Oilers shake off Kraken in third, win 5-3

In Seattle, the Oilers needed a strong third period to distance themselves from the Kraken on Saturday night.

The game entered the final frame with the Oilers and Seattle tied at 3-3.

Warren Foegele broke the tie with his second goal of the game to give the Oilers a 4-3 lead, and Connor McDavid finally got back on the scoresheet with a late empty-net goal.

Stuart Skinner made14 saves in the Edmonton win.

“I think we had a mindset of how we wanted to play,” Oilers associate coach Jim Playfair said. “They found a way to collectively get together, and I thought our pace of play was good. I thought our consistent structure was really good and we played a solid gam

The Oilers improved to 18-11-0.

Leon Draisaitl had three assists in the win.

“I thought that getting Leon and Connor out there as much as we did with different wingers allowed them to keep their pace high in the game,” Playfair said. “I thought our defense played very well. I thought our forechecking structure and structure set up our defenseman to be able to stay nice and tight and keep things organized in the neutral zone … for the majority part of the game, I thought we did a good job trying to gain the blue lines and push the pucks ahead.”

Ryan Donato staked Seattle to a 1-0 lead in the first period.

“It was a lot of ways a pretty tight hockey game,” Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol said. “Defensively, we didn’t give up. The first period, I think I probably had us even in scoring chances, pretty even. We couldn’t get a push in the second and third periods.”

Seattle dropped to 10-17-3.

Jared McCann extended the Seattle lead to 2-0.

The Oilers replied with goals from Evan Bouchard and Foegele for a 2-2 tie heading to the middle frame.

In the second period, the Oilers’ Colton Sceviour, and Seattle’s Carson Soucy traded goals to send the game to the third, tied, 3-3.

“We didn’t get through the neutral zone, and we didn’t get any type of forecheck going so there was no momentum to be found for us,” Hakstol said. “For most of the second and third, there were spurts where we had a little bit but weren’t able to generate that on a consistent basis.”

Chris Driedger made 36 saves in the Kraken loss.