Darnell Nurse scored 53 seconds into overtime to give the Oilers a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.
It was Nurse’s career-high sixth goal of the season and his fourth in the last five games.
“They’re a fast team, very competitive,” Nurse said. “They’re on you all over the ice. And for us it was just a matter of trying to match their work ethic and match their intensity, and I felt like we did that for the most part tonight.”
The Oilers were shorthanded twice in the first seven minutes but were able to kill off penalties to Adam Larsson and Darnell Nurse. James Neal had a good chance in tight with Cam Talbot making a pad save. The Oilers best opportunity came on a Leon Draisaitl one-timer from the right wing. Marc-Andre Fleury moved across to make the stop.
Patrick Maroon opened the scoring at 8:01 of the second when Darnell Nurse’s centering pass went in off his skate. Vegas tied it less than two minutes later when Reilly Smith lifted a shot over Talbot’s left shoulder and under the cross bar. The Golden Knights went ahead with 6.1 seconds to go in the session when William Karlsson plowed a one-timer past Talbot.
Drake Caggiula fired a shot past Fleury early in the third to even it 2-2. Connor McDavid, celebrating his 21st birthday, assisted on the goal for his 200th career point.
In overtime, Leon Draisaitl worked the puck past James Neal inside the Oilers blue line. Caggiula broke out with the puck and feathered a pass to a wide-open Nurse, who wristed the shot past Fleury’s glove.
“I saw the puck come over the blue line and Drake had it and we saw one D, so I just took off and he made a great play there to the middle and all I had to do was shoot hard,” Nurse said.
Talbot made 34 saves for the win. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins didn’t return to the game after taking a hard body check from Brayden McNabb in the second period.
“He’s still being evaluated,” head coach Todd McLellan said of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “We think he’ll be okay coming out of the break.
Milan Lucic missed some of the second period after taking a skate to the neck. He was stitched up and able to play the third.
“We battled hard all night,” McDavid said. “Talbot was great; kept us in it. The penalty kill was great, which is something that we haven’t been able to say in a long time. So there were a lot of positives there. We were able to find a way to get a win against one of the best teams in the NHL.”
The Oilers, 20-23-3, go into their bye week and don’t play again until Saturday, January 20, against Vancouver.
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