Vegas Golden Knights goalie Laurent Brossoit (39) makes the save as Edmonton Oilers' Zach Hyman (18) and Brayden McNabb (3) look for the rebound during second period NHL action in Edmonton on Saturday March 25, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
EDMONTON – Nicolas Roy scored the overtime winner and Jack Eichel had a goal and two assists as the Vegas Golden Knights won their fourth game in a row, knocking off the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Saturday night.
Roy was left alone in front of the Edmonton net and deposited his own rebound past Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner 2:26 into OT.
Pavel Dorofeyev and Jonathan Marchessault also scored for the Knights (46-21-6) who have won eight of their last nine and sport a league-best 17-3-2 record since the NHL All-Star break.
Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Warren Foegele replied for the Oilers (41-23-9) who had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Vegas scored on the first shot of the game 61 seconds in as Eichel took a feed on a two-on-one from Ivan Barbashev and beat the Oilers’ starter stick-side for his 27th goal of the season.
Not to be outdone, the Oilers also scored on their first shot on Knights goalie Laurent Brossoit 3:28 into the opening frame, as Draisaitl put it right on the tape of Zach Hyman’s stick in front of the net and he redirected in his 31st. Draisaitl set a new career high for points on the play, hitting 111 after capping out at 110 points two previous seasons.
The Golden Knights regained the lead on the power play with 3:33 to play in the first period when the puck came to Dorofeyev on a broken play and he wired home his fifth of the campaign to the top right corner.
Edmonton’s lethal power play allowed them to knot the game up midway through the middle period as Connor McDavid sent it to Draisaitl in the slot and he took it on the backhand before spinning around and scoring his 45th goal of the season. It was also Draisaitl’s 28th power-play goal, the most by any player in a season since Mario Lemieux in 1995-1996.
Vegas found another gear to start the third and went ahead 3-2 almost seven minutes into the final frame as Eichel dropped a pass back in the lane to Marchessault, who beat Skinner with a one-timer.
Brossoit followed that up with a massive save on Mattias Ekholm.
Edmonton tied the game once again with 8:41 to play in the third as Foegele tied his career high by scoring his 13th on a long wrist shot to eventually send the game to extra time.
NOTES
Edmonton won both previous meetings between the two teams this season, both by 4-3 scores. “¦ Vegas was missing a bunch of bodies in Mark Stone (back), William Carrier (lower body), Adin Hill (lower body), Logan Thompson (undisclosed), Reilly Smith (lower body) and Alec Martinez (personal). As a result, defenceman Ben Hutton returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the past 21 games. Forward Keegan Kolesar also returned after missing six games with an upper-body injury. In net, Brossoit made his first start since Feb. 25. “¦ Edmonton was without the services of Ryan Murray (back) and Ryan McLeod (upper body). “¦ The Golden Knights and Oilers both boast 11 skaters with 10-plus goals – tied for second in the NHL in that category. “¦ Oilers defender Cody Ceci played in his 700th career NHL game.
UP NEXT
The Knights are off until Tuesday, when they will play the Oilers again in a rematch in Vegas.
The Oilers make a quick trip to Arizona to face the Coyotes on Monday before playing the Knights again in the final matchup between the two teams during the regular season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 25, 2023.
