Evander Kane’s sixth regular season hat trick paced the Edmonton Oilers to a 6-4 win over the Seattle Kraken Saturday afternoon.
It took the Oilers only 1:35 to grab the lead when Kane’s long-wrister eluded Philipp Grubauer.
Vince Dunn’s shot beat Stuart Skinner five minutes later. Dunn extended his point streak to twelve games. The Kraken outplayed the Oilers for most of the first, but Edmonton escaped with the lead thanks to Kailer Yamamoto’s tap in of a pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with 3:24 on the clock.
Kane scored in the first minute of the second period, one-timing a pass from Connor McDavid. Jordan Eberle popped a shot through Skinner to cut the Oilers lead to 3-2.
“I’m just trying to get in to some rhythm heading into the playoffs and today definitely helps out”, Kane said.
(Kane) is obviously a warrior. He plays through injuries. But’s he been all around the puck in any game that he’s played. For three to go in for him today I’m happy”, head coach Jay Woodcroft said.
Grubauer left the game 6:30 into the second after allowing three goals on ten shots. He was replaced by Martin Jones, who was promptly beaten by Zach Hyman, his 30th. Again, the Kraken refused to wilt with Oliver Bjorkstrand beating Skinner blocker side.
After serving a penalty in the third, Kane took a long backhand pass from Leon Draisaitl, went in down the left side, and fired a shot past Jones’ glove.
McDavid notched his 58th late in the game on a power play. Eeli Tolvanen scored in the final minute for Seattle.
Draisaitl and Mattias Ekholm both had three assists. McDavid had a goal and two assists to get up to 134 points.
Skinner finished with 33 saves.
After the game, McDavid called the game “really, really ugly.”
“I thought we just did enough. I didn’t like our defensive side of things, we gave up a lot. Credit to us we capitalized on our chances”, McDavid said.
The Oilers, 39-23-8, will host the San Jose Sharks on Monday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 6 p.m., game at 7:30 p.m.).
Comments