The Edmonton Oilers extended their win streak to three games and kept their slim chances of finishing second in the Pacific Division alive with a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Sunday (April 13).
Viktor Arvidsson, Connor Brown, Adam Henrique and Corey Perry all scored for the Oilers, while Alex Iafallo had Winnipeg’s lone goal. Edmonton never trailed; the score was 0-0 after the first period and 2-1 in favour of the Oilers through 40 minutes.
Playing for the first time in more than two weeks, Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner picked up his 25th win of 2024-25. Winnipeg goalie Eric Comrie was under fire for much of the game, as Edmonton outshot the Jets 39-18.
Both teams were missing key players from their respective lineups. Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jake Walman are among the many Oilers sidelined due to injury or illness. Winnipeg, having already clinched first place in the overall NHL standings, elected to rest Adam Lowry, Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk.
Edmonton has now played 80 of the 82 games on its 2024-25 schedule, while Winnipeg has only one game left to play in the regular season.
Oilers Getting Depth Scoring
With three of the Oilers’ top four goal-scoring leaders sidelined, other players have been stepping up during their current win streak. That was especially the case on Sunday, as they got two pivotal goals from their third line: Henrique tallied at 12:39 of the middle stanza to put the Oilers ahead 2-1, and Perry scored to make it 3-1 with 6:35 remaining in the game.
Brown, who has spent much of the season in Edmonton’s bottom six, opened the scoring just 59 seconds into the second period. He has four goals since moving up to play alongside captain Connor McDavid on the top line three games ago.
Arvidsson sealed the deal with an empty-net goal at 18:40 of the third period. The veteran winger now has five goals in his last eight games.
For virtually the entire season, Draisaitl (52 goals), Hyman (27), McDavid (26) and Nugent-Hopkins (20) have accounted for more than half of Edmonton’s total goals. The Oilers have now managed to win three straight contests without getting a single goal from any of that quartet, although McDavid has figured heavily in the offence, assisting on nine of Edmonton’s 12 goals during the win streak.
Skinner Solid in Return
Skinner hadn’t seen game action since March 26, when he made an early exit after being run into by Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen. The 26-year-old netminder missed Edmonton’s following seven games with a concussion before returning to back up Calvin Pickard against the San Jose Sharks on Friday (April 11).
While he wasn’t tested much against Winnipeg, Skinner made the saves he was supposed to, and didn’t appear at all rusty. In fact, this was one of the better performances in a while from the goalie, who had given up at least two goals in 19 of his previous 20 outings.
Skinner has underperformed in 2024-25, posting some of the worst stats (2.87 goals-against average, .894 save percentage) among starting goalies in the NHL. But the upshot of missing several games may be that it’s allowed him to reset, just in time for the playoffs.
Credit also goes to the Oilers’ blue line corps, who made it easy for their goaltender to get back in the swing of things. Edmonton limited the Jets to their second-fewest shots in a game this season, and just six high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Gaining Ground on Kings
Edmonton already knows it will be facing the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which begin on April 19. All that’s left to be decided is which team will have home ice advantage in the best-of-seven series.
With the Oilers winning on Sunday, Los Angeles’ lead for the second spot is just two points. The Kings, however, have one game in hand and hold the tiebreaker.
Related: Oilers Defeat Jets 4-1 as Stuart Skinner Wins in Return
That means the magic number for Los Angeles to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division is any combination of two points gained by the Kings or lost by the Oilers. If that happens, the Oilers will finish in third and start the postseason on the road in L.A.
As fate would have it, the Oilers and Kings face off tonight (April 14) at Rogers Place. Edmonton needs a victory to keep its second-place hopes alive.
The Oilers close out their regular season schedule by visiting the last-place San Jose Sharks on Wednesday (April 16). Los Angeles’ final two games come against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday (April 15) and at home against the Calgary Flames on Thursday (April 17).
