The Edmonton Oilers continued their hot streak with a 6-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights at Rogers Place on Saturday (Dec. 14).
Connor Brown, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Corey Perry and Jeff Skinner all scored for the Oilers. Vegas replied with goals from Ivan Barbashev, Brett Howden, and Victor Olofsson.
Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner made 38 saves in a winning effort, while Vegas goalie Adin Hill took the loss after conceding six goals on 34 shots.
Related: Oilers Hold On to Defeat Golden Knights 6-3
Edmonton has now won five straight games and eight of its last nine overall. The Oilers are also on a five-game home winning streak and have victories in seven of their last eight contests at Rogers Place.
Since losing to Vegas 4-2 on Nov. 6, Edmonton is 12-3-1 for a points percentage of .781, the best in the NHL over the span. This was Edmonton’s first win in three tries against Vegas this season, and the Oilers are now just three points back of the Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division.
All of which is to say, things are going pretty well for the Oilers right now. Here’s a closer look at the defending Western Conference champions’ latest victory.
Oilers Build an Insurmountable Lead
During the second period, Edmonton erupted to score four times in a span of 11:40, opening up a lead of 5-0 before the second period was even 13 minutes old.
The game was pretty much over at that point. Or at least, it should have been. But to their credit, the Golden Knights answered with two quick goals, from Olofsson at 15:35 and Barbashev at 16:01, to pull within 5-2 going into the second intermission.
Then disaster struck for Stuart Skinner in the opening minute of the third period, while the Oilers were on a power play. Edmonton’s goalie misplayed the puck behind his own net, coughing it up to Howden. Skinner then fell to the ice, leaving an unattended net for Howden to score easily with 19 minutes remaining.
A hush fell over the Rogers Place crowd. With their seemingly insurmountable lead now cut to two goals, how would the Oilers respond?
Skinner Helping Skinner
Leave it up to one Skinner to bail out the other. On the ensuing shift after Howden scored, the Oilers gained the Vegas zone, pressing with a sense of urgency and purpose.
Edmonton defenceman Mattias Ekholm took a slapshot from just inside the blue line that Hill stopped, but Jeff Skinner pounced on the rebound and put the puck past the Vegas goaltender at 1:38 of the third period.
It was the sixth goal of the season for the Oilers forward, and effectively put the game out of reach. The Golden Knights didn’t go away, however. The visitors fired 14 more shots on Stuart Skinner, but Edmonton’s goalie rose to the occasion, stopping them all, and making a couple of highlight-worthy saves in the process.
Strong Game Between the Pipes
His horrific gaffe notwithstanding, Stuart Skinner had a terrific outing on Saturday. During his post-game media availability, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch heaped praise upon his goalie:
“Stu was our best player today,” Knoblauch said. “I thought he played extremely well. He made one mistake tonight, but that was maybe our worst game that we’ve defended. The amount of chances that we gave up tonight, and he just made save after save. You need your goalie to make those saves, and I think our goaltenders have been really good in the last few weeks in winning us games. We’re obviously very happy with Stu and you need goaltending like that if we’re going to have success long-term, and this is the goaltending I saw pretty much all of last year.”
While Skinner had his streak of allowing two goals or fewer snapped at five starts, his 38 saves were the most in a game this season. Since Nov. 22, Skinner is 5-1-0 with a .942 save percentage (SV%) and 1.68 goals against average (GAA). That’s a massive improvement from the stats over his first 14 appearances of 2024-25, during which he was 6-6-2 with a .876 SV% and 3.33 GAA.
Skinner was credited with the 83rd regular season win of his career, tying Mikko Koskinen for sixth-most by a goalie in Oilers history.
Oilers Forwards Climb the Charts
Another Oiler was climbing the all-time charts on Saturday. Connor McDavid picked up an assist, giving Edmonton’s captain 1,023 career regular season points, to move ahead of Brian Bellows for sole possession of 91st place in NHL history. McDavid is now just two points back of Patrik Elias for 90th place.
Meanwhile, Draisaitl picked up two assists to go with his goal on Saturday. Draisaitl remains first in the NHL for most goals this season, with 22, and is now tied for fourth most points in 2024-25, alongside Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, with 45.
Oilers Get Team-Wide Contributions
Draisaitl and McDavid are always going to get their stats, but what stood out from Edmonton’s victory on Saturday – and has been notable about their recent success in general – was the number of players that chipped in offensively.
This was the third time this season that at least six different Oilers have scored in a game, and the second game in a row, following Edmonton’s 7-1 victory over Minnesota on Thursday (Dec. 12), when seven different Oilers scored.
Twelve different Oilers players had at least one point on Saturday, which is tied for the second most in a game this season, one fewer than the 13 players who recorded either a goal or an assist against the Wild on Thursday.
The Oilers will look to continue their winning ways when they return to action on Monday (Dec. 16) for the highly anticipated Stanley Cup Final rematch against the Florida Panthers, at Rogers Place.
