Evan Bouchard scored the overtime winner on his 27th birthday as the Edmonton Oilers survived the visiting Minnesota Wild’s comeback effort to win 4-3 on Tuesday.
Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl scored twice on the power play to give him five goals in his past four games, while Connor McDavid collected three assists to increase his league-leading total to 26 points (six goals, 20 assists).
Mathieu Joseph added a goal and Devon Levi finished with 27 saves as the Oilers improved to 7-1-1.
Kirill Kaprizov notched his league-leading 11th goal and added an assist for the Wild, who had been on a 4-1-0 run. Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman also found the back of the net, and Jesper Wallstedt made 28 saves in the losing effort.
Bouchard ended the contest 3:32 into overtime, wiring a wrist shot past Wallstedt for the game-clinching power-play tally after Minnesota was penalized for too many men on the ice.
Draisaitl is the only other Edmonton player ever to register an overtime goal on his birthday, having accomplished the feat on Oct. 27, 2024.
Eriksson Ek followed up on his own rebound and jammed it past Levi to give the Wild the initial lead 3:32 into the first period.
The Oilers capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play late in the first period when Draisaitl one-timed a pass from McDavid past an outstretched Wallstedt with 2.9 seconds left.
Draisaitl swiftly struck again just over a minute into the middle frame as McDavid spotted him open in front to hook up for his second consecutive power-play tally.
Joseph knocked home a loose puck that trickled through Wallstedt at 6:01 of the second period to give Edmonton a 3-1 lead.
Moments after Kaprizov found the post with a backhand attempt, Bouchard walked in at the other end and blasted a powerful wrist shot off the crossbar with 4:31 left in the second.
Kaprizov made it a one-goal game with 9:30 left in the third as he wired a wrist shot over Levi’s glove.
Hartman knotted the contest just over two minutes later, picking up a pass from Bobby Brink and firing home his first goal of the season.
Wallstedt made several key saves while Minnesota was short-handed in overtime before Bouchard finally beat him to end it.
–Field Level Media
