GAME RECAP: Oilers 7, Ducks 4

EDMONTON, AB – What an 'Ek' of a night.

Defenceman Mattias Ekholm recorded his first career hat-trick, scoring three of his team's five goals from defenceman on Monday, while forward Leon Draisaitl had four assists for the Edmonton Oilers in a 7-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place to end their rivals' win streak at seven games.

"He's going to be tough to play against every night, so when he has a night like this, it's obviously exciting," Ryan Nugent-Hopkin said. "It makes a huge difference for our team. He just decided to take over tonight. Bouch had a crazy game the other night, so it's cool that his partner did that, and the whole D-core stepped up."

After Evan Bouchard recorded Edmonton's first hat-trick from a defenceman in almost 20 years in Saturday's 6-5 overtime win over the Capitals, Ekholm helped make NHL history alongside his D partner by making the Oilers the first-ever team to have defencemen record hat-tricks in back-to-back games.

The Oilers scored four straight goals from their blueliners in a 3:49 stretch of the second period, with Spencer Stastney getting a bounce for his first goal in Blue & Orange before Darnell Nurse scored unassisted between a pair of Ekholm tallies inside to give Edmonton a three-goal cushion that they needed.

The Ducks fought back to make it a one-goal game with 6:22 left in regulation after forward Mikael Granlund picked up his own hat-trick, but Connor McDavid added insurance at six-on-five before Ekholm completed his three-goal effort with 11 seconds remaining into the empty net to secure the win.

"Pretty remarkable night," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "With the back-to-back hat tricks and then Mattias playing as many games as he has and finally getting his first, he told me he was close to getting a hat trick a long time ago, but tonight he wasn't missing that. That was right down the middle.

"It's nice to have those guys, and the odds of him scoring a hat-trick tonight were probably pretty low. But it's pretty exciting. He's been playing really good hockey, and the fact that he got three tonight, everyone's really happy for him."

Zach Hyman recorded a goal and an assist alongside Connor McDavid, who now sits atop the NHL's scoring race with 92 points (33G, 59A).

The victory moved the Oilers three points ahead of the Ducks for second place in the Pacific Division with a 27-19-8 record.

The Oilers will continue their eight-game homestand at Rogers Place when they host the San Jose Sharks in another divisional battle on Thursday.

FIRST PERIOD

Shots were 12-12 with two penalties and a power-play goal apiece for the Oilers & Ducks at the end of their first period against one another in 2025-26.

On Anaheim's first power play in the opening four minutes, centre Mikael Granlund gave his team the early lead with a snap shot from the left circle that hit the back crossbar behind netminder Tristan Jarry to make it 1-0 for the visitors.

The Ducks recorded the first seven shots of the game on Monday and started strong again as they looked to win their eighth game in a row on Monday, having beaten the Flames 4-3 in overtime on Sunday for their seventh consecutive victory in the first of an Alberta back-to-back.

"A lot of fresh legs and a lot of enthusiasm," Draisaitl said of the Ducks. "Lots of skill, so a team that has a bright future, for sure. They've certainly taken some steps."

But the Oilers responded with 10 of the next 11 shots, starting with a power play just under three minutes after Grandlund gave the Ducks their first lead, when forward Jansen Harkins fell over Jarry in the crease to send the hosts to their first look with the man advantage.

Jarry was still making saves despite losing his skate blade when it smacked against the post on a Ducks' possession midway through the period, scrambling inside the blue paint to stretch out and make a deflected save while lying on his chest before he was able to get some new steel from the bench.

"There was a lot of desperation on that play, and you don't see the goalies losing their stick or their skate blade very often," Knoblauch said. "I wasn't sure exactly what happened. I thought maybe he got clipped. I thought he got interfered with to get out of position like that, and obviously, later I saw the skate blade missing. But scoring that first goal and having a lead is very important, and I liked what I saw from Jeary on that play, being desperate to prevent it."

With 5:02 left in the period, Darnell Nurse was caught by an errant stick from former teammate Ryan Strome near the penalty box, sending the Oilers to a four-minute power play that needed the extra two minutes for them to finally solve the Ducks to equalize before the intermission.

Zach Hyman pushed aside Jacob Trouba at the back post and put away his second effort off Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' cross-crease pass for his 21st goal of the season, with Leon Draisaitl picking up the secondary helper as the Oilers made it 1-1 with 2:46 left in the first period.

Hyman leads the NHL since Dec. 8, 2025 with 19 goals (including tonight’s first-period goal on the power play).

SECOND PERIOD

Move over, Evan Bouchard.

It's your D partner's turn.

Another quick tally from the Ducks to begin the second period couldn't stop what was coming from the Oilers, who responded in a big way to Alex Killorn restoring their lead at 2-1 less than a minute into the middle frame with four goals from their defencemen in a 3:51 stretch that was led by Mattias Ekholm.

"I'm usually not known for my goal-scoring ability, so I couldn't buy a goal for 20 games, and then I got three in one, so that tells you the story," Ekholm said.

After Killorn scored 55 seconds in to put Anaheim back in front, Connor McDavid slammed into the boards as he tried to make a wide drive towards goal before getting up slowly and getting another crack at it on a breakaway, where he was held by Trouba to earn himself a penalty shot.

