The Edmonton Oilers got their revenge.
Two years ago, the Vegas Golden Knights abruptly ended what many expected to be a deep run into the playoffs for Edmonton. After splitting Games 1 to 4, the Golden Knights finished off the Oilers with back-to-back wins in Games 5 and 6.
This year, a deeper and more experienced version of the Oilers shoved the Golden Knights aside in five games.
The Oilers got over their usual early-series struggles and took both Games 1 and 2 in Vegas. They missed an opportunity at home in Game 3 to put the Golden Knights on the verge of elimination, but Edmonton came back in Game 4 with a different lineup and had their most dominant showing of the playoffs.
Leading 3-1 in the series, the Oilers finished things off with a Game 5 victory in Vegas. There wasn’t a single goal scored until seven minutes into overtime when Kasperi Kapanen buried a rebound to send Edmonton to the Western Conference Final.
We saw the Oilers beat Vegas in a variety of different ways in this series, including a comeback win, two overtime victories, and two shutouts. The ability to slow things down and grind out a 1-0 win wasn’t something this team was capable of doing two years ago.
This year’s win over the Golden Knights is a reminder of how far the Oilers have come over the last few years.

What they said…

Kasperi Kapanen on scoring the series-winning goal in overtime…
“I don’t think there’s a lot to it. I think Podzy [Vasily Podkolzin] made a great play on the blueline, and Leon [Draisaitl] gave it to Doc [Darnell Nurse] and he just kind of threw it on net. I missed it a couple times. Just trying to stay with it. Luckily, it went in. That pretty much summed up the whole game today. There weren’t too many grade-A chances, and I’m just happy with it.”
Connor McDavid on the Oilers beating the Golden Knights in five games…
“We’re excited. We keep putting ourselves in good positions, and we keep giving ourselves a chance. We keep knocking at the door. That’s all you can do: Give yourself a chance.”
“There are probably a lot of people who thought it was gonna go longer than five games, and probably not a lot of people who thought we would win. It’s nice to keep on rolling and keep on proving people wrong, and we got a lot of belief in this room. It’s fun to be part of.”
Stuart Skinner on posting back-to-back shutouts after his difficult start to the playoffs…
“I don’t think I want to do it like this too often, but it happens. It’s the nature of the game, it’s the nature of the position that I’m in. But being able to come back in [the net] no matter what the scenario is and having that resiliency in me is something that I can be proud of. So much of it has to do with how the guys are playing in front of me. The way they’d played ever since I came back [into the net] was impressive.”
McDavid on how Skinner silenced his critics with his play against the Golden Knights…
“Hopefully, it shuts a lot of people up who were talking about him, but we’ve always believed in him. He comes in and pitches two shutouts. I can’t say enough good things.”
Head coach Kris Knoblauch on how the Oilers played in front of Skinner…
“I think we defended pretty well in front of him the last two nights. Was it perfect? No. Were there any chances? Definitely. He came up big the last two nights. The other night [in Game 4], early in the game, especially on the penalty kill. He made some other big saves there tonight [in Game 5] when we needed them, especially as the game wore on in the third period. A lot more saves were needed, but not only making the saves, but looking confident doing it.
“If anyone needed to feel good about their game and have a little reward, he definitely deserved it, because the playoffs didn’t start off ideally for him. I think also the numbers lied a little bit. I don’t think his save percentage and his goals against were really that bad. I think it was just under the circumstances, and we knew we would need him. We went with Picks for a while, and when he had his opportunity, he came up and played really well for us.”
Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy on how the Golden Knights played in Game 5…
“Listen, I liked our game. I thought we competed hard physically. We wanted to win. I’m super proud of the guys, they were committed to playing the right way. I thought it was two evenly matched teams and they found a way to be better than us in certain areas.”
Vegas defenceman Alex Pietrangelo on losing in the playoffs…
“Any time you have a good team, you feel like you didn’t finish what you set out to do. We’ve got a hell of a team. It’s disappointing. It’s a hard league to win. We knew that going in.”

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