Leon Draisaitl’s hat trick wasn’t enough as the Edmonton Oilers were outscored 7-5 by the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night.
“You don’t win many games when you give up six goals, or seven with the empty net. We can handle a lot of situations better than we did,” head coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I saw some things we haven’t seen for a long time show up.”
For the third straight game, the Oilers scored an early power play goal with Draisaitl tapping in a rebound. It was his 25th power play goal of the season, breaking the team record he set last season. The Jets replied with goals from Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey to lead 2-1 after one.
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Ryan Nugent-Hopkins set up Mattias Janmark for a goal on a shorthanded two-on-one early in the second. Draisaitl stole Scheifele’s breakout pass and roofed a backhand past Connor Hellebuyck from sharp angle to make it 3-2 Oilers. It was Draisaitl’s 40th of the season. Adam Lowry and Kyle Capobianco replied with goals 22 seconds part to restore the Jets advantage.
“They played a good game, but we obviously gave them way too many chances,” Draisaitl said.
Draisaitl tapped in a power play feed from Connor McDavid for his seventh career regular season hat trick with 10:12 left in the second. That gave McDavid 58 power play points, breaking the team record set by Wayne Gretzky in 1981/82. Morgan Barron beat Jack Campbell on a breakaway, then Morrissey scored on the power play with 1.2 seconds to go in the period to make it 6-4 Jets.
Three minutes into the third, newcomer Nick Bjugstad took a pass from Devin Shore and tapped in his 14th.
“I was just doing my best to try to get my feet under me,” Bjugstad said, who was acquired from Arizona on Thursday. “Would have loved to come up with the win first game here.”
The Oilers had the majority of the pressure in the third, firing 14 shots on goal, but Hellebuyck made several clutch saves. Dylan DeMelo put it away with a late empty net goal.
Hellebuyck finished with 30 saves while Campbell had 32 stops. Campbell has allowed four or more goals in four straight starts.
“A couple I want back. That would have been the difference,” Campbell said. “I just know I can be so much better for this group. I’m definitely going to keep working to get there.”
“We scored well enough to win but we didn’t defend well enough to win,” Woodcroft noted.
The Oilers, 34-22-8, will visit the Buffalo Sabres on Monday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 4 p.m., game at 5:30 p.m.).
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