Born to beat Wild: Edmonton Oilers survive scare, hang on to beat nemesis

Two goals from Leon Draisaitl. Two points from Connor McDavid (for 25 in nine games). A couple of power-play goals. And a great display of goaltending from Devon Levi.

The usual, in other words.

All of the key ingredients in Edmonton’s success this year were clicking again Tuesday night at Rogers Place, staking the Oilers to what should have been a comfortable 3-1 lead midway through the third period.

It should have been enough. But it wasn’t. When Minnesota hit the gas in the third period, scoring twice in the final 10 minutes to tie it up, the Oilers were lucky to make it to three-on-three overtime.

They avoided catastrophe thanks to a colossal brain cramp from the Wild, a too-many-men penalty in OT, set the stage for one more power play goal — from Evan Bouchard on his 27th birthday — that salvaged a 4-3 victory.

The win improves Edmonton to 7-1-1 on the season.

The Wild had Edmonton’s number for a long time, going 7-3 in their previous 10 games against Edmonton, including a sweep of all three games last year. And they scored first in this one, but Edmonton’s power play turned the game around on a dime, scoring twice in 1:06 on either side of the first intermission.

They capitalized on a five-on-three power play late in the first period to make it 1-1, with Draisaitl scoring from McDavid and Evan Bouchard at 19:57. Then Draisaitl scored again on the remaining five-on-four power-play time to make it 2-1 just 1:03 into the second period.

With the two power-play goals, Draisaitl moved past Mike Bossy and into 30th on the all-time list with 181 for his career. He’s one behind Dale Hawerchuk and three behind Jeremy Roenick. Among active players, Draisaitl trails only Evgeni Malkin (189), Sidney Crosby (195), Steve Stamkos (244) and the league’s all-time leader Alex Ovechkin (331).

Mathieu Joseph made it 3-1 Edmonton just three seconds after their third power play of the night had expired, not technically a power-play goal, but the puck was in the back of the net before the player in box was back in the play.

Then their penalty killing went to work, snuffing Minnesota’s extended two-man advantage in the second period to keep the visitors from getting any offensive traction and another Wild power play early in the third.

The special teams edge was supposed to go to Minnesota (second in the NHL on the power play and fourth on the PK), but Edmonton won the day on both fronts.

But Minnesota is a good team with high-end players that gets paid to win games, too, and they stormed the Oilers at even strength in the third period, scoring twice (Kirill Kaprizov at 10:30 and Ryan Hartman at 13:07).

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