation when it came to him from below the goal line while wide open at the right post, which led to him trying to flip it far side on Hill but failing to find the back of the net after the netminder came up with the vital touch to keep it out.

"I'm sure they feel the same on that side too," McDavid said. "They had lots of looks and dangerous point shots that could have gone in, and Picks held his ground. A tight game with two good teams that could have gone either way."

The moment for the Oilers arrived with 4:40 left in overtime on a play that was made possible by a sweet skate-to-stick pass from Corey Perry to catch McDavid flying out of Edmonton's zone with speed, leaving Jack Eichel in the dust with a great cross-up to create a two-on-one opportunity with Draisaitl.

"We didn't have much going on," Draisaitl said of he and McDavid. "A couple of great plays, and then that's all Dave-O."

After burning Eichel on an outside-to-inside move to create the odd-man scenario, McDavid sauced it to Draisaitl over the outstretched stick of Pietrangelo, firing it into the open cage past the diving Adin Hill to dramatically win Game 2 in comeback fashion and lift the Oilers into a 2-0 series lead.

"It's tough to really even celebrate my part of the goal," Draisaitl said. "I think it's his timing, and then just an amazing play by Corey to get it off the wall. That's not a great situation to be in when you have 97 coming at you at full steam, so just an all-world play."

Despite trailing in seven of their eight playoff games, Thursday marks Edmonton's sixth comeback victory in a row.

"We've come from behind lots," McDavid said. "We obviously gave up a lead today. We've won overtime games. We've won in different ways. You've got to do that this time of year. We're just building and building our game. I feel like our best is still coming, and I'd hope to see it at home here."

"It means nothing if we're not ready to roll for Game 3."