The Edmonton Oilers survived a third period rally by the Vegas Golden Knights for a 5-4 shootout win Tuesday night at Rogers Place. The Oilers have won three straight.
“We’ll take wins any way we can get them at this point,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said post-game.
McDavid had a goal and two assists. He has 12 points in the last three games.
The Oilers scored the only goal of the first period when Sam Gagner’s shot from the right wing boards snuck between Logan Thompson’s left arm and the goal post.
“He scores a lot in practice because he shoots to score,” Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said of Gagner. “It was a bad angle but he knew what he was doing.”
Mark Stone tied it 1:11 into the second when he deflected a point shot past Stuart Skinner. Mattias Janmark put the Oilers back in front when the rebound from Mattias Ekholm’s point shot went in off his body. However, Michael Amadio found himself all alone in front to tie it 43 seconds later.
With the teams playing four-on-four, McDavid snatched a loose puck in the neutral zone and went in alone on Logan Thompson. He went to the backhand to tally his eighth of the season.
“I think there’s a lot less frustration with him than there was previously two weeks ago,” Knoblauch said.
Late in the second, Evander Kane banged in a power play rebound to make it 4-2 Edmonton.
Ben Hutton pulled Vegas within one with 6:30 to go in the third. With 2:08 left, Keegan Kolesar knocked a puck out of the air to make it 4-4.
“Guys were positive on the bench. It was ‘don’t worry about it, we’re still going to get the two points, let’s continue to play hockey’,” Knoblauch said. “I don’t think I would’ve heard that earlier when I first came here.”
“I thought we played a really good game for about 53 minutes there, we just can’t let leads like that slip away and give a team in our division that we’re trying to catch a point,” Kane said after the win.
In the dying seconds of overtime, Evan Bouchard tapped a pass from McDavid just wide on a two-on-one.
McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had the only goals in the shootout.
Zach Hyman was a late scratch due to illness. Gagner was added to the lineup as a result.
The Oilers, 8-12-1, will play in Winnipeg on Thursday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 4:30 p.m., game at 6 p.m.).
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