For their tenth game of the season, the Edmonton Oilers took on the Nashville Predators at home. The Oilers were 7-0-1 in their last eight against the Preds coming into this game.

The lineup this evening:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Foegele-McLeod-Puljujarvi
Holloway-Shore-Ryan

Nurse-Ceci
Kulak-Bouchard
Niemelainen-Barrie

Campbell (4-2-0, 3.89 GAA, .888 SAV%)
Skinner

First Period

Nashville’s Ekholm put the Preds up 1-0 34 seconds in after a loose puck bounced off Cody Ceci and Jack Campbell. The lead was short-lived however, as a few minutes later Leon Draisaitl found Evander Kane streaking down the wing, who made a nice move to get one by Saros and tie the game at one.

The Kane and Draisaitl connection struck again a few minutes later, as Draisaitl one touched a pass to Kane in front, who one-timed an easy goal in.

And a few seconds later, Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid extended the lead for the Oilers, with the captain sniping one in through Saros’ five-hole to give the Oil a 3-1 lead.

Late in the first, Edmonton scored their fourth straight goal after the fourth line and Tyson Barrie combined to hem in the Predators and put together a beautiful passing play, with Derek Ryan benefitting with a wide open cage.

Second Period

Early on, the second period of this game was quite chippy with the Predators ultimately taking an interference penalty. While they didn’t score, the Oilers had four quality shots against but Saros stood his ground.

On the second powerplay of the period, the Oil continued to mount pressure and this time broke through as McDavid took the puck from the faceoff and roofed one past Saros to make it 5-1 Edmonton. McDavid’s 11th goal in the 10th game of the season.

Edmonton’s first penalty of the game ended up in the back of their net, as Johansen deflected one from the high slot to make it 5-2. The rough stuff continued after that goal, with Neimelainen missing a high hit on Ekholm and the Preds taking exception, and receiving the only roughing penalty as a result as well.

Third Period

The Predators came out swinging to start the third, and Filip Forsberg took a cross-ice pass from Matt Duchene to narrow the score down to 5-3 after Jack Campbell couldn’t get enough of the shot.

After an undisciplined penalty by Ekholm, the Oilers once again took advantage on the PP, with Leon Draisaitl being the beneficiary this time as he caught a beautiful pass from Nugent-Hopkins and ripped it home to make it 6-3 Edmonton (his 4th point of the game and 18th goal in the last 9 against Nashville).

Late in the game, Nashville continued to press and made it close, but a Kane hat trick goal in the empty net iced this one for the Oilers.