Streaking Oilers continue dominance of Kraken
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist and Viktor Arvidsson contributed two assists as the Edmonton Oilers held on for a 4-2 victory against the host Seattle Kraken on Saturday night, their seventh straight win against their Pacific Division rivals.
Vasily Podkolzin, Jeff Skinner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who won their third consecutive game overall. Goaltender Calvin Pickard made 15 saves.
Draisaitl, who leads the NHL with 29 goals, scored into an empty net at 18:02 of the third period to clinch the victory. Draisaitl, who had the game-winning goal on Friday in a 3-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks, extended his point streak to 14 games. Teammate Connor McDavid was held pointless in consecutive games for just the second time this season.
Chandler Stephenson and Jaden Schwartz scored for Seattle, which had a three-game point streak snapped. Philipp Grubauer, making his fourth consecutive start in place of the injured Joey Daccord (upper-body injury), stopped 28 of 31 shots.
Trailing 3-0, the Kraken finally got on the board at 15:56 of the second period, as Stephenson kept the puck on a two-on-one rush and beat Pickard with a low shot to the goalie's stick side. The goal came just three seconds after Seattle had killed off a penalty.
Schwartz converted a rebound off Vince Dunn's broken-stick slap shot from the left point at 7:27 of the third period to make it 3-2 before Draisaitl sealed the victory.
The Oilers outshot Seattle 10-3 in taking a two-goal lead in the first period. Podkolzin opened the scoring just 57 seconds into the game, taking a cross-ice pass from Draisaitl and putting a one-timer into the upper corner of the net from just inside the right faceoff dot.
Edmonton nearly doubled its advantage at 3:14, but McDavid was stopped on a breakaway at the end of a long shift.
The Oilers made it 2-0 at 5:18 on a three-on-two rush from center ice, with Kasperi Kapanen sliding a pass ahead to Skinner behind the defense, freeing Skinner to beat Grubauer one-on-one.
Edmonton extended its lead to 3-0 on a nifty passing play at 11:52 of the second. Brett Kulak sent a pass from the top of the left faceoff circle to Connor Brown in front of the net. Brown was tied up by defenseman Jamie Oleksiak but got his stick free for a short drop pass to Nugent-Hopkins, who scored on a one-timer from the low slot.
--Field Level Media
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This story was originally published January 5, 2025 at 1:04 AM