It took nearly 65 minutes, but the Edmonton Oilers are back in the win column. The visiting team took down the New York Islanders in overtime on Friday night to snap a two-game losing skid.
After a scoreless first period that was largely controlled by Edmonton, Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring eight minutes into the second frame with a slap shot that beat Ilya Sorokin. The Islanders responded early in the third period when Bo Horvat grabbed a turnover in New York’s zone and buried his 21st goal of the year after going up the ice untouched.
With just over one minute left in three-on-three overtime, goaltender Calvin Pickard picked off a pass attempt into the slot and quickly dumped the puck over to Connor McDavid. The captain sprung Draisaitl on a breakaway and the league’s leading goal scorer made no mistake with his 49th of the season.

Calvin Pickard with excellent goaltending and playmaking

That assist on the game-winner was a perfect bow on top of an excellent performance between the pipes for Pickard.
In his last outing, Edmonton’s backup was pulled in the first intermission after allowing four goals on 11 shots against the Anaheim Ducks. Against the Islanders, Pickard turned aside 24 of 25 shots, good for a .960 save percentage.
When speaking to the media following the game, Draisaitl praised Pickard for the smart hockey sense to notice the Islanders had a forward alone near the net and that a pass would soon be coming into the middle of the zone.
“He started the whole play,” Draisaitl said. “It’s great hockey sense. It goes unnoticed by a lot of people probably, but that’s elite hockey sense right there. He was amazing all night.”
Pickard noted that he often sees battles along the boards result in a loose puck, so he positioned himself to be able to get involved in the play.
“I saw the guy kind of hanging around the high slot there,” Pickard said. “Those pucks usually squirt out somehow, so I tried to get up and be a bit assertive and it came closer to me. Then I saw both Leo and Connor go, so Connor kind of intercepted it and just sent it to Leon’s tape.”
With just four players on the ice for each side in overtime, having a goaltender who can move the puck effectively is very important. The Oilers had Mike Smith doubling as a quarterback when he was the goalie in Edmonton and helped the team become dominant in three-on-three play.

Leon Draisaitl for the Hart Trophy

With his 48th and 49th goals of the season, Draisaitl extended his lead in the NHL scoring race to a whopping 13 goals over William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who sits second with 36 goals. Draisaitl’s two goals also put him at 100 points on the year, marking the sixth time he’s reached the century mark in a season.
“It’s a nice individual milestone, but the two points are much bigger than any other personal record,” Draisaitl said.
“I love being an Oiler. It means the world to me,” he added. “Obviously, having teammates that understand the way I am and as a person. Sometimes, it’s not always easy, but I love these guys and without them, none of this is possible. These are all nice efforts and accomplishements for me personal self, but none of this works without your teammates.”
It looks like a two-horse race for the Hart Trophy this season between Draisaitl and Nathan MacKinnon. The star of the Colorado Avalanche, who won his first MVP last season, leads the league with 75 assists and 102 points. Leading the league with 10 game-winning goals will help Draisaitl’s case in this vote.

The Oilers get two much-needed points

With the win, the Oilers moved back into second place in the Pacific Division. They’re one point up on the Los Angeles Kings with two more games played and they’re five points back of the Vegas Golden Knights with one more game played.
Since the end of January, the Oilers have won only six of 15 games, with only two of those wins coming in regulation time. The team badly needs to find its stride with just over one month remaining in the 2024-25 regular season. Winning the division is an uphill climb at this point but home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs is certainly still up for grabs.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Pickard said. “I mean, I’ve only been here since the start of last year, but there’s obviously always a ton of adversity. So, we’re no strangers to it. We’ve been putting together some pretty good efforts, we just haven’t been able to score and have been running into some hot goalies, and (we) did that again tonight. It almost took 65 minutes to score two. So, credit to our team. We defended really well, we played the right way, and we got the reward we deserved.”
The Oilers will finish this four-game road trip with a game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The Golden Knights and Kings will both be in action on Saturday, as Vegas has a matinee game in Buffalo against the Sabres and Los Angeles is hosting the Nashville Predators.