It was the usual suspects who came through in the Edmonton Oilers ' 5-4 overtime victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night, when Connor McDavid beat Jack Eichel with beautiful stickhandling to set up Leon Draisaitl 's game-winning goal.
The Oilers' Game 2 win gives them complete control of the series, which they now lead 2-0 after taking both games on the Golden Knights' home ice. Once again, it was in come-from-behind fashion.
Vegas got the first power play at 6:15 in the first period; the Golden Knights failed to do anything with it, only getting one shot on net and struggling to establish puck possession in the offensive zone. With a second left on the power play, Edmonton's Adam Henrique flipped the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty, giving the Golden Knights another opportunity with the man advantage.
This one went a lot smoother. Mark Stone set Victor Olofsson up for a pretty goal at 8:42, making it look easy on their second power-play chance.
Vegas held its 1-0 advantage for the rest of the first and deep into the second period, but a slap shot from Oilers defenseman Jake Walman at 11:31 deflected off Brayden McNabb 's leg and into the back of the net to tie the score 1-1.
Edmonton added another goal soon after; after struggling for the first 31-plus minutes to manufacture anything in the offensive end, the Oilers took the lead less than four minutes later at 15:18. Vasily Podkolzin earned his second point of the night and first career playoff goal, sneaking the puck past Adin Hill .
Still, the Oilers weren't finished in their big second period. Skating four aside, Darnell Nurse stepped into open ice and beat Hill with a wrist shot to put Edmonton up 3-1 at 17:17. Vegas got one back before the period ended on a William Karlsson goal at 18:10; but less than two minutes into the third period, Evander Kane pushed Edmonton's lead back to two, scoring at 1:52.
The Golden Knights found success on their power play again, the same way they did in the first period. Eichel found Olofsson back door, on a very similar set play to his first goal.
The Golden Knights effectively took momentum and started to put more pressure on Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard . He finally cracked; the Golden Knights knotted the score at four on a nifty deflection by Tomas Hertl at 11:58.
They dominated the early going of overtime as well, testing Pickard, who made save after save to prolong the game. A brutal cross-check to the face of Trent Frederic by Vegas forward Nicolas Roy got him a five-minute major and a game misconduct, staging a golden opportunity for the Oilers at 5:37.
Somehow, Vegas survived. Hill saved eightshots and Vegas killed off the power play, firing up the T-Mobile Arena crowd. As the power play expired, Oilers forward Zach Hyman fired the puck off the crossbar, sinking his head in his hand in disbelief.
Hyman's near goal became a footnote a few minutes later when Draisaitl ended the game at 15:20 of overtime, finishing an exciting, emotional, back-and-forth thriller.
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Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Edmonton's first four goals came from a wide variety of names: Kane, Nurse, Podkolzin and Walman. The four combined for a whopping 14 regular-season goals. Podkolzin led this group with eight and Nurse followed with five. Walman only scored one goal after coming over in a trade with the San Jose Sharks , and Nurse spent the entirety of the regular season on LTIR.
Though McDavid and Draisaitl ultimately hooked up for the overtime winner, the unlikely heroes were the ones who had Edmonton in the position to take the 2-0 series lead. McDavid and Draisaitl both failed to record a point in regulation, typically a danger sign for the Oilers. In the past nine games when neither superstar landed on the score sheet, the Oilers were winless. Of course, they did get on the score sheet when it mattered most, for the OT game-winner.
But getting production from the entire lineup makes the Oilers an extremely dangerous team.
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After dropping the first two games of their first-round matchup with the Los Angeles Kings , the Oilers have now won six consecutive playoff games – they trailed at some point in all of them.
This one played out differently than Game 1, when Edmonton utterly dominated after going down 2-0 in the first period. The Oilers trailed by one after 20 minutes on Thursday night, but took a multi-goal lead thanks to a three-goal second period.
They nearly got a taste of their own medicine this time, when the Oilers blew a third-period lead before Draisaitl buried the game-winner in overtime.
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No one from the Golden Knights complained about the five-minute major assessed to Roy in overtime when his blatant cross-check nailed Frederic in the face, cutting the Oilers forward in the process. But there were plenty of complaints about a non-call later in overtime, which came right before Draisaitl's game-winner.
Oilers forward Victor Arvidsson got his stick between the legs of Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb and then shoved him into boards as the pair chased the puck behind the Vegas net. McNabb went down hard and was forced to leave the game with an unspecified injury.
No penalty was called, and the Oilers scored off the resulting face-off in the Vegas zone 17 seconds later.
"He blew it, he missed the call," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said of linesman Gord Dwyer. "I don't know what else to say. It's a can-opener trip, it's a dangerous play, it's all those things. But it didn't get called, so you've got to keep playing."
Not only did the Golden Knights lose the game, but now they could be without two regulars from their lineup when they head to Edmonton for a must-win Game 3 this weekend. Roy very well could be suspended by NHL Department of Player Safety and McNabb might be out with an injury.
"Pretty clear-cut penalty," Vegas captain Mark Stone added. "That's hockey. You don't always get the calls, but unfortunate now we might be down a D-man. … We'll see tomorrow but yeah. It's just a dirty play and we don't get the call."
