Mikko Koskinen tied his season-high with 36 saves to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Jesse Puljujarvi scored goals for Edmonton, which won despite its leading scorers Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid getting blanked on the scoresheet.
Koskinen improved to 11-2-0 with the victory.
Chandler Stephenson scored a goal for the third consecutive game and Reilly Smith also scored for Vegas. Robin Lehner finished with 27 saves.
Koskinen was brilliant at the start of the game when the Golden Knights swarmed the net, making several grade A stops, including a glove save on a point-blank shot by Jonathan Marchessault.
But Edmonton outshot Vegas 11-1 over the final 7:50 of the period while taking a 2-0 lead. Nugent-Hopkins got the first goal at the 17:50 mark, beating Lehner on his blocker side at the end of a two-on-one break following a turnover by Max Pacioretty.
Hyman followed with his ninth goal of the season at the 19:44 mark after a turnover by Mark Stone, breaking in and beating Lehner with a backhand shot.
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Puljujarvi made it 3-0 in the second period when he broke behind the Vegas defense and scored on a clean breakaway with a wrist shot through Lehner’s 5-hole for his seventh goal of the season and first in nine games.
Stephenson put the Golden Knights on the scoreboard with his eighth goal of the season, taking a pass from Stone on the rush and backhanding a shot under Koskinen’s glove.
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Smith cut it to 3-2 early in the third period with his ninth goal of the season and seventh in nine games when Marchessault’s rebound shot deflected in off his skate and inside the left post.
Vegas pulled Lehner for an extra attacker but managed just one shot, a snapshot from the left circle by Alex Pietrangelo that Koskinen knocked away with his blocker.
–Field Level Media