Edmonton Oilers lose 5-2 at home to Minnesota Wild

Tyler Graovac scored twice as the Minnesota Wild won their third game in a row, defeating the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Tuesday.

Jason Zucker, Zach Parise and Chris Stewart also scored for the Wild (33-11-5), who have gone 22-3-2 since the beginning of December.

Anton Slepyshev and Leon Draisaitl responded for the Oilers (28-16-8), who saw a three-game winning streak come to an end.

There was plenty of pressure by both teams in the early running, but Minnesota struck first with seven minutes left in the first period as a clearing attempt hit Graovac in the leg and he manoeuvred it past Oilers goalie Cam Talbot in tight.

The Wild made it 2-0 with just 3.6 seconds left in the opening frame when Draisaitl coughed up the puck in front of the net to Zucker, who blasted a shot that trickled through Talbot’s legs and in for his 15th goal of the season.

Parise got to his own rebound and chipped a backhand shot over the Oilers goalie as Minnesota added to its lead four minutes into the second period.

Edmonton looked to have found some life with nine minutes left in the second on a Slepyshev deflection past Minnesota goalie Darcy Kuemper, but the Wild came right back less than two minutes later to make it 4-1 when Mikael Granlund set up Graovac for his second of the game and sixth goal of the season. Talbot got the hook at that point, with backup Laurent Brossoit coming in.

Edmonton cut back into the lead with three minutes left in the second period, when Draisiatl scored his 20th of the season on a power play one-timer, extending his personal point streak to seven games.

It was a 5-2 game five minutes into the third, when Stewart faked a pass on a two-on-one and then blasted a shot past Brossoit.

The Wild play the second game of a four-game road trip in Calgary on Wednesday. The Oilers launch a three-game road swing in Nashville on Thursday.

Notes: It was the third and final meeting between the Oilers and Wild this season, with Minnesota taking the previous two games in extra time by 2-1 and 3-2 scores… The Wild entered the game with a seven-game wining streak in games played in Edmonton, having not lost there since Dec. 22, 2011.