For the first time since 2017, the Edmonton Oilers have a 2-0 lead in a playoff series. Let’s just not worry about what happened that year.
After winning Game 1 in Vegas, the Oilers took down the Golden Knights again in Game 2, this time with a 5-4 victory in overtime. Despite the Golden Knights getting out to an early lead, Edmonton again stormed back and pulled off a comeback victory.
Let’s go through what happened in Game 2.
Shockingly, the Golden Knights opened the scoring. Midway through the first period and on their second consecutive power play, the Knights made a nice passing play and eventually found Victor Olofsson all alone in the faceoff dot. Calvin Pickard had no chance on this one.
The Oilers found an equalizer with about eight and a half minutes left in the second period. Vasily Podkolzin got a zone entry, threw the puck around the boards to Viktor Arvidsson, who passed it back to Podkolzin. Jake Walman received the puck from Podkolzin and ripped it past Adin Hill to tie the game at one, the defenceman’s first career postseason goal.
About four minutes later, the fourth line was back at it. Podkolzin made a quick move at the blue line to enter the centre of the ice, ripping it past Hill to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead. Like Walman, this was Podkolzin’s first career postseason goal
On a four-on-four with just under three minutes left in the second period, Leon Draisaitl forced a turnover by wildly swinging his stick. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins retrieved the puck and found a streaking Darnell Nurse, who ripped it past Hill for his second goal in three games, giving the Oilers a 3-1 lead.
The Oilers looked poised to take a 3-1 lead into the third period, but the Golden Knights got one back with under two minutes left in the period. Jack Eichel’s shot from the point was tipped downward by William Karlsson, beating Pickard five-hole to cut the Oilers’ lead to one heading into the third period.
Just under two minutes into the final frame, Evander Kane received the puck in the slot and put it on net. After taking two lucky deflections, the puck slowly squeaked into the net to give the Oilers a 4-2 lead.
After Connor McDavid took a high-sticking penalty, the Knights cut the lead to within one with just under 15 and a half minutes left. It was another cross-ice pass to Olofsson for his second of the game. The Oilers were just far too passive on this penalty kill.
The Golden Knights convert on the power play once more to make it 4-3.
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The Golden Knights tied the game with about eight minutes left in the third. They had tilted the ice for a sustained period, and after the puck was kept in at the blue line, the defence-to-defence pass went to Alex Pietrangelo, who beat a heavily screened Pickard.
On the shift after a pretty brutal no-call on Viktor Arvidsson for a trip, McDavid burned his defender with speed, setting up a two-on-one. The Golden Knights’ defender went down too late, allowing McDavid to make a simple pass to Leon Draisaitl, who scored his second overtime playoff goal this postseason for the win.
Takeaways…
After Tuesday’s game, the Oilers set a new record of five consecutive postseason comeback games. You can make it six as the Golden Knights scored the opening goal early in this game, just for the Oilers to storm back and win it. The Oilers have only scored the first goal once in this postseason, a little concerning.
For the first time since 2017, the Edmonton Oilers are up 2-0 in a postseason series. If you may recall, that is when they took both games in Anaheim against the Ducks, but proceeded to lose the next three games. In the end, they fell in seven games and didn’t make the second round for another five postseasons.
The good news is that they’re a little bit older and more mature now. Yeah, they blew a 4-2 lead like they blew a late 3-0 lead against the Ducks in that series, but they composed themselves and won in overtime.
Regarding the referees, the five-minute major on Nicolas Roy was the right call; he cross-checked Trent Frederic in the face and drew blood. If anyone has a grip with the referees in this game, it’d have to be the Golden Knights, as the referees missed a blatant trip on Viktor Arvidsson that sent Brayden McNabb hard into the boards. The Oilers scored the game-winner shortly after.
It’s hard to believe, but the Oilers have had 12 power plays on the road this postseason and have yet to score on any of them. The Knights won the special teams battle in this game, capitalizing on two of their four power plays. Oilers need to tighten up their defence on the penalty kill and find ways to score goals on the power play, it’s as simple as that.
Calvin Pickard saved 28 of 32 shots for an .875 save percentage. Again, that doesn’t tell the whole story, as the Oilers’ starting netminder made three massive saves in the second period, including a breakaway save shortly before the Oilers’ second goal. He also helped weather the storm in overtime, leading the Oilers win. There’s almost no reason for the Oilers to return to Stuart Skinner this postseason.
Let’s talk about lines. On Wednesday, Zach Laing wrote an article about whether or not the Oilers have found the optimal lines. So far, this series, it’s a pretty easy yes. Take this game, for example. The Oilers’ first two goals were scored by the fourth line, and after the four-on-four goal by Darnell Nurse, the Oilers received a goal from their de facto second line, as Kane found the 4-2 goal. All four lines have scored at least one goal in the two games.
The Oilers’ depth has been great this series. There have been eight different scorers on nine goals. Before Leon Draisaitl’s overtime goal, he and Connor McDavid had just two points each in this series. Hopefully, they both start to get rolling as the series shifts to Edmonton.
Game 3 is on Saturday at 7:00 PM MT. The Oilers have an opportunity to get a stranglehold on the series with a win. With that being said, they’ve blown a 2-0 lead in the past, so let’s hope it’s not the same situation this season.
