The Carolina Hurricanes will try to contain red-hot Leon Draisaitl when they visit the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night.
Edmonton, meanwhile, will have its hands full with Carolina’s Nikolaj Ehlers, who has four goals in his past two games, including a hat trick.
Draisaitl had five points (two goals, three assists) in a 5-4 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, and has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past three games. Draisaitl assisted on Edmonton’s final three goals, including Evan Bouchard’s game-winner, as the Oilers rallied from a two-goal deficit.
“We did a good job in the third of putting them on their heels and keeping it fairly simple,” Draisaitl said. “But we have to be careful not to be in those situations too many times. You can’t keep chasing games going into the third, it’s not a recipe for success.”
Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored and Connor McDavid had two assists. Connor Ingram made 17 saves for Edmonton, which has won two of three after losing four straight.
“Desperation,” Hyman said. “You gotta win games, and we gotta keep the puck out of our net, obviously. But when we are down, we have the firepower to be able to come back.”
Keeping the puck out of their own net has been a problem for Edmonton. They have allowed four or more goals in seven of their past nine games. For the season, their 3.34 team goals-against average ranks tied for seventh from the bottom entering Thursday.
On Thursday, the Oilers made their second trade with the Chicago Blackhawks this week, acquiring forwards Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach for forward Andrew Mangiapane. Dickinson has six goals and seven assists in 47 games for Chicago this season, and Dach has three goals and six assists in 53 games.
Ehlers’ hat trick keyed a 6-4 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday in the second game of Carolina’s four-game Western swing.
Sean Walker, Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had a goal and assist and Brandon Bussi made 18 saves for the Hurricanes, who held on after surrendering most of a 5-2 lead.
“I don’t think we love that game; gave up way too many big chances and made Bussi work for it tonight and just didn’t play 100 percent our way and the way we need to play,” Ehlers said. “So, we got some things we need to clean up.”
Sitting atop the Eastern Conference, Carolina has won five of six and is 11-1-2 in its past 14, opening up a nine-point lead in the Metropolitan Division entering Thursday.
Bussi improved to 25-3-1 in 29 career NHL games, becoming the fastest goaltender in league history to record 25 wins. He has won nine straight games for the second time this season, a feat not achieved since Marc-Andre Fleury (nine games twice in 2011-12).
“In this league, you just have to find ways to win games. I think I’ve gotten better, but it was good enough tonight,” Bussi said. “The team was really good in front of me, offensively. Putting up six is really nice, so we’ll take the positives out of it.”
Draisaitl scored 19 seconds into overtime to give the Oilers a 4-3 road win over the Hurricanes in the team’s first meeting on Nov. 15.
