Bouchard scores in OT, Oilers recover against Wild to stay hot

EDMONTON -- Evan Bouchard scored a power-play goal at 3:32 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers recovered for a 4-3 win against the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

Bouchard, who also had an assist, took a pass from Connor McDavid and scored on a wrist shot from the top of the left circle, high short side past Jesper Wallstedt on a 4-on-3 advantage after the Wild were penalized for too many men on the ice.

“You take what they give you. At that point in time, it was that shot,” said Bouchard, who was celebrating his 27th birthday. “They pressed hard, they’re a good hockey team, they weren’t going to quit. There are definitely some things to clean up, but in the end, we battled and got the win we needed.”

Kirill Kaprizov cut it to 3-2 for Minnesota at 10:30 of the third period, taking a pass into the slot from Matt Boldy on the rush and scoring high glove side past Devon Levi.

Ryan Hartman then tied it 3-3 at 13:07, taking a backhand pass from behind the net by Bobby Brink and sending the puck past Levi’s glove from the slot to help force overtime.

“We battled back down two on the road in the third, we’ve got to take some good out of that,” Hartman said. “Tough at the end with the too-many-men. We almost finished that kill but that’s a pretty good power play. It was a nice time of the game to get the game tied up and get a point out of a game that wasn’t going right for us, so I like that we were able to contribute a point.”

Leon Draisaitl scored twice, and McDavid had three assists to extend his season-opening point streak to nine games for the Oilers (7-1-1), who have won seven of eight. Levi made 27 saves.

McDavid has 26 points (six goals, 20 assists) during his streak, making him the fastest player to reach 20 assists in a single season in NHL history.

Kaprizov also had an assist, and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild (6-2-2), who had won two in a row and four of five (4-1-0). Boldy had two assists, and Wallstedt made 28 saves.

“I think we played a really good first period then got on the PK,” said Kaprizov, who extended his point streak to seven games (eight goals, six assists). “The second was not the way we want to play, but the third was great and I feel we pushed them back and played in the offensive zone the whole period.”

Eriksson Ek gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 3:32 of the first period, taking a pass from behind the net by Kaprizov and getting a shot in tight on Levi’s left pad before kicking the puck back to his stick and sending it around the other pad.

At 17:15, a review was held on a play where Eriksson Ek took a series of point-blank shots in a crowded crease, confirming the puck had not crossed the goal line.

With three seconds left in the period, Draisaitl tied it 1-1 during a 5-on-3 power play off a no-look, cross-ice pass from McDavid to the right face-off dot for a low one-timer past Wallstedt’s glove.

“Just mentally it’s nice to go in tied 1-1,” Draisaitl said of his first goal. “Our other three lines were really good in the first period, but I thought our line wasn’t at our best. So, we needed to pick it up a little bit. But it was kind of a weird game 5-on-5.”

Still on the power play to open the second period, Draisaitl scored his second goal to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 1:03, taking a feed from behind the net from McDavid and sending it far side past Wallstedt’s blocker.

“I thought some of the penalties we gave them, you can’t feed a power play like this too many chances,” said Wallstedt, whose team went 2-for-5 on the penalty kill and 0-for-3 on the power play. “I have to make more saves. It felt like it was self-inflicted wounds today that made us lose the game. It wasn’t that they were a better team than us, it was more so ourselves shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit.”

Mathieu Joseph made it 3-1 at 6:01 shortly after an Edmonton power play ended, scoring on a rebound of Alex Formenton’s slap shot from the slot.

Levi improved to 5-1-0 since being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on July 1.

“I was just trying to stay focused on the next puck, not really playing the scoreboard,” Levi said. “You’re up 3-1 and not really trying to hold the lead, just trying to make saves and have fun competing.”

NOTES: Kaprizov scored his 11th goal of the season and matched the most goals by an active player through his first 10 games of a season, joining McDavid (2022-23), David Pastrnak (2019-20) and Nikita Kucherov (2017-18). ... McDavid became the fastest player in NHL history to reach the 20-assist mark (nine games), besting Pat LaFontaine (10 games in 1992-93), Mario Lemieux (10 in 1988-89) and Wayne Gretzky (10 in 1986-87). ... McDavid recorded his 66th career three-assist game to pass Ron Francis for sixth most in NHL history, behind Gretzky (224), Lemieux (108), Paul Coffey (82), Adam Oates (71) and Sidney Crosby (67).