GAME RECAP: Red Wings 5, Oilers 4 (SO)

EDMONTON, AB - Comeback clipped.
The Edmonton Oilers came back from two goals down on three separate occasions on Wednesday night to earn a point, but couldn't find the extra goal or save they needed in the shootout to complete the comeback in a 5-4 defeat to the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Place.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and an assist, while Connor McDavid made it 99 points on the season with two helpers by setting up Nugent-Hopkins for his pair of goals in the second period in the losing effort.
Leon Draisaitl and Derek Ryan scored in a 2:01 stretch early in the final frame to help force overtime, where the Oilers and Red Wings traded rushes until the buzzer sounded on the five-minute extra frame to send us to the shootout.
Pius Suter slid the deciding goal under Campbell in the fifth round to secure the Red Wings their fourth straight victory after McDavid's goal to open the shootout was nullified by former Oilers forward David Perron. Ville Husso made 40 saves on 45 shots over 65 minutes, and a further four in the shootout, to earn the Red Wings the extra point.
"I thought we did a pretty good job of battling back and getting at least one point, but it's disappointing not to get the second," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We can't dwell on it now. We climbed our way back into that game. They had two power-play goals and two face off goals. I thought for the most part, we carried the play and got ourselves one point."
With a shootout defeat, the Oilers remain unbeaten in regulation over their last seven games on home ice (4-0-3) heading into Friday's game against the New York Rangers at Rogers Place.

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FIRST BLOOD

Dylan Larkin stayed hot to open the scoring 4:14 into the first period.
The Red Wings captain has put together a five-game point streak as one of the League's most productive forwards over that span since recording an assist in Detroit's 5-2 loss to the Oilers on home ice last week.
With Klim Kostin in the penalty box for a Red Wings power play, Larkin had the puck along the Oilers goal line and snuck a sneaky low shot along the ice under the elevated left pad of Campbell to make it 1-0 early for Detroit with his sixth goal in his last four games.
The 2014 first-round pick has six goals and two assists during his strong five-game stretch and will surely be on the NHL's radar for First Star of the Week if he can carry this form into the rest of the Red Wings' Pacific Division road trip.

NUMBER 97 TO NUUUUUGE!

The 97-to-93 connection was in full swing by the start of the second period to help pull the Oilers back into contention for the two points.
The Oilers owned the final two minutes of the opening period after Moritz Seider made it 2-0 for Detroit late in the frame before the hosts turned that momentum into an early second period goal.
Connor McDavid had his fourth-career 15-game point streak broken in Montreal on Sunday afternoon, but the Oilers captain started anew when he dropped a pass entering the Detroit zone to Nugent-Hopkins, who fired a shot low blocker to beat Ville Husso and make it 2-1 just 1:26 into the middle stanza.

The 99th point of the campaign for number 97 set up Nuge half a period later, this time with the captain showing some good stick work to redirect an Evan Bouchard point shot onto the tape of Nugent-Hopkins at the far post for his second of the hockey game after Robby Fabbri's power-play goal two-and-a-half minutes earlier.
Despite the pair of goals from Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers remained behind 4-2 after Olli Maata's point shot in the final five minutes of the second period marked Detroit's second tally of the evening that came directly off a faceoff.
"I thought there were a couple of moments within the game where were the architects of our own chance against," Coach Woodcroft said. "We gave up two goals off faceoffs where we iced the puck prior to the faceoff goal against, so there are areas for us to get better. But that said, I thought we had the bulk of the play in the game."

THE BURGER FLIPPER PROVIDES

Put it on a platter for the German on the power play and you better believe he's gonna deliver.
Draisaitl was situated in The Spot™, located in the right circle of the attacking zone, just before the three-and-a-half minute mark with Robert Hagg in the box for interfering with Kostin. The 27-year-old connected on a low pass from Tyson Barrie and rifled Edmonton's third of the game over the left shoudler of Husso, pulling the deficit to one with his 31st tally and 19th PPG of the season.
Nugent-Hopkins added an assist on the play for his third point of the evening and 40 helpers on the year -- one off his career high of 41 in 2018-19 -- while Barrie's primary assist represents the defender's first point since recording a solitary helper in the reverse meeting between these two sides just over a week ago at Little Caesars Arena.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Derek Ryan's showed some sweet, sweet hands to complete the comeback in the midst of a dominating third-period response from the Oilers.
Just 2:01 after Draisaitl halved the deficit on the power play, it was the steady Spokane, Wash. product who put a deft deflection from inside the right circle on Kostin's long slap shot that tucked inside the near post under the arm of Husso to tie the game 4-4 on the 26-year-old's ninth goal of the year.
With just over 14-and-a-half minutes to go in regulation, the Oilers had all the momentum to set themselves up to claim the all-important game-winner after forging their way back three times from two goals down to Detroit.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Campbell didn't have his sharpest stuff on the evening, but when faced with the opportunity to make the stop that he needed to save with under eight minutes remaining, he had the emphatic answer.
A 2-on-1 opportunity for the Red Wings saw Larkin slide one through an Oilers defender to Tyler Bertuzzi, who fired a low one-timer towards the Edmonton goal. But Campbell jolted across the blue paint to get the left pad to the effort before Bertuzzi's follow-up shot went turning over through the air and out of danger the other way.
"That's just trying to battle for the guys," Campbell said. "They were playing so well tonight and definitely deserved two points. But, Detroit played well. We'll definitely look at it and be ready to go for Friday."

Campbell would stop 19-of-23 shots from the Red Wings over regulation and overtime before the contest headed to the shootout, where McDavid scored the only goal for the Oilers over five rounds that were capped off by Pius Suter's dangle that slid under Campbell's pad to earn the Red Wings the extra point.
The 31-year-old had won seven straight starts coming into Wednesday, but admittedly said post-game that he didn't have his best stuff to counter Husso in the opposite crease.
"Just a frustrating night," Campbell said. "I thought the guys played a tremendous game in front of me. A couple tough ones to give up tonight, but things have been going really well lately. You don't want to lose the momentum from one game, but we'll definitely look at it and move on.

PARTING WORDS

Woodcroft on the Oilers following an 8-0-3 run with two straight losses:
"I think we went on a pretty good run and that's a credit to our players for putting that run together. I think what good teams do though is they respond to efforts that maybe weren't their finest hour -- certainly the one in Montreal. To a man, all of us weren't good enough that day. Today, as I said, I thought we did a lot of good things, but some of the mistakes we made were key errors at the wrong time and that forced us to chase the game the entire game. It's a credit to our guys who got better as it went along. I think were down 2-0 after the first. Both teams scored two goals in the second and we scored two goals in the third. We found a way to eke out a point and I think that's a good sign."