Leon Draisaitl scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:27 remaining to give the Edmonton Oilers a 3-1 victory against the visiting Seattle Kraken on Saturday.
Connor McDavid added an empty net goal with 1:05 left to clinch the victory.
Owen Michaels also scored for the Oilers and goaltender Devon Levi made 19 saves as the Oilers won their second in a row after a season-opening 6-5 overtime loss to visiting Vancouver.
Bobby McMann tallied for the Kraken and Philipp Grubauer stopped 22 of 24 shots.
The deciding goal came after McDavid sent a pass back to defenseman Ryan Shea at the left point. Shea, with his back to the net, banked the puck high off the boards to keep it in the offensive zone. The puck floated through the slot untouched until it reached Draisaitl outside the top right edge of the crease and he quickly put it past Grubauer.
The Oilers took a 1-0 lead in the first period while outshooting the Kraken 10-5. Alex Formenton forced a turnover along the boards in the Seattle end and fed a backhanded pass to Michaels deep on the left wing. The rookie lifted a one-timer over Grubauer’s shoulder and into the near upper corner of the net at 2:51. It was Michaels’ second goal in as many games after also tallying in Thursday’s 9-7 victory at Vancouver.
Seattle tied it with a power-play goal in the second, when it had an 11-4 edge in shots. Jordan Eberle got the puck behind the Edmonton net and fed McMann in the lower inside corner of the left faceoff circle. McMann put a shot into the near upper corner of the net, beating Levi at 9:06.
The Oilers, who led the NHL on the power play last season by converting 30.6% of their attempts, were held scoreless on three attempts with the man advantage by the Kraken, who were 31st of 32 teams last season on the penalty kill at 72.2%.
Edmonton remained without four of its top seven forwards with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (lower body), Jason Dickinson (undisclosed), Zach Hyman (undisclosed) and Matt Savoie (undisclosed) all injured.
Forward Mackie Samoskevich made his Kraken debut after being activated off injured reserve (upper body) earlier in the day, with fellow forward Jacob Melanson going on the IR with an upper-body injury suffered in the season opener, a 6-1 victory Thursday at Calgary.
–Field Level Media
