Returning home from a five-game road trip, the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights by a score of 4-3 in a pivotal battle between Pacific Division rivals at Rogers Place on Sunday (Dec. 21) night.
Related: Oilers Avoid Collapse and Hold On for 4-3 Victory Over Golden Knights
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice, while Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid each had a goal for the Oilers, who stormed out to a 4-0 lead. Vegas got goals from Pavel Dorofeyev, Tomas Hertl and Mitch Marner. Edmonton went two-for-three on the power play, while the Golden Knights converted two of their five opportunities with the man advantage.
Goaltender Connor Ingram made 26 saves to pick up the win in his Oilers debut. Vegas goalie Carter Hart stopped 17 shots.
Edmonton and Vegas are now tied for second place in the Pacific Division standings with 42 points apiece, two points back of the division-leading Anaheim Ducks.
Oilers Have Best Start to a Game This Season
While both teams were playing for a second straight night in a different city (Edmonton was coming off a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild in Saint Paul, while Vegas was coming off a 6-3 loss to the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome), the Oilers came out with a lot more energy and jumped all over the Golden Knights. It was arguably Edmonton’s best first half of a game this season.
Edmonton took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission after McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins scored in the first period. Nugent-Hopkins potted his second goal of the game at 2:22 of the second period, and Hyman tallied at 7:45 of the middle frame to give the Oilers a seemingly insurmountable 4-0 lead.
Oilers Show Progress Despite Nearly Blowing Lead
Hertl got the Golden Knights on the board with a power-play goal at 12:59 of the second period. Then Dorofeyev and Marner scored less than two minutes apart early in the third period, at 3:52 and 5:49, respectively. Suddenly, Vegas was within one goal with more than 14 minutes remaining.
At this point, there were probably more than a few fans thinking, “here we go again”, and rightly so, considering the Oilers have blown their share of multi-goal leads this season. But this instance was different. It wasn’t like the Oilers completely fell apart. Rather, it was more the case of a very good veteran Vegas team kicking its game into gear.
After Marner scored, Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch called a timeout to settle the troops, and it worked. There was never any panic, even as Vegas mounted a furious rally, outshooting Edmonton 12-3 in the third period.
Ideally, the Oilers would dominate the entire game like they did the first 30 or so minutes. Ideally, they would not let a four-goal lead shrink to one. But Sunday’s game feels like one that Edmonton might have lost a few weeks ago, and that’s a great sign of progress for this team with Stanley Cup aspirations.
Ingram Comes Up Big in His NHL Return
Huge credit goes to Ingram, who could have easily been rattled after giving up three straight goals, but was able to lock his net down and preserve the victory.
Ingram, who was recalled from the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League (AHL) on Friday (Dec. 19) after Oilers netminder Tristan Jarry was injured in Edmonton’s 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday (Dec. 18), hadn’t played an NHL game since February when he was still a member of the Utah Mammoth. Edmonton acquired Ingram in a trade with Utah on Oct. 1.
Prior to Sunday’s game, Knoblauch said that Jarry will be out for a couple weeks, so this likely won’t be the last action that Ingram sees in Edmonton, although it probably won’t be until after Christmas: expect Calvin Pickard to get the start in goal for the Oilers when they play their final game before the holiday break on Tuesday (Dec. 23) at home against the Flames.
