GAME RECAP: Oilers 6, Capitals 5

EDMONTON, AB – Evan-sanity.

Evan Bouchard recorded his first career hat-trick as part of a historic six-point performance, while Connor McDavid contributed two goals and three assists that included the overtime winner for the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night in a rallying 6-5 victory over the Washington Capitals at Rogers Place.

Playing in his 400th NHL game, Bouchard factored in on all six of Edmonton's goals to finish with three goals and three assists, making the keep-in with the net empty that led to Zach Hyman's equalizer with 32 seconds left in regulation before springing McDavid on a breakaway 47 seconds into overtime.

"Just a really solid, gutsy win," Bouchard said. "That was huge for us being down the last minute, not quitting, and getting the tying goal. It's a big homestand for us, so we really have to build on that and keep it going into the next game."

The Oakville, Ont. product became the fourth defenceman in NHL history to record at least three goals and three assists in a single game on an exclusive list that includes Bobby Orr, Tom Bladon and Doug Crossman, and the fourth Oilers blueliner to record six points behind Paul Coffey (twice) and Kevin Lowe.

"As good a game as I've seen from a defenceman," McDavid said. "Special. He can do that. That's his level. His best is among the best in the world, not just D-men. He's a special player, and he played great. He's the first over the boards for the penalty kill, has to do a lot of different things, and he just keeps getting better and better. I can't say enough good things about the guy."

McDavid scored his team-leading 31st and 32nd goals of the campaign to go along with three assists, taking over the NHL's scoring lead from Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon with 90 points (32G, 58A) in 53 games.

Leon Draisaitl also factored in with three assists, including the 600th of his career, while Zach Hyman finished with a goal and an assist.

Goaltender Tristan Jarry picked up the win for the Oilers after making 13 saves on 15 shots in relief of Connor Ingram, who was pulled during the second period after allowing three goals on 11 shots.

The Oilers will continue their eight-game homestand on Monday against the Anaheim Ducks on Prime, with puck scheduled for 6:30 pm MST.

FIRST PERIOD

The Oilers were so close to taking a late first-period lead into the intermission while keeping the Capitals from registering a shot through 20 minutes.

Edmonton took a 1-0 lead late in the first period on Evan Bouchard's 12th goal of the campaign with 48 seconds left before the intermission, while having kept the Capitals from registering a shot on goal all frame until the visitors' first two attempts less than 30 seconds later allowed them to equalize.

"Getting one early helps for sure," Bouchard said. "The confidence goes up. The way we were playing in the offensive zone definitely helped, too. It gave me open looks, and guys put me in good spots."

The Capitals started the strongest in the opening few minutes before the Oilers' third line got them going with a quick rush that led to Isaac Howard cutting to the crease and forcing netminder Charlie Lindrgen into making stretch save to get his right toe to the rookie's hard drive to make the save.

Vasily Podkolzin took the game's first penalty by interfering with Martin Fehervary to make up for his mistake at the blueline, but the Russian forward came out of the box and was sprung on a breakaway, where he forced a backhand on Lindgren that was pushed aside as the Capitals' back pressure caught up.

Then, it was Howard's turn to be denied a second time in the period by Lindgren on another breakaway, this time being turned aside by a kick save after being put through by Roslovic in another good offensive sequence for Edmonton's third line.

The Capitals still had no shots when Hyman had a chance at burying a loose puck in the blue paint with four-and-a-half minutes left in the frame, which was only prevented by a reaction save by Lindgren to get his pad to it, but the Oilers did eventually find their goal with under 60 seconds left until the intermission.

Playing in his 400th career NHL game, Bouchard marked the occasion by sifting a long wrist shot from the blueline through traffic that caught a piece of the post on its way past Lindgren to make it 1-0 for the Oilers with 48 seconds left in the frame, registering his 12th goal and 50th point of the season.

Bouchard is the fourth defenceman this season to reach the 50-point mark after Cale Makar (55), Zach Werenski (55) and Lane Hutson (53).

However, there was still time left for the Capitals to register a shot, which ultimately resulted in them equalizing only 22 seconds after the Oilers took the lead.

Defenceman Rasmus Sandin jumped into a late rush for the Capitals and got the puck between the circles to let go of a shot that went down as his team's first shot 19:32 into the period that was stopped by Ingram and knocked down before Aliaksei Protas put away the rebound to make it 1-1.

SECOND PERIOD

The pucks continued to find Bouchard on his milestone night, scoring his second goal to restore the Oilers' advantage 4:13 into the middle stanza, but so too did the Capitals in finding an immediate response when they needed it before taking their first lead with under five-and-a-half minutes left in the frame.

"There were a lot of things I liked about our game, but the only thing I didn't like was how Washington was able to respond after pretty much every goal that we scored," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "You look at the first period, and we didn't give up a shot until about two minutes left, and we finally pushed to get that first goal. We should be ecstatic, feeling good about our period, and they respond right away with the goal, and that was pretty deflating.

"We responded a few times, and obviously, we had a nice push at the end of the game on the six-on-five. But I thought we played a pretty good game despite how we let them score immediately after our goals."

Bouchard fired a shot from the top of the circles inside the opening five minutes of the period that managed to squeak its way through Lindgren to give the Oilers back the lead at 2-1, thanks to their defenceman's sixth career multi-goal game and second one during the month of January (2G vs. CHI on Jan. 12).

With an assist on Bouchard’s second goal, Draisaitl recorded the 600th assist of his career, making him the fourth player in Oilers history to reach the milestone with Wayne Gretzky (1,086), Connor McDavid (778), and Mark Messier (642), and has at least a point in six straight against the Capitals (6G, 7A).

