Leon Draisaitl scored four goals and had the first five-point game of his career on Monday night as the Edmonton Oilers rolled past the Nashville Predators with an 8-3 road win in Tennessee.
Oilers captain Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists.
LISTEN; Captain Connor McDavid
Edmonton forward Josh Archibald whacked in a goalmouth feed from Tyler Ennis to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead in the first period.
In the last minute of the first, Draisaitl fired a bad angle one-timer through Nashville netminder Pekka Rinne for his 40th goal of the year.
The Predators’ Roman Josi and Calle Jarnkrok scored 14 seconds apart to tie early in the second.
The Oilers went back ahead on a goal by Kailer Yamamoto, who was back in the lineup after missing three games with an ankle injury.
McDavid says Yamamoto’s presence in the lineup was felt.
“I think it shows the importance of Yamo,” he said. “Yamo comes in and he just balances out our whole lineup. He does so much for that line — he’s so good. He really helped tonight.”
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The Predators came back 1:31 later when Nick Bonino chopped his own rebound past Edmonton goaltender Mike Smith.
The Oilers took control with five goals in 5:13 in the third period.
LISTEN; Head Coach Dave Tippett
McDavid floated a long wrister passed a screened Rinne.
Draisaitl tapped in a pass from Yamamoto, then Zack Kassian beat Rinne from the top of the circle for his 15th goal of the season.
Draisaitl beat Rinne five-hole along the ice to complete the hat trick, then added another one on the power play for the first four-goal game of his career.
Head coach Dave Tippett says his team worked hard for the win.
“We had some good chances, I thought, early,” he said. “And then we turned a couple pucks over and then they capitalized on those. So kind of a back-and-forth game.
Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse both had three assists.
Draisaitl is up to 107 points this season, surpassing his previous career high of 105 from last season.
LISTEN; Leon Draisaitl talks about his four goal performance
The team record for fastest five goals is 3:35, set on April 27, 2013, in a 7-2 win over Vancouver.
Fatal tornadoes ripped through Nashville overnight after the game, however the team safely departed the city before the storm arrived.
The Oilers (35-23-8) will play in Dallas on Tuesday. Catch the game on 630 CHED with the Faceoff Show at 5 p.m. The game starts at 6:30 p.m.
Watch below: Some videos from Global News’ coverage of the Edmonton Oilers’ 2019-20 season.
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