Leon Draisaitl notched a goal and an assist, Connor McDavid added to his career-long success against Tampa Bay and the Edmonton Oilers ran their winning streak to three games by edging the visiting Lightning 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Draisaitl scored a flukey goal in the second period that proved to be the game-winner as the Oilers won for the fourth straight time at home and moved to 9-3-0 in their past 12 games against the Lightning in Alberta.
In his 13th career game against Tampa Bay, McDavid hit the net for the 12th time. Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner made 21 saves to move to 4-1-0 in his past five outings.
Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel scored in his fourth consecutive game, while Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 24 shots as the Lightning slipped to 1-1-0 on their four-game road trip.
The Lightning dropped to 6-6-1 on the road and lost for the first time against a Pacific Division foe (4-1-0).
At 14:48 of the first period, McDavid roared in on a breakaway against Vasilevskiy, but the big netminder was all over McDavid’s backhanded effort.
Mattias Ekholm ripped an 89 mph rocket that blew past Vasilevskiy just over seven minutes in. However, the Lightning immediately challenged for offside, which was confirmed, and the tally was taken down.
After Edmonton killed off the first Tampa Bay power play, McDavid split defensemen Ryan McDonagh and J.J. Moser, flashing past both with breezy speed and scoring for the 14th time at 17:31 of the opening period.
A failed clearing attempt by the Oilers in their end wound up on Nikita Kucherov’s stick midway through the second period. The right winger whipped the puck to Guentzel, who fired in his 13th marker off Kucherov’s team-leading 25th assist.
On a quirky goal at 11:58 of the second, Edmonton regained the lead when Vasilevskiy again stopped a breakaway backhander — this time by Draisaitl — but the puck bounced back, hit onrushing defenseman Victor Hedman and got by the goalie.
Draisaitl was credited with an unassisted goal, his club-high 20th tally of the season.
In the closing minutes, Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins committed a tripping penalty, creating a six-on-four with Vasilevskiy pulled for the extra skater.
Tampa Bay’s Nick Paul appeared to score with less than 10 seconds left, but the goal was waved off due to Paul’s high stick, and the Oilers held on for their sixth win in seven games.
–Field Level Media
