Wednesday’s match up between the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers had a lot on the line. The rematch of last year’s tightly contested second-round series was a potential opportunity for the Golden Knights to clinch a playoff berth. The St. Louis Blues are in pursuit, along with chasing the Nashville Predators for the first wildcard position, and the Los Angeles Kings for the third Pacific Division playoff spot.
Meanwhile, the Oilers came into the night five points behind the Vancouver Canucks for first in the Pacific. With two games in hand and a head-to-head, Edmonton controlled their own fate, but would need to win the head-to-head then lose less points than Vancouver in their remaining five games than the Canucks would in their other three games. Kris Knoblauch started Stuart Skinner, while Adin Hill returned to the net for the first time since March 23 for Bruce Cassidy.
Ceci opens the scoring
The Darnell Nurse point shot goes wide, with the carom ending up in the far corner. Cody Ceci pinches down and throws it to the back door even though there’s nobody there. The puck bounces off of Alec Martinez’s skate and into the far side. Hill hit the far post late with his right leg, and didn’t look comfortable recovering.
Edmonton scores again
Corey Perry ends up at the point, who bumps the puck down to Ryan McLeod. McLeod finds the seam to hit an uncovered Mattias Ekholm who was vacated by Anthony Mantha, who goes back against the grain for the slapshot goal. Hill had bit on a non existent fake from McLeod, so he was down early on the far side. He then counter rotated but eventually got around and to the blocker side post. However, the post was past Ekholm’s angle so as he tries to reach back the other way, he doesn’t get anything on the push.
Hyman with his 53rd of the year
Hill turns the puck over rimming it. After the new look first line cycles it, Leon Draisaitl feeds Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a one timer. Zach Hyman actually deadens it in front of Hill, kicking it to his blade and is able to put it home into the gapping cage. Hill doesn’t have much of a chance because of the speed of the change of direction, but he once again gets nothing on his push from his right leg.
A power play goal for Edmonton
The Oilers five-on-three sans McDavid goes to work, with Evan Bouchard feeding Nugent-Hopkins, who goes down to Hyman, back to Nuge then across the seam for the patented Draisaitl one timer. The quick puck movement helps leave Hill behind after he has to recover from reverse VH when Hyman had the puck, but the push to the glove side with his right leg once again is not the strongest.
Vegas scores short handed
Nurse gets caught in no man’s land while defending the rush on the powerplay, leading to a Keegan Kolesar breakaway off the Noah Hanifin pass. Skinner had lots of depth and some flow back, but when Kolesar pushed the puck to his forehand, he didn’t adjust his angle, leaving him square to the body and the glove side open for the goal.
Holloway scores in his first game back
Hill stops the dump in, leaving it for Zach Whitecloud but doesn’t spot Holloway, who beats the Vegas dman to the puck. Hill spots the turnover as he’s getting back into the net, but his slide to his glove is unorthodox, leaving the back leg up and therefore the five hole open for the Dylan Holloway wrap.
Skinner save
On the Mantha breakaway in the second, Skinner got depth, kept calm feet, letting Mantha make the first move before swallowing up the shot.
Summary
Edmonton’s night started off with a lucky bounce, but after Warren Foegele’s stick got twisted up with Hill’s right leg, the game changed. Hill came into the game on his first start after a lower body injury, and it became pretty clear that Hill was struggling to push off his right leg towards the glove side. Edmonton took advantage of that on the next four goals in some form. Skinner made a number of good saves when Vegas was able to generate puck movement in the first, and was solid the rest of the way.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