McDavid couldn't beat Husso after trying to go five-hole, but the Oilers were about to take things over with the help of their blueline, starting with a lucky bounce for Spencer Stastney to start Edmonton's four-goal explosion with his first goal and point for the Oilers.

Stastney's attempted shot-pass for Kasperi Kapanen in the slot struck the stick of a Ducks defenceman before beating Husso five-hole to make it 2-2 at 15:24 of the frame, marking his first offensive return in his 23rd game for the Oilers since being acquired from Nashville on Dec. 12, 2025.

"The Stastney goal was a little fortunate," Knoblauch said. "We got a bounce there, but obviously shot there with purpose rather than just shooting across the grain. That weak side happens. A little bit of luck to it, but obviously, you have enough bodies there, something good usually happens."

Ekholm watched firsthand on Saturday when his D partner Evan Bouchard tallied a hat-trick and six points in a legendary performance against the Capitals, and the Swedish defenceman decided it was his turn during the second period tonight with his first of two in the frame at 13:32 to give the Oilers the lead.

With a drop pass from Nugent-Hopkins in the neutral zone creating an odd-man rush, Ekholm activated by jumping into the play by taking a feed from Hyman and making a terrific behind-the-back pass to McDavid before redirecting the captain's return feed through the five-hole of Husso to make it 3-2.

The goal was the 90th of Ekholm's career and extended his point streak to three games.

"He's a great player all around," Draisaitl said. "Ekky knows when to jump into the rush. He's extremely smart. Obviously, he's got a bomb of a shot, and he knows when to use it, and his placement is elite. So it's nice to see him get a couple and I'm very happy for him."

Just 1:06 later, it was Darnell Nurse who got in on the action from Edmonton's back end when an unforced error by Ryan Poehling at the blueline allowed him to pick up a loose puck and take it all the way himself on a two-on-one with newcomer Josh Samanski that he sniped short side on Husso to make it 4-2.

"I think we checked really well through the neutral zone and denied the blueline," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I think there were two goals exactly the same where we forced a turnover, and we just countered immediately, which led to the goals. You want your defenceman getting involved in the play, and if there's some space and you can beat your check up the ice, you want them to join."

With his seventh goal of the season, Nurse found twine for the first time since Dec. 13, 2025 in Toronto and broke a nine-game pointless drought.

The Oilers would cap out their scoring spree in the second period only 51 seconds later with an emphatic finish from Mattias Ekholm for his second goal of the game, making a stop at the blueline and getting loose on a two-on-one with Matt Savoie to unleash a blast into the far top shelf.

With four straight goals from defencemen in a 3:49 span, the Oilers tied with the Buffalo Sabres for the fourth-most goals by defencemen (32) and are the first team in 25 years to have defencemen score four goals in a period – only the sixth time in NHL history and second time that Edmonton has done it.

"They're great," Draisaitl said of the defence. "I thought they were great, breaking the puck out for the most part, and obviously joining the rush and creating offence for us. You need that. You need every part of the game to contribute, and the last couple of games, they've obviously been key. "

After Bouchard became the fourth defenceman in Oilers history and the first since Marc-Andre Bergeron on Jan. 14, 2006 to record a hat-trick on Saturday, Ekholm was trying to follow suit tonight to make them the first pair of blueliners in NHL history to record hat-tricks in consecutive games.

Making his NHL debut on Monday, forward Josh Samanski had his first career NHL goal pulled off the line by a Ducks defenceman before Mikael Granlund got a goal back for the Ducks with 6:19 left in the period to put himself on hat-trick watch, too, as the Oilers led 5-3 at the second intermission.

THIRD PERIOD

Things got interesting after Granlund made it 5-4 on the power play with his hat-trick goal, but there's only one effort we're talking about tonight.

That honour belongs to Mattias Ekholm, who helped make history by sending it 200 feet down the ice into an empty net with 11 seconds left.

Following Granlund's third goal with 6:22 remaining in regulation, the Ducks pulled their goalie with less than three minutes left and had their comeback hopes dashed when McDavid added insurance with 1:48 remaining with his 33rd goal of the campaign that was assisted by Draisaitl and Bouchard.

When the Ducks pulled their goalie for the extra man again, trailing 6-4 with under a minute left, that allowed Ekholm time to get the puck below the Oilers' goal line on the last shift and air it out 200 feet into Anaheim's empty cage to give himself his first career hat-trick in his 937th career game.

Bouchard was the first of his teammates to embrace him in celebration, which is fitting after the two defencemen became the first pair of blueliners in NHL history to record hat-tricks in consecutive games, thanks to the Swede's third goal of the night at six-on-five that was assisted again by Draisaitl.

Before the final faceoff, the two defencemen shared a moment together on the bench as the graphics on the scoreboard showed how they'd made NHL history, resulting in a fist bump and pats on the back.

"Nothing I thought about before, but I guess that's how it turned out," Ekholm said. "So a fun moment. That last faceoff, up by two or one, I'm probably just trying to chip it out, but I took a look at least see what happens. But I was fortunate enough to get in there, so a cool moment."

But most importantly, their efforts have led to back-to-back wins for the Oilers as they head towards hosting the Sharks on Thursday back at Rogers Place.