GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Islanders 3 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB – 996, 997, 998, 999... And now, Connor McDavid is just one point away from joining the exclusive 1,000-point club in the NHL.

"Nights like that, I don't want to come off the ice," McDavid said post-game. "That felt good. I thought [Coach Knoblauch] did a great job of giving me lots of opportunities tonight and I felt good. I was lucky to contribute to a big win."

Connor McDavid posted four points on Tuesday night, leaving him only one shy of becoming 99th player and the fourth-fastest in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points after he recorded a goal and three assists in a 4-3 overtime victory over the Islanders at Rogers Place.

"Nothing's happened yet, so I guess maybe I'll save that for when it happens," McDavid said. "But it's not lost on me the speed to get there and the names that are there, and they're a few of the very best. But nothing's happened, and we gotta get ready for another one on Thursday."

The captain set up tallies for Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard in the first & third periods before he scored with 9:41 left in regulation, giving the Oilers a two-goal lead at 3-1 that the Islanders erased with two goals from Anders Lee in the final 10 minutes to force overtime.

McDavid connected with Draisaitl 1:52 into the extra frame, setting the German up for the overtime-winner that ties him for the League lead with 12 goals alongside Montreal's Cole Caufield and Florida's Sam Reinhart. Draisaitl has recorded multi-point efforts in five of his last eight games and has ten goals and 16 points over his last 11 contests.

"You gotta be careful with things like that because this league can humble you so goddamn quick, it's scary," Draisaitl said. "So I've been around long enough to understand that there are phases of it going well and it going ice cold, and I feel good. I feel like I'm playing well. I'm creating chances. Obviously, they're going in right now, but I'm very well aware that it can change in a hurry. I'm just going to continue to chip away at it."

Evan Bouchard had a goal and two assists, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Mattias Ekholm each picked up helpers in the win that lifted Edmonton's overall record to 8-7-1 this season. Stuart Skinner made 19 saves on 22 shots between the pipes for Edmonton to secure his fifth victory of the campaign.

Next up, the Oilers will meet the Nashville Predators on Thursday night at Rogers Place for the third and final time this season.

FIRST PERIOD

The opening period ended scoreless with both the Oilers and Islanders having killed off opposing power plays in the first 20 minutes, but the Blue & Orange earned another man advantage in the dying seconds at the end of a wild finishing sequence where they did everything but score the go-ahead goal.

The Oilers picked off where they left off from Saturday's victory over Vancouver by outshooting the Islanders 13-7 in the opening frame, showing some of the hands that you'd expect from a team feeling confident coming off a seven-goal performance against their Pacific Division rivals a few nights earlier.

"We were just working trying to create opportunities and create chances to try and build off the last game," Adam Henrique said. "Guys had a good game and we tried to roll that into tonight."

Connor Brown – who scored two goals in Vancouver on Saturday – turned an Islanders' skater inside out along the boards near the six-minute mark and found Adam Henrique with a cross-ice pass that the centre one-timed towards goal to force Ilya Sorokin into a lateral save. Then, it was Corey Perry's turn to undress his opponent a few minutes later, putting the puck around Noah Dobson along the goal line before striking Sorokin up high with his follow-up shot.

Derek Ryan was tripped inside the period's second half for an Oilers power play that the Islanders killed off before it became Edmonton's time to come up with the stop on the penalty kill when their bench was guilty of having too many men on the ice with 2:41 left in the period.

After killing off their infraction, the Oilers had multiple chances to take the lead when they loaded up Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on a line with Corey Perry for the final shift of the period, leading to a crazy final few seconds where they couldn't find the finishing touch on a few wide-open opportunities.

Edmonton failed to score on their late flurry in the first period, but Draisaitl was interfered with by Scott Mayfield just outside the crease on the play to give the Oilers another look with the man advantage on the other side of the intermission.

SECOND PERIOD

Leon Draisaitl lifted the Oilers into a 1-0 lead with the man advantage only 36 seconds into the middle frame, scoring on a one-timer from his office in the right circle that marked his 11th goal of the season.

"He's really stepped up and played well," Knoblauch said of Draisaitl. "He's played well all year, but he really took it to another level when Connor was out for a few games. He's just continued to play well."

It's a sequence we've seen countless times – McDavid picked up a pass from Evan Bouchard near the blueline and pushed down towards their crease, backing their penalty killers up before placing a pin-point pass onto the tape of Draisaitl in the right circle for a one-timer that trickled inside the near post.

"In the moment, you're trying to read the situation, and personally, I'm not overly big on the charts before games and stuff," Draisaitl said. "I play in the moment, and just thought I saw an opening there."

Unheralded on the play was the move of Nugent-Hopkins, who helped create an opening for McDavid to feather a pass through the slot to his German teammate by lifting the stick of an opposing penalty-killer.

"It's a nice seam pass, but that seam is made available with Nuggy, who opens that lane up," Knoblauch said. "He lifts a stick up, which opens up that play. So you see the nice pass and a nice shot, but it's all the other little things to set that up."

McDavid came in needing five points to become the fourth-fastest player to reach 1,000 career points and earned his first of three assists to go along with a goal on Tuesday night with the primary helper on Draisaitl's power-play tally.

