The Edmonton Oilers came into the front half of a home and home with the Minnesota Wild with one goal in mind – keeping their hot play at home going (4-1-0 in the last 5). However, the Wild had come in with seven consecutive wins against the Oilers.

Oilers lineup:

Draisaitl – McDavid – Hyman
Janmark – RNH – Yamamoto
Holloway – Hamblin – Puljujarvi
Kostin – Shore – Ryan

Nurse – Ceci
Kulak – Barrie
Broberg – Bouchard

Skinner

Wild lineup:

Kaprizov – Steel – Zuccarello
Petan – Gaudreau – Boldy
Greenway – Eriksson Ek – Foligno
Reaves – Dewar – Shaw

Middleton – Spurgeon
Brodin – Dumba
Goligoski – Merrill

Fleury

So, how did it go?

Less than three minutes in, the fourth line continued their hot play with Derek Ryan scoring his second in as many games on Marc-Andre Fleury, giving the Oilers an early 1-0 lead over the Wild.

Halfway through the first, Connor McDavid scored in his seventh straight game after capitalizing on a beautiful pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins while on the powerplay. The last Oiler to score in seven straight was Jimmy Carson in 1988.

The Wild responded quickly, albeit controversially, when Kirill Kaprizov pushed the puck and arm of Stuart Skinner past the Oiler goal line. However, Jay Woodcroft challenged the goal and it was overturned for interference. They don’t take long to get back at it though, with Eriksson Ek stealing the puck from Darnell Nurse and making a beautiful move to put it by Skinner.

Edmonton failed to capitalize on early pressure in the second period before running into penalty trouble, and Mats Zuccarello took advantage of a tired penalty kill squad bouncing one off the post and in on Skinner to tie the game at two.

The Oilers were able to regain the lead late in the second period after Kailer Yamamoto scored his first of the year on a bouncing redirection in front of Fleury.

The Oilers continued to get under the skin of the Flower, with Draisaitl helping his blocker relocate and Fleury being none too happy following a scrum in front of the net.

After killing off a late second period penalty from Leon Draisaitl, he quickly redeemed himself by scoring on the powerplay to put the Oilers up by two after being the recipient of some great passing by McDavid and RNH.

The Wild pushed late, but excellent defensive play by the Oilers and an empty net goal put Minnesota away for good, ending the seven-game losing streak against the Wild with a decisive 5-2 win.