Edmonton Oilers stop Seattle for 4th straight win
Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists as the Edmonton Oilers won their fourth straight, 5-2 over the Seattle Kraken Tuesday night at Rogers Place.
Evander Kane returned after missing 31 games with a wrist laceration. He played 17:09 with seven shots on goal and five hits.
“No issues tonight… other than my finish,” Kane joked after missing some open chances throughout the game. “I felt a lot better tonight than I did when I first came here last year, so I’m looking forward to Thursday (against Tampa Bay).”
“I thought he played a heck of a game tonight,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said of Kane. “For somebody that’s missed that amount of hockey to step right into mid-season pace and execution level — I thought he made us a better team.”
The Kraken went ahead on a power play 3:11 into the game when Daniel Sprong’s pass deflected in off Darnell Nurse’s stick. Connor McDavid tied it up with his 38th, roaring down the left side and beating Martin Jones up high with a wrist shot.
Early in the second, Vincent Desharnais’ point shot leaked through Jones and came to rest just short of the goal line. Derek Ryan was the first one to it. He swept in his sixth of the season. The Oilers went up 3-1 on a goal-mouth scramble. Warren Foegele was on the seat of the pants but was still able to sweep in his fifth.
“You’ve got to find ways to score and get to the net — it’s huge come playoffs. You’ve got to find dirty goals and we got them tonight,” Zach Hyman said.
“We’ve talked about how we need to go to the net more and getting more pucks to the net, and you see we get five goals tonight,” Foegele said. “Everyone’s contributing and working hard and we’ve just got to stay with it.”
Vince Dunn floated a softie past Jack Campbell’s glove 22 seconds into the third. The Oilers had their two-goal lead restored 1:01 later when a backchecking Eeli Tolvanen inadvertently poked the puck into his own net. Zach Hyman got credit. Ryan McLeod found a loose puck in the crease to pot his sixth and make it 5-2.
“Three guys that maybe aren’t at the high end of the goal chart went somewhere in order to find offensive success,” Woodcroft said of Derek Ryan, Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod.
Campbell made 29 saves to improve to 13-8-1.
“He earned the right to feel confident by the amount of work that he put in,” Woodcroft said of Campbell’s recent turnaround in play.
The Oilers, 25-18-3, will host Tampa Bay on Thursday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7 p.m.)
— With files from Brenden Escott, 630 CHED
by 630CHED
