EDMONTON, AB — Evander Kane scored the tying goals in the third period and then completed his seventh career hat trick 2:57 into overtime, rallying the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 win over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night.
Connor McDavid also scored, Evan Bouchard had three assists and Leon Draisaitl had two as the Oilers came back from two goals down to win their third straight. Stuart Skinner had 33 saves.
“I think we’re starting to find our groove a little bit here,” Kane said.
Jared McCann, Alex Wennberg and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare all scored in the second period to give Seattle a 3-1 lead. Joey Daccord finished with 28 saves as the Kraken lost for the fifth time in six games (1-3-2).
“I feel like we had our opportunities to score a couple of more goals.” Wennberg said. “In general, I think we had a pretty good game. It’s a tough way to end it. Things happen out there, but we can’t lose this game. This is one of those games we have to fight through and find a way to win and unfortunately we didn’t today.”
Kane pulled the Oilers within one with 6:32 remaining in the third when he redirected Bouchard’s shot from the point.
Kane tied it with just 46 seconds remaining and Skinner pulled for the extra man. Draisaitl chipped a pass through the crease to Kane to go upstairs on Daccord.
In the extra period, Zach Hyman waited for a Seattle defender to go down before sending the puck across to Kane for his seventh goal of the season.
“Going into a long road trip here, to get a couple wins finally at home in a row is nice. We’ve come back before, down going into the third period,” Kane said. “It was nice to be able to do that for the first time this year.”
It was Edmonton's second straight win since Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft as coach on Sunday.
Knoblauch was pleased his team recovered from a dreadful second-period stretch.
“The last 12 minutes of the second period was almost rock bottom, in my opinion. I didn’t think we played well at all. But in the third period, we showed a lot of passion and perseverance to stick with it,” the coach said. “Hopefully the way that we won today makes us a better team in the long run.”
Edmonton got on the scoreboard first at 5:21 of the second period when Draisaitl sent McDavid in all alone to beat Daccord with a backhand move. McDavid scored his second in two games and his fourth of the season.
Seattle tied it 1:59 later when a rebound of Jordan Eberle's shot deflected off McCann’s shin pad and into Edmonton’s net. It was McCann’s seventh.
The Kraken took a 2-1 lead at 9:24 of the middle period after a bad clearing attempt allowed Vince Dunn to fire a shot from the point that was tipped by Bellemare past Skinner for his second.
Seattle went ahead 3-1 with 2:39 remaining in the second as Wennberg picked up a rebound out front and executed a spin-around shot that eluded Skinner for his first.
Edmonton caught a break early in the third by avoiding an own-goal. With a Seattle penalty upcoming, Oilers defender Vincent Desharnais attempted to pass out from the corner, but there was nobody there. The puck hit the Edmonton’s post with Skinner pulled for an extra attacker.
The Oilers placed Mattias Janmark (shoulder) and Dylan Holloway (lower body) on long-term injured reserve. Raphael Lavoie, Adam Erne, and Philip Broberg were recalled from Bakersfield of the AHL. Also out hurt for Edmonton is Connor Brown (lower body), but he’s been skating and is expected to be ready for the start of their upcoming road trip.
Veteran forward Eberle returned to the Seattle lineup after missing three games with a leg cut suffered in practice on Nov. 8.
UP NEXT
Kraken: Host the New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Oilers: At Tampa Bay on Saturday night to open a four-game trip.