GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Hurricanes 1

RALEIGH, NC – Goaltender Calvin Pickard had a terrific night with 35 saves, including 15 third-period stops, to guide the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at Lenovo Center that put an end to their five-game losing streak in the finale of their five-game road trip.

"That would have been a long flight back if we would have lost that," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "But I think a lot of guys should feel good about themselves because they worked hard to get a win out here. Obviously, the road trip wasn't to our standards with the wins and losses, but it was nice to get this one."

After Adam Henrique scored short-handed in the first period and Corey Perry made it a two-goal game in the middle stanza, Pickard would be beaten once in the final frame on a Carolina power play before shutting the door the rest of the way – including a game-defining short-handed breakaway stop against Canes goalscorer Sebastian Aho in the final minute of regulation.

"He was great. He gives us a chance to win every night," Leon Draisaitl said of Pickard. "I think everybody in our room loves him. He's just a great teammate to have and we love playing for him. So yeah, he was great – especially that breakaway late."

Defenceman Evan Bouchard sealed the victory for Pickard with less than a second left in regulation by burying the insurance marker into an empty net, ending Edmonton's five-game losing streak as they head back to Oil Country for a three-game homestand at Rogers Place next week.

The Oilers will look to string together back-to-back victories on Tuesday when they host the Anaheim Ducks.

FIRST PERIOD

The story in the first period for the Oilers was all about their penalty kill, which not only went 3-for-3 in the opening 20 minutes but was credited with the icebreaker off a fortunate rebound that found its way in off the leg of forward Adam Henrique.

The Oilers couldn't convert their first power play that arrived just 22 seconds in before they found themselves on the penalty kill just minutes later, where Mattias Janmark and Adam Henrique combined for a short-handed goal at 5:08 of the opening frame by putting pucks on net and driving to the blue paint.

Carolina was still trying to find traction with their power play when a misplaced back-hand pass from Jackson Blake sent the two Oilers forwards up the ice on a two-on-two rush. Janmark filtered a shot on goal from inside the Hurricanes' zone before Frederik Andersen's juicy rebound bounced in off Henrique's right leg as he crashed the net for his eighth goal of the season and first shortie with the Oilers.

"You gotta keep going to those positions, and that's when you tend to find those," Henrique said. "So it's a matter of us talking about playing simple and direct and putting pucks towards the net. I think that was the reason for that one."

The Hurricanes allowed their first SHG since Nov. 29, 2024 and only their third overall this season, while the Oilers killed off two more penalties in the frame to go along with their shortie and improve to 11-for-11 over their last two games before being beaten early in the third period on Edmonton's only goal against.

"It's just getting back to the details of it, the pressure and being confident with the stuff that makes us successful on the penalty kill – guys reading off each other, being able to pressure at the right times, those sorts of things," Henrique said of the penalty kill.

"They got one on us at the end there. We get out there and you gotta maybe try to find a way to just get it cleared. You get hemmed in for that long, it usually ends up not the way you want it. So again, just little details and everybody stepped up tonight and played well."

Calvin Pickard was up to the task for the Oilers near the six-minute mark making a superb double save that kept his side in the lead, starting on a fast deflection from Jordan Martinook before the rebound was collected and thrown over to Jordan Staal for a quick shot that was kicked away by Picks.

SECOND PERIOD

The Oilers got on the scoresheet again thanks to a terrific pass from Draisaitl to set up Corey Perry at the back post with 3:31 remaining in the middle frame, tying Jeff Carter for the 71st-most goals in NHL history with his 442nd career tally.

Draisaitl extended his point streak to 11 games (9G, 6A) by coming off the Oilers bench and putting a back-hand pass onto the tape of Corey Perry at the far post for an easy finish for the 39-year-old forward, who netted his 13th goal of the campaign – his highest total since scoring 19 with the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2021-22 season.

Brett Kulak extended the offensive-zone shift by stealing a pass meant for Andrei Svechnikov before kicking it to Draisaitl inside the right circle, picking up a secondary assist to set a new career high with his 21st point after the Stony Plain product reached a new high for goals with his seventh in Thursday's 4-3 loss to the Panthers.

Kulak has played 292 straight games for the Oilers (regular season and playoffs) since arriving from Montreal at the 2022 Trade Deadline and needs just seven more assists to reach the century mark for his career.

THIRD PERIOD

The rally was on in Raleigh, but Picks was simply locked in by making 15 saves in the third period to send us back to Oil Country with a victory.

"Tonight were able to keep puck out of the net with Picks making some big saves, especially in the third period where you got a fragile team," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "And when you have a lead late in the game, when you haven't won for a while, you tend to shrink."

The Hurricanes finally got one past Pickard on an early third-period power play when newcomer Mikko Rantanen made a delicious pass to Sebastian Aho through plenty of sticks to create a back-door tap for his Finnish countryman, cutting it to 2-1 with 4:26 gone in the final stanza.

Zach Hyman had a goal disallowed for kicking the puck in after Draisaitl made another terrific pass to the right post before it was guided in by the skate of No. 18 and immediately waved off by the officials. Head Coach Kris Knoblauch took a hard look at a potential review, but in a game of tight margins on Saturday night, the bench boss passed on the chance of taking a two-minute penalty for a failed challenge.

Edmonton almost immediately got the goal back anyway on Connor Brown's diving push at the puck through the legs of Andersen, sending the puck sliding towards the goal line before a literal last-moment clear by defenceman Jalen Chatfield. One more centimetre, and the puck was in the net, as it couldn't have looked any closer to being a 3-1 lead for the Oilers.

Calvin Pickard was playing the hero role by coming up with a handful of A-grade saves down the stretch with his side defending a one-goal lead as the Hurricanes pressured in the final half of the third period. The 32-year-old held his ground on a scramble inside the blue paint with all 10 skaters on the ice within five feet of Edmonton's net before the puck was cleared away from danger.

Over a minute-and-a-half later, Pickard got a piece of Rantanen's dangerous chance with his glove for another timely intervention as time dipped below six minutes remaining in the third period.

"He's making the big saves and there's rebounds," Henrique said. "He's battling right to the bitter end to cover it up or get it out of there, so it's a huge game by him and a big reason for the win."

In the final minute of play, the Oilers netminder saved his best for last, turning aside a short-handed breakaway for Aho with a right-pad save after Rantanen had bowled him over in the blue paint just before to take a goaltender interference penalty. For good measure, Mattias Ekholm slid into Pickard after the save and dislodged the net from the morings to draw a face-off in the Oilers zone.

"That's obviously something that we would like to not happen, especially having an extra guy," Draisaitl said. "So maybe just a bit of a misread or breakdown, but sometimes those happen. Obviously in the future, you try to avoid those."

Draisaitl hit the post on an empty net for a chance at eight straight games with a goal, but Evan Bouchard found the puck and fired it into the open cage with 0.5 seconds left in regulation to put an end to Edmonton's five-game losing streak in the last game of their five-game road trip.

"It's a big win for us," Draisaitl said. "Obviously, we've been struggling a little bit and couldn't find our game for a while there. The last two nights, I thought we were better. You could see it trending in the right direction in Florida, and then tonight was a really good effort by us. Some things to clean up always, but a good effort by us."

"A lot of stuff we talked about we put into playing desperate hockey start to finish, top to bottom throughout the lineup and in the net too," Henrique added. "So everybody came to play. Everybody did a lot of the little things right tonight and it paid off."