Leon Draisaitl scored twice and added two assists, leading the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-2 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Monday night. The Oilers’ impressive start to the season continued.
Duncan Keith, Kyle Turris, and Kailer Yamamoto also found the net for the Oilers, who improved their record to 7-1-0. Goalie Mikko Koskinen made 27 saves in the win.
“I don’t think it was our best game overall, but good teams find a way to win, and we did that tonight,” said Keith, who scored his first goal with Edmonton in his 1,200th NHL game.
Jaden Schwartz and Carson Soucy scored a goal for the Kraken (3-6-1), but it wasn’t enough to avoid their second consecutive loss, having been defeated 3-1 at home by the New York Rangers the previous night. Joey Daccord made 18 saves for Seattle.
“It’s frustrating,” Schwartz said. “The last game was right there for us, and so was tonight. They were opportunistic to start; we had a lot of good chances, a lot of good looks, and we just had to find ways to put them in the back of the net and get hungrier around the net. Our power play has to start executing better for us and getting us on the board and getting us more momentum.”
Edmonton struck first just two minutes into the game when Tyson Barrie’s shot deflected off Draisaitl’s skate and past Daccord. Seattle quickly responded as Schwartz netted his first goal of the season, splitting the defense and scoring through Koskinen’s legs.
Two minutes later, Edmonton’s potent power play regained the lead. Zach Hyman set up Draisaitl for his seventh goal of the season into an open net, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins earning his league-leading 11th assist on the play.
Early in the second period, Keith capitalized on a rebound from Draisaitl’s shot to make it 3-1.
“It speaks to the depth of our group that we can win in different ways,” Draisaitl said. “We can win on the power play and special teams in general, our goalie can steal one, our defensemen are chipping in, our third line has won us games. We can win a game in different ways, and that is a pretty great asset to have on a team.”
Soucy brought the Kraken back within one with 1:20 left in the second, scoring on a rush and picking the top corner.
Edmonton extended their lead to 4-2 three minutes into the third period when Devin Shore set up Turris for a tap-in. Draisaitl earned his fourth point of the night by assisting Yamamoto’s goal with 7:30 remaining, ending Yamamoto’s 20-game goal drought.
“They were just telling me to get to the net and keep shooting, and eventually it would come, and tonight it finally came,” Yamamoto said.
Game Notes
The Kraken were without their leading scorer, Jared McCann, who is sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols. Also missing from the Seattle lineup were Chris Driedger (undisclosed), Marcus Johansson (undisclosed), Colin Blackwell (lower body), and Mason Appleton (lower body). The Oilers were only missing goalie Mike Smith, who did participate in the morning practice. Edmonton entered the game with the NHL’s top-ranked power play at 47.8%, while the Kraken’s power play ranked 30th at 10.3%.
UP NEXT
- Kraken: Host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.
- Oilers: Host the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.
