EDMONTON 鈥� When the key to a win is work ethic, it is not surprising to see Mattias Ekholm rise to the occasion.
Ekholm had a goal and two assists as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game skid with a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Noah Philp, Vasily Podkolzin and Raphael Lavoie also scored for the Oilers, who improved to 2-3 in NHL pre-season play.
鈥淭hey are a hard-working team, no matter who they have in the lineup, so we expected that,鈥� said Oilers forward Derek Ryan, who picked up a couple of assists.
鈥淭here were points in the game where we were kind of matching that intensity and work ethic and things were going well for us. We let the work ethic dip a little bit and then the game gets away from us. It is a good message to the guys who were playing and the whole group that it starts with work.鈥�
Jacob Melanson, Eduard Sale, John Hayden and Ben Meyers responded for the Kraken, who fell to 1-3 in exhibition action.
鈥淚 thought we were getting up the ice well, playing fast, playing north,鈥� said Meyers. 鈥淚 think we probably just gave up a little bit too much to win that game, but I thought offensively we played pretty well and we had our chance.鈥�
The Oilers started the scoring just over three minutes into the opening period as both defenders tried to cover Connor McDavid on a two-on-one, but he made a nice backhand pass back to Nugent-Hopkins, who beat Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer upstairs blocker side.
Seattle tied the game nine minutes into the first after Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard made a couple of saves in tight before Melanson was able to poke it in from the crease.
Pickard left the game soon afterwards after teammate Noah Philp got angled into his own netminder, hitting him in the head. Pickard did not return to the game.
Olivier Rodrigue replaced Pickard in the Edmonton net and surrendered a power-play goal with six minutes to play in the first as Ryan Winterton lifted a deft pass over a defender across to Sale for the goal.
Edmonton knotted the game with 2:43 remaining in the first frame as Ekholm spotted Philp driving the net and completed a long saucer pass through a couple Kraken players to allow him to wrist it home.
Seattle made it 3-2 5:32 into the second period after Rodrigue attempted to direct a puck away from the net, only to have it hit Hayden and carom into his net.
With two minutes left in the middle period, the Kraken added to their lead as Meyers elected to shoot on a two-on-one opportunity, beating the Oilers鈥� goalie upstairs.
Edmonton got that goal back just 26 seconds later as Derek Ryan threaded the needle to a trailing Ekholm and he beat Grubauer to make it 4-3.
The Oilers tied the game six minutes into the third on a short-handed tally as Ryan made a great play to draw the defenders his way before sending it over to Podkolzin for the easy tap-in.
Edmonton avoided overtime with 2:53 remaining in the final frame as Lavoie battled hard to retrieve the puck before swinging out front and sending a shot through Grubauer鈥檚 legs.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has been impressed with Lavoie鈥檚 skills as a sniper.
鈥淗e鈥檚 got good hands and an even better shot,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e showed great skill on that goal.鈥�
NOTES
The Oilers still had 41 players in camp 鈥� with four goalies, 13 defencemen and 24 forwards. 鈥� Seattle was down to 37 players at camp 鈥� 33 skaters and four goalies 鈥� after cutting eight players before Friday鈥檚 contest against Vancouver. 鈥� Edmonton had both of the players in camp who are on PTOs in the lineup on Saturday, forward Mike Hoffman and defenceman Travis Dermott. 鈥� Grubauer made his first appearance since last Sunday鈥檚 6-1 loss to Calgary, during which he allowed four goals on 19 shots.
UP NEXT
Kraken: Visit the Calgary Flames on Monday.
Oilers: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press