The Oilers have now scored power-play goals in back-to-back games as they try to get back on track with the man advantage this season.

"Momentum's building slowly but surely. It's getting there. We're starting to get the looks that we want," McDavid said of the power play. "We're starting to get pucks back and doing the things that we want to do. We've got some great players on there, but our biggest strength is getting it back, working to get it back and understanding and playing off of that."

"It's getting better and better," Draisaitl added. "I think our urgency is coming up. We're getting more sniffs around the net. Just keep building, keep chipping away at it and continue to get back to what we're capable of and what we expect of each other."

The Oilers held onto their one-goal lead until the four-minute mark of the frame, when Brock Nelson sifted a pass by Ekholm at the blueline to create a partial two-on-one that was buried top shelf by Kyle Palmieri from the left circle off the feed from Maxim Tsyplakov.

Edmonton killed off another power play in the middle frame to keep it tied at 1-1 through 40 minutes, and the Oilers finished 2-for-2 on the penalty kill on Tuesday to keep their opponent's man advantage off the scoresheet for the first time in six games.

"I think the guys on the kill have been doing a heck of a job. I really have," Knoblauch said. "And it's been unfortunate that there have been goals going in, and sometimes that's just the game, but the details have been pretty good. They've been breaking up a lot of plays. Tonight was probably their best not letting them get set up, so I think we have lots to build on. But I've been very happy with it over the last couple days. I know the results haven't been there, but they've looked good."

THIRD PERIOD

McDavid was on a mission to reach 1,000 career points, and Head Coach Kris Knoblauch was happy to oblige his team's captain.

"I thought he played an excellent game, and I probably wasn't using him enough in the first two periods," he said. "During the third period, it was almost every second shift he was going out there and he had a heck of a game. Four points, but there could have been a lot more."

McDavid added another goal and assist in the final frame to help build the Oilers build a two-goal lead, but the Islanders were able to erase the deficit in the final 10 minutes to force overtime.

The Oilers captain redirected a shot-pass from Bouchard in the opening minute of the period that struck the far post, leading to Zach Hyman having a golden opportunity to bury the rebound on the other side of the crease that the winger couldn't put away before the puck escaped to the corner. After McDavid retrieved the puck, it was worked over to Bouchard in the left circle, resulting in the defenceman picking his spot under the glove of Ilya Sorokin for the 2-1 lead early in the third period.

"When your top players are rolling and feeling good, it's important for the coach to get them on the ice because they're going to make a difference," Knoblauch added.

It looked like the Oilers might come away with a regulation win after McDavid recorded his 998th career point with a terrific backhand finish with 9:48 remaining in regulation, but the Islanders had other ideas.

Islanders captain Anders Lee roofed one over Stuart Skinner two-and-a-half minutes after McDavid's marker, cutting into Edmonton's lead at 3-2, before he scored again with 3:40 remaining off a pass below the goal line from Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

"I thought really the second goal was played poorly," Knoblauch said. "They were able to get the puck in and everyone's kind of just standing and watching, not doing a job. And the third one, we were in pretty good positions. Our stick gets in the wrong lane and tap, tap – it's in our net. But we could have played the last one a little bit better. That's definitely something that makes the coach's hair turn gray."

Ultimately, it would require a team effort in extra time to help get Edmonton's victory over the goal line.

"You just gotta keep going," Henrique said. "I think we had opportunities earlier in the game, and you want to try and step on them whenever you can to put the game away, but they did a good job defending. It was a solid performance on their part, and sticking with the game, too. It's going to go back and forth sometimes, and you have to find a way just to keep pushing and keep sticking with your game plan. It paid off tonight."

OVERTIME

A controlling shift from Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Mattias Ekholm tired the Islanders in their defensive end, allowing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to come on the ice with fresh legs and attack their tired opponents to orchestrate the game-winner 1:52 into extra time.

"It was an amazing shift by them," McDavid said. "I thought they could have scored a bunch themselves and were selfless to change. That was a team overtime win because of those three changing. It was nice to get out there when they're so tired like that, but just a selfish change from those guys."

"It's tough defending when you're tired," Knoblauch added. "And it's incredibly tough defending when you have those three coming over the bench for that last three-on-three shift."

McDavid received a drop pass from Bouchard at the top of the zone and found a wide-open Draisaitl, who moved the puck to his forehand and sniped the game-winner on Sorokin from the inside the left circle after he found the back of the net from the right side earlier in the first period on the power play.

"He's been really finding the back of the net," McDavid said. "A great shot tonight from his usual spot there, and then from the other side tonight in overtime. I think just an amazing finisher, amazing player and playing really well."

"That's an incredible shot, and there's not very much room to put that in there," Knoblauch added. "But there are few players that can do that."

Draisaitl's winner was his 12th of the campaign, tying him for the League lead with Montreal's Cole Caufield and Florida's Sam Reinhart, while McDavid's assist puts him within one of reaching 1,000 career points.

"We're staying afloat," McDavid said. "That's not what we want to do, but ultimately, we're just finding ways to win games and that's what we're supposed to do. I thought tonight was a snoozer from the beginning from both sides, but on nights like tonight, you've got to generate your own momentum and I thought in the third period, we were able to get some things going."