PREVIEW: Oilers at Wild

The Edmonton Oilers will begin a three-game road trip & back-to-back games on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center against the Minnesota Wild.

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PREVIEW: Oilers at Wild

ST. PAUL, MN – These road warriors aren’t ready to rest.

The Edmonton Oilers are back on the road to begin a three-game road trip against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center following their 1-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday in a one-off homestand at Rogers Place.

The Oilers will face the Wild before heading to Denver for a visit to Ball Arena to conclude back-to-back games against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday. The road trip will wrap up for the Blue & Orange on Saturday night with a Pacific Division matchup on Hockey Night in Canada versus the Vancouver Canucks.

“It's been a busy stretch here. A lot of travelling around,” Connor McDavid said after Monday’s win on home ice. “A quick little pit stop here and back out on the road, so a big couple of games, but I like how we're playing. We'll be fine.”

After going 3-1-0 on their previous four-game trip that spanned all four time zones, the Oilers were faced with the tough challenge of returning home for a pivotal matchup against their rivals from Los Angeles, who they’re well-acquainted with from three consecutive meetings in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and a 4-3 overtime defeat in California before the new year.

The Blue & Orange passed the test after grinding out the two points in a playoff-like contest, needing only one goal from Connor McDavid on his 28^th birthday and 30 saves from Stuart Skinner for his second shutout over his last three games, which highlighted his team’s strong defensive effort that began with some left-over jet lag from their last road trip.

“I think it's been some tough travel for us too, so you can kind of expect that our legs weren't going to be the most juiced up,” Skinner said. “But in saying that, the way that we played with the kind of schedule that we've had is quite impressive. We were just able kind of to keep them on the sides for the most part."

Skinner energized his team with a miraculous stop on Adrian Kempe on a two-on-one during the opening frame, deflecting their leading goal scorer’s chance onto the top of the net with his glove for a save that was critical in allowing his teammates to push on with the game still scoreless.

‘I think especially once we got our legs after about 12, 14, 15 minutes in the first, we just kind of turned it on and hemmed them in for a lot of the night. So kudos to the guys.”

Leon Draisaitl created the decisive goal for McDavid on his 28^th birthday with a hard-working solo effort, outskating forward Trevor Moore to a bouncing puck and winning a battle before getting it to Darnell Nurse in the slot to create the rebound that resulted in the captain’s winner with less than two minutes remaining in the middle frame.

The Oilers (27-13-3) had to take a patient approach against the Kings and played it to perfection at both ends of the ice, earning two valuable points that leave them four back of the Vegas Golden Knights for first in the Pacific and four ahead of the Kings with two extra games played.

“You always have to be patient with them. They're a good team. They defend well,” Draisaitl said. “They're very patient, so you have to be patient as well and I thought we did a good job after the first.”

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said he was proud of how his team dug in following a slow opening period and how they raised their effort levels in every facet to rise to victory against LA’s fast, physical and skilled team.

“I don't know if it's working our way through their puzzle or making some minor tweaks, but I think it was mostly just on our players elevating their game,” Knoblauch said. “I think they were faster and a little bit quicker in the first period, and we got a little bit faster and quicker, and we moved the puck a lot simpler rather than making long stretch passes.

“We made the short and direct pass to beat that pressure, and I think that helped, but I don't think so much of it was about figuring them out – I think it was just our players elevating their game.”

The Oilers will make their second visit to Xcel Energy Center this season after thumping the Wild for seven goals in a 7-1 victory back on Dec. 12, with Leon Draisaitl recording a goal and three assists in what was Edmonton's fourth straight victory at hte time and eighth in their past 10 matches.

Draisaitl has gone back-to-back games without scoring for only the fourth time this season, but he's responded with multi-goal efforts on two of the previous three occasions, showing the German doesn't go long stretches without finding the back of the net again.

Draisaitl leads the NHL in goalscoring with 31 – four ahead of Florida's Sam Reinhart – and sits second in points with 64 (31G, 33A) behind Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon (68), who the Oilers will face on Thursday night in Denver.

If you factor in the current NHL scoring race, four of the top-five scorers in the League will be in the lineup for Thursday's star-studded contest against the Avalanche (MacKinnon, Draisaitl, Rantanen and McDavid), but the focus for the Oilers remains on the Wild.

"Obviously, we've got three good teams here coming up and the schedule has been tight," Draisaitl said. "Lots of games lately, lots of travel for us, but you've got to find a way to win those games as well. We're going on the road and we'll start with Minny and try and try to get two points there."

The WIld sit second in the NHL's Central Division with a nearly identical 27-13-4 record to the Oilers, but find themselves banged up at the moment with top-four defenders Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon out, along with superstar captain Kirill Kaprizov set to miss his 10th straight game.

Forward Jakub Lauko has missed 14 games as well for the Wild.

"Well, those are two extremely good hockey teams," Knoblauch said. "Minnesota is a little bit banged up and they are shorthanded. Colorado's been playing extremely well and from my experience, every time we play Colorado, they've been exciting games. But it's been a long road trip, and we've seen a lot of good hockey teams, and it continues on right until the end until we finish off in Vancouver."

Minnesota is 6-3-0 with Kaprizov out of the lineup and hasn't been as sharp at home this season with an 11-9-1 record, as opposed to the road where they're 16-4-3.

On Tuesday, the Oilers made a roster move by recalling forward Noah Philp from the Bakersfield Condors.