The Edmonton Oilers are back in the win column.
On Tuesday evening, they played the Ottawa Senators in the Nation’s capital, defeating the young team by a score of 5-2 to bring their record to 10-8-2 for the 2024-25 season.
The Oilers opened the scoring under four minutes into the game, as Evan Bouchard scored one of the nicest goals you’ll see him score, toe-dragging it around the Sens defender before beating Linus Ullmark.
With just over four minutes left in the period, the Senators scored their first of two goals in the game as German forward Tim Stützle was left alone in the slot, beating Stuart Skinner on the glove side.
As that goal was being announced, Connor McDavid scored less than a minute later, as Vasily Podkolzin’s shot was saved, but the rebound bounced out to the Oilers captain for the 2-1 lead.
Just over two minutes later on a 5 on 3, McDavid’s shot from the slot beat Ullmark to give him his second of the game and the Oilers a 3-1 lead. This happened to be the game-winning goal as well.
A quarter of the way through the second period, Leon Draisaitl scored his 14th goal of the season on a breakaway, sliding it through Ullmark’s five-hole to give the Oilers a 4-1 lead. McDavid picked up an assist on this goal.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got off the schneid with just over eight minutes left in the game, as he got on the end of a Derek Ryan saucer pass and deflected it past Ullmark. Late in the game, Josh Norris scored the Senators’ second goal of the game, but it was far too little far too late.

Takeaways…

Vasily Podkolzin might not be finding the back of the net, but he has been terrific playing alongside Leon Draisaitl. He picked up his fourth and fifth assists on the Oilers’ first two goals of the game.
Stuart Skinner was solid in net as he saved 27 of 29 shots for a .931 save percentage. This was Skinner’s sixth game with a save percentage above .900 and his third-best save percentage of the season. Moreover, it was his first game with a save percentage above .900 since Edmonton’s defeat against the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 6.
Don’t look now, but the Oilers’ penalty kill is getting going. Coming into this game, they had killed off 10 straight penalties in their four prior games. Against the Senators, they killed off the two penalties they took and even scored their ninth power-play goal of the season.
Josh Brown dropped the mitts with Zack MacEwen in the first period in what was a better fight than the main event on Friday. The Oilers are now 6-0 when they drop the mitts in a game. On the flip side, the Oilers are now 1-3 in the second game of a back-to-back.
The Oilers return to action on Thursday, as they’ll return home to host the surging Minnesota Wild. This season, the Wild are currently in second place in the Central Division, behind only the blazing-hot Winnipeg Jets. After that, it’ll be a Saturday night game against the New York Rangers. 
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