PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers vs. Golden Knights

The Edmonton Oilers return home to face the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday at Rogers Place in the second of back-to-back games.

You can watch the game on Sportsnet at 6:00pm MT or listen live on the Oilers Radio Network, including 880 CHED.

Subscribe to Oilers+ to unlock exclusive live and behind-the-scenes content from inside the locker room.

PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers vs. Golden Knights

EDMONTON, AB – Back from the road and right back at it with a pivotal Pacific Division matchup on home ice.

Fresh off finishing their five-game road trip with a 3-2-0 record following a 5-2 defeat to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon, the Edmonton Oilers will be back in action just over 24 hours later with the second game of a home-and-away back-to-back against the Vegas Golden Knights at Rogers Place.

"I thought we played pretty good hockey in four of them, and we played well against Minnesota both games," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Unfortunately, we didn't have anything to show for it in points, but after you lose any game, you're always disappointed. But I liked the guy's effort."

Despite the Oilers fighting back from 2-0 down in the first period with goals from Andrew Mangiapane and Connor McDavid, putting in a strong performance overall, a late tally with eight seconds left in the frame from Ryan Hartman was their undoing as the Wild ended up skating to their seventh straight victory.

"It was a close battle," Mangiapane said after ending a 21-game scoreless drought in the defeat. "We got up and down the ice the whole night... We did a good job fighting, being down 2-0 and coming back, but it's a tough one to let up there. It's a good thing we play tomorrow to get right back to it."

It was Edmonton's second defeat to Minnesota this month after being shut out 1-0 by the Wild at Rogers Place back on Dec. 1.

Mangiapane got the Oilers on the board with his fifth goal of the season on a redirection off Evan Bouchard's shot-pass after Matt Boldy notched a pair in the opening 11 minutes before McDavid tied it on his 22nd of the campaign on the power play to extend his point streak to nine games and 23 points (11G, 12A).

Calvin Pickard, in his first start since the Oilers lost Tristan Jarry to IR on Friday following a lower-body injury in Thursday's 3-1 win over Boston, made 32 saves in the losing effort and was solid between the pipes.

Leon Draisaitl also had two helpers to make it three straight games with a point for the German (0G, 8A) after going pointless in last Sunday's 4-1 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens in the second of a back-to-back that followed his milestone night reaching 1,000 career points with four assists versus Toronto.

Edmonton's power play went 1-for-2 in Minnesota and has gone 14-for-35 (40.1 percent) over its last 11 games, scoring in eight of those contests.

The Oilers are set to face the Golden Knights for the first time this season and are 10-4-1 since 2021-22 against their division rivals after the Oilers and Golden Knights split their four-game season series last season. Edmonton won the final two games of the regular season before going on to knock Vegas out of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs in five games in the Second Round.

Netminder Connor Ingram, recalled from the Condors in a corresponding move, is expected to start on Sunday against the Golden Knights.

Both the Golden Knights and Oilers are playing in the second game of a back-to-back, with the Oilers struggling in the second half with a 0-4-3 record. Despite a 6-3 loss to the Flames on Saturday, Vegas are still 6-2-2 in their last 10 games and are two points off the Ducks for top spot in the Pacific with three games in hand.

"Another team that's playing fairly well," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They got off to a great start. They kind of went through a slow stretch, and now they're starting to find their game again. Every time we play Vegas, it's usually a pretty exciting game, and I know so many of them have been one-goal games, so I would anticipate it'd be an exciting, tight game."