Edmonton Oilers fans waited ten days for this one. Edmonton picked up 37 of a possible 38 points during their streak.
First Period Summary:
This was the start of a three-game road trip for the Oilers. But when the anthem singer was singing the Canadian national anthem, hearing all of the Oilers fans in the crowd singing might’ve made you think it was an Oilers home game. William Karlsson was playing in his first game since January 1st after missing 12 games due to injury. He took many faceoffs against Connor McDavid. Edmonton did get into some penalty trouble early, with Dylan Holloway getting called for high-sticking two and a half minutes into the game. With less than ten minutes to go in the penalty, Vincent Desharnais disrupted a rush for the Vegas Golden Knights with a poke check that sent McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on a rush of their own. Draisaitl makes the last pass to McDavid, who scores the shorthanded goal off the 2v1 to make it 1-0 close to the five minute mark. Considering the long break from NHL games, this was a pretty back-and-forth game. Both Edmonton and Vegas were fast on pucks, whether it be forechecking or backchecking. Nearing the end of the second period, William Karlsson took a wrist shot that hit the side of the net. The shot went by so quickly that everyone in the rink thought he scored; even the goal horn and goal song went off. About a minute after that, Nicolas Roy tied it up with his 10th of the season. His line with Ivan Barbashev and Jonathan Marchessault combined for 33 points in seven games coming into this one. Make that 34 points in eight games as I type this. The score is 1-1 heading into the first period. Shots on goal were 13-8, favouring the Golden Knights.
Second Period Summary:
That period belonged entirely to Adin Hill. The Oilers outshot the Golden Knights 18-6, but Hill’s .936 SV% on the season is not a fluke. The one shot on net that was good enough to beat Hill was Evan Bouchard‘s patented slap shot from the blue line. However, it was not good enough to beat the post. The third line of Ryan McLeod, Dylan Holloway, and Perry also had a good chance around the net to score. Hill may’ve made the save anyway, but Nicolas Hague made a solid play to deflect that scoring chance away. Hill also made Draisaitl look skyward as he dove across to stop him after McDavid set him up with an open net chance. As the second period was expiring, Darnell Nurse started roughing up with Alex Pietrangelo. Remember that both of these players were suspended for Game Five of their series against each other last season. The rivalry doesn’t seem to be dead. Nurse made some excellent defensive plays in the first two periods to disrupt scoring chances off rushes and also made a good long pass to McDavid for a good scoring chance. The score was still 1-1, the total shots on goal through two periods were 24-9.
Third Period Summary:
1:24 into the third period, Chandler Stevenson breaks the tie. Marchessault, who I thought was credited with an assist on Roy’s goal, is credited with one here. When Edmonton pulled Skinner, Vegas had some open chances to ice the puck in the empty net. The Oilers made good plays to deny it. The Golden Knights would eventually score on the empty net, however. Karlsson’s 16th of the season ends Edmonton’s 16-game winning streak and prevents them from tying Pittsburgh’s 17-game winning streak from 1992/1993. The final score was 3-1 Vegas, the final tally for shots on goal was 31-26 favouring Edmonton.
