Golden Knights outpace Draisaitl, 6-4 Vegas take 1-0 series lead

On The Strip, the Golden Knights outscored Leon Draisaitl on Wednesday night, 6-4, in  Game 1 of their second round series with the Edmonton Oilers. Draisaitl has 11 goals in the post season, two of his four on Wednesday came off the power play.

“It’s definitely a different looking team, different system, but we just, overall weren’t good enough,” Draisaitl said. “It’s not even close to how we play and how we successfully play. We’ve got to move on, and we’ll be better.”

Laurent Brossoit made 23 saves for the Golden Knights in the win.

“We were terrific,” Brossoit said. “Another collective effort from all of us, right up and down the lineup. We had a lot of big nights from a lot of guys. … We took it to them for 60 minutes. I even think the score wasn’t necessarily indicative of how well we played.”

Draisaitl opened the scoring on the power play in the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead, it didn’t last long as Ivan Barbashev  hit the fist of two on the night, just 40 seconds later for a 1-1 tie.

“We had a breakdown,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “It was acknowledged. We just missed an assignment.”

Michael Amadio scored midway through the first period, and Mark Stone scored at  18:23 for a 3-1 lead to the Knights.

“There are special players who do special things,” Cassidy said. “A lot of people are trying that shot now. I think they practice it, from behind the goal line and right at the goal line. Maybe five years ago it’s a bad goal and on the goalie, but now it happens a lot. … It’s not a good goal, but it’s not an egregious one. That’s a special talent.”

Draisaitl hit for his second of the night with 11 seconds left in the stanza for a 3-2 deficit for the Oilers.

“I don’t think our team was anywhere near what it needed to be to walk away with a road win in the playoffs” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “Leon had a great effort. He’s been good all playoffs here, but our team can do things a lot better than we did tonight. … We had a chance, but there are things to clean up the goals against.”

Game 2 is set for Las Vegas on Saturday.

Draisaitl scored with 95 seconds gone in the third period, 3-3.

Barbashev scored his double just 61 seconds later for a 4-3 lead.

Chandler Stephenson pushed the advantage to 5-3 at 3:26.

“You like to think that you’re comfortable (with a two-goal lead), but you’re playing against Edmonton,” Stephenson said. “Really no lead is safe.”

Jack Eichel hit an empty net for the 6-4 final with 34 seconds left on the game clock.

“We used our six [defensemen], we used our four lines. We didn’t have to get too far from our line combinations,” Cassidy said. “We were good.”

Stuart Skinner made 28 saves in the loss.