EDMONTON, Alberta — The Ducks played competitive hockey against one of the hottest teams in the NHL again on Friday night, but Leon Draisaitl scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period and the Edmonton Oilers handed them a 3-2 loss, snapping their three-game winning streak.
Darnell Nurse had a goal and an assist, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored and Stuart Skinner stopped 27 shots as the Oilers (23-12-3) won for the 10th time in 13 games and the 13th time in their past 17. They have won two in a row following back-to-back road losses to the Ducks and Kings last weekend.
Brett Leason and Jackson LaCombe scored for the Ducks (16-18-4), who erased a two-goal deficit before Draisaitl’s game-winner. Lukas Dostal had 23 saves.
Draisaitl scored the decisive goal with 1:35 remaining after Edmonton had led 2-0 midway through the second period.
With the score tied, Zach Hyman sent the puck in front to Draisaitl and he took the pass on his knee and kicked it down to his stick before picking the corner past Dostal for his league-leading 28th goal of the season.
Draisaitl extended his points streak to 13 games, tying the longest streak of the season achieved by four different players thus far. During his streak he has 11 goals and 14 assists. Draisaitl passed Glenn Anderson for fifth in Oilers franchise history with career 907 points. However, teammate Connor McDavid had his own points streak end at 12.
The Oilers have won eight of their past nine games against the Ducks.
Edmonton went on its first power play after Olen Zellweger went to the box for high sticking Corey Perry at 16:12 of the first period.
Nugent-Hopkins tried to center a pass to Hyman above the crease while on the man advantage, but the puck went off the blade of LaCombe and was redirected into his own net, giving the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 16:54.
Evan Bouchard assisted on the goal for his 200th NHL point, becoming the second fastest Edmonton defenseman to reach that milestone. He was playing in his 303 game. Only Paul Coffey (221 games) reached the mark sooner.
The Oilers made it 2-0 at 7:57 of the second. Nurse scored from the high slot off a feed from Jeff Skinner, who was a healthy scratch the only time this season in a 5-3 loss to the Ducks on Sunday at the Honda Center.
Leason cut it to 2-1 at 18:32 of the second when he got ahead of the defense and slid the puck past Skinner.
The Ducks went on the power play after Adam Henrique went to the box for slashing Brian Dumoulin at 6:19 of the third period. LaCombe scored with a wrist shot from above the hashmark to tie it 2-2 at 6:53.
LaCombe is having a terrific second season with the Ducks. He now has seven goals on the season and 15 points in 31 games. The 23-year-old defenseman is just two points shy of the 17 he had in 71 games as a rookie.
Edmonton defensemen have been somewhat of a surprise in scoring, now accounting for 25 of the Oilers’ 122 goals this season – just one behind league-leading Columbus. Evan Bouchard leads the way with seven, followed by Mattias Ekholm (six), Brett Kulak (five), Nurse (four) and Troy Stecher (three).
The Ducks host Tampa Bay on Sunday at 5 p.m.
