GAME STORY: Oilers 4, Canadiens 3 (OT)

MONTREAL, QC - The Oilers bested the Canadiens 4-3 in overtime for the second consecutive game and secured their seventh straight road victory in their second-last tune-up before the playoffs.

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FIRST BLOOD

Montreal's 2019 first-round draft pick Cole Caufield scored his fourth goal in just his 10th NHL game 1:58 into the first period to spot the home team an early 1-0 advantage. Tyson Barrie attempted to find Dominik Kahun with a pass from behind the Oilers net, but Caufield swooped in and stole the puck before flicking a quick wrister past Mike Smith.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored his second goal in as many games and his 16th of the season on the power play at 10:53 of the opening frame as he took a feed from Barrie at the point, skated a few strides toward the net and unleashed his trademark wrist-shot snipe into the near-side top corner on Cayden Primeau to even the score at 2-2 at the time. Nine of the forward's 16 goals this season have come on Edmonton's league-leading man-advantage deployment.

SAVE OF THE GAME

With 4:18 to go in regulation and the game knotted at 3-3, Kahun made a quick spin-and-shoot move looking to give the Oilers a late lead, but Primeau smothered the attempt, resulting in the teams requiring overtime to decide a winner for the second time in as many games.

TURNING POINT

Leon Draisaitl made a remarkable no-look pass from the wall to his fellow countryman Kahun who beat Primeau in tight 27 seconds into overtime for his first-ever game-winner in extra time to give the Oilers their fourth sudden-death victory in six opportunities.

TOP PERFORMER

Draisaitl gave the Oilers their first lead with a power-play goal in the middle frame before setting up Kahun for the overtime winner as he now has 31 goals and 52 assists for 83 in 55 games. The reigning league MVP is now 14 points ahead of Boston's Brad Marchand for second place in this season's scoring race and has recorded seven consecutive multi-point games for the first time in his career.

FACT CHECK

Per Sportsnet Stats, the Oilers look to become the first team to lead the NHL in power-play percentage in back-to-back seasons since the Canadiens finished first in both 2006-07 and 2007-08. Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl's power-play markers on Wednesday were Edmonton's NHL-best 47th and 48th of the season, and their 66.7% success rate in the game bumped their year-long average to 28.1%, well ahead of Carolina in second at 25.6%.

With his helper on the aforementioned Nugent-Hopkins power-play goal, Connor McDavid became the first player to reach the 70-assist mark in 55 games or less since Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux in 1995-96 as the Hall of Famer had a remarkable 50 goals and 70 assists in 50 games. The Oilers captain also picked up a helper on Draisaitl's power-play goal to give him 71 assists and 104 points on the year as he recorded his seventh consecutive multi-point game.

NEXT UP

The Oilers will conclude the regular season with another matinee game on Saturday against the Vancouver Canucks before switching to playoff mode and getting ready for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Winnipeg Jets, with the seven-game series slated to start mid next week.

PARTING WORDS

"Looking for a little German magic there and they came through," Head Coach Dave Tippett said of selecting former German youth hockey teammates Draisaitl and Kahun as the starting forward duo for overtime. "Him and Drai work well together, so just playing a hunch."
"I was thinking my game was probably over, but then coach said that I'm going with Drai," Kahun laughed of his unexpected insertion into overtime. "I was a little bit surprised, but I'm very happy for the opportunity and very happy that it went that way."
"You don't want to ease your way into games and create any bad habits," said Alex Chiasson, who had a goal and an assist against his hometown team as the Oilers have gone 6-1-0 this month with one game left before the playoffs. "There's nothing better than feeling good about your game going into Game 1 in the first round... I like where our team is at right now."