Evander Kane scored twice in the third period to tie the game. On Wednesday night, he completed his seventh career hat trick with the winning goal in overtime, rallying the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken.
Connor McDavid also scored, Evan Bouchard tallied three assists, and Leon Draisaitl added two for the Oilers, who overcame a two-goal deficit to secure their third consecutive win. Stuart Skinner made 33 saves.
“I think we’re starting to find our groove a little here,” Kane said.
Jared McCann, Alex Wennberg, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored in the second period to give Seattle a 3-1 lead. Joey Daccord made 28 saves, but the Kraken lost for the fifth time in six games (1-3-2).
“I feel like we had our opportunities to score a couple more goals,” Wennberg said. “In general, I think we had a pretty good game. It’s a tough way to end it. Things happen out there, but we can’t lose this game. This is one of those games we have to fight through and find a way to win, and unfortunately, we didn’t today.”
Kane pulled the Oilers within one with 6:32 remaining in the third when he redirected Bouchard’s shot from the point.
Kane then tied it with just 46 seconds left, with Skinner pulled for an extra attacker. Draisaitl chipped a pass through the crease, allowing Kane to score upstairs on Daccord.
In overtime, Zach Hyman waited for a Seattle defender to commit before sending the puck across to Kane, who scored his seventh goal of the season.
“Going into a long road trip here to finally get a couple of wins at home in a row is nice. We’ve come back before, down going into the third period,” Kane said. “It was nice to be able to do that for the first time this year.”
It was Edmonton’s second straight win since Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft as coach on Sunday.
Knoblauch was pleased his team recovered from a dreadful second-period stretch.
“The last 12 minutes of the second period was almost rock bottom, in my opinion. I didn’t think we played well at all. But in the third period, we showed a lot of passion and perseverance to stick with it,” the coach said. “Hopefully, how we won today makes us a better team in the long run.”
Edmonton got on the scoreboard at 5:21 of the second period when Draisaitl sent McDavid alone to beat Daccord with a backhand move. McDavid scored his second goal in two games and his fourth of the season.
Seattle tied it 1:59 later when a rebound of Jordan Eberle’s shot deflected off McCann’s shin pad and into Edmonton’s net. It was McCann’s seventh goal.
The Kraken took a 2-1 lead at 9:24 of the middle period after a bad clearing attempt allowed Vince Dunn to fire a shot from the point that was tipped by Bellemare past Skinner for his second goal.
Seattle went ahead 3-1 with 2:39 remaining in the second as Wennberg picked up a rebound out front and executed a spin-around shot that eluded Skinner for his first goal.
Edmonton caught a break early in the third by avoiding an own goal. With a Seattle penalty upcoming, Oilers defender Vincent Desharnais attempted to pass out from the corner, but nobody was there. The puck hit Edmonton’s post, with Skinner pulled for an extra attacker.
The Oilers placed Mattias Janmark (shoulder) and Dylan Holloway (lower body) on long-term injured reserve. Raphael Lavoie, Adam Erne, and Philip Broberg were recalled from Bakersfield of the AHL. Also out hurt for Edmonton is Connor Brown (lower body), but he’s been skating and is expected to be ready for the start of their upcoming road trip.
Veteran forward Eberle returned to the Seattle lineup after missing three games with a leg cut suffered in practice on Nov. 8.
UP NEXT
- Kraken: Host the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
- Oilers: At Tampa Bay on Saturday night to open a four-game trip.