But the Oilers were caught out on a Capitals' rush when a missed shot from Matt Savoie saw the visitors take the puck up ice through the stick of former Edmonton Oil Kings forward Justin Sourdif, who kept it himself and roofed the tying goal from inside the left circle only 1:47 after the Oilers went ahead.

Despite Ingram making a pair of great saves near the 10-minute mark, including an in-tight intervention against Ethen Frank off a pass in front off the rush, the netminder would be hard done by being replaced by Tristan Jarry with three goals allowed on 11 shots after the Capitals took the lead.

Forward Anthony Beauvillier scored his 10th goal of the season off a shot from low in the left circle that caught an unfriendly deflection off Spencer Stastney to redirect it five-hole on Ingram, putting the Capitals up 3-2 with 5:31 left in the period.

Edmonton would've wanted to take advantage of at least one of Washington's three consecutive penalties in the second period, but their power play wasn't able ot capitalize at all with the man advantage on Saturday night as they trailed by a goal heading into the final frame.

THIRD PERIOD

Evan was simply almighty in this one.

"Where to even begin?" Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "The list is pretty long for everything Bouchard did, and you can tell he's one of the elite defencemen in the league. He was definitely feeling his best tonight, and maybe something special about playing in his 400th tonight."

You can't count the Oilers out yet, especially with Bouchard doing what he does, ripping pucks to register his first career hat-trick in the final frame – and first hat-trick EVER according to him – while keeping it in at the blueline to extend possession with his team's net empty to help equalize with 32 seconds left.

"No, never," Bouchard said about recording a hat-trick. "First one."

Known for his trademark Bouch Bomb™️, the defenceman amazingly tallied all three of his goals via the snap shot on Saturday after making it 3-3 inside the first five minutes of the third period to bring the hats down with his first-ever three-goal game in the NHL in his 400th career game.

"When he gets time, it's pretty impressive," McDavid said. "He can shoot it hard, he can shoot it accurately, so he can do just about anything with it."

Playing four-on-four, Bouchard was left wide open at the top of the zone after Connor McDavid made the entry over the blueline, having the space available to wait for traffic to pass in front of Lindgren before he snapped home his hat-trick goal inside the right post to tie things up 4:20 into the third period.

Bouchard became the fourth defenceman in Oilers history to record a hat-trick after Paul Coffey (four), Marc-Andre Bergeron (one) and Risto Siltanen (one) and the third defenceman in the NHL this season to score a hat-trick – the most since four were recorded back in 2019-20.

"Definitely excited," Bouchard said. "It kept us in the game. It was a big goal for us at the time."

It was the NHL’s 23rd hat trick this month, which marked the most in a single January in League history (21 in 1988 & 1984).

With Curtis Lazar still in the penalty box for a double-minor high-sticking penalty, the Capitals still had power-play time after we got back to even strength to once again re-take the lead on a shot through a screen from Dylan Strome 2:10 later, continuing their streak of fast responses on Saturday.

But the Oilers weren't about to be deterred as they continued to press on in hopes of denying themselves a third straight loss, wanting to take advantage of another team that was coming into Rogers Place on the second of a back-to-back while playing three games in four nights.

"I actually thought we were good. I thought we were the better team of the two out there," McDavid said. "I thought we were unlucky to be down at times, and we just kind of stuck with it. Not the prettiest of wins, but one that we needed, and we'll move on from that.

It was Edmonton's turn with the power play almost a minute later, where they were finally able to convert with the man advantage on their fourth attempt when McDavid found space after coming through the slot to wrist his team-leading 31st goal of the season short side on Lindgren to make it 4-4.

Bouchard picked up another helper along with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, giving him three goals and an assist while looking for more as the game continued.

There would need to be more heroics for the Oilers after Connor McMichael gave the Capitals another lead with 4:51 left in regulation, and Bouchard was unsurprisingly the hero again for his side on Saturday by getting an assist on Zach Hyman's equalizer with 32 seconds left to send this game to overtime.

Bouchard should've got two assists for the keep-in he made at the blueline before moving the puck to McDavid, who found the stick of Zach Hyman in front to put it through the five-hole of Lindgren for his 20th goal of the campaign that made it 5-5 and ultimately earned the Oilers at least a point in this one.

With one more assist, Bouchard could make NHL history with a six-point performance, and that's exactly what happened in the extra frame.

OVERTIME

A historic night for Bouchard, capped off by the captain.

It was only fitting for Bouchard to find his historic sixth point with the assist on the finishing act of an incredible night for No. 2 in an Oilers uniform, drawing a penalty but feeding it up to McDavid to win the game 47 seconds into the extra frame.

"I'll put it this way," Mattias Ekholm said. "I'm going to make sure my kids watch that tomorrow morning. I mean, who can do that in the league today or even historically? Like, that's a game where he wins it for us. Obviously, he's out there with some good players too, but as an offensive defenceman, I don't think you can play a better game, honestly."

The contest went to three-on-three to find a winner, where despite being tripped by Aliaksei Protas after a broken rush to draw a delayed penalty on the Capitals, Bouchard was able to move the puck up to McDavid for a breakaway that he backhanded over Lindgren to win the extra point.

"Even on that final play, he's drawing a penalty as well. So that's when you know it might be your night. So just super impressed, and not really a surprise to me, but if you're a kid out there and you want to be an offensive defenseman, make sure you watch that game on replay."

With three goals and three assists, Bouchard became the fourth defenceman in NHL history to record at least three goals and three assists in a single game alongside Bobby Orr, Tom Bladon and Doug Crossman, and the fourth blueliner to factor on each of his team’s goals in a game (minimum six goals).