NHL: Evander Kane allows the Oilers to continue the celebrations

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers showed great character Wednesday night to erase a two-goal deficit in the third period, en route to a 4-3 overtime victory over the Seattle Kraken.

Perhaps dinner will be had with Evander Kane in his next match with the team given that he was the main author of this comeback with a hat-trick in the space of 10 minutes.

After reducing the deficit to one goal and then tying the game, Kane played the hero midway through extra time by completing his hat-trick. Kane needed 9 minutes and 29 seconds to score his three goals.

It was the third straight win for the Oilers, who are also unbeaten in two games under new coach Kris Knoblauch.

Stuart Skinner had a good outing in front of the Oilers cage as he saved 33 of 36 shots. After getting just one win in his first seven matches, Skinner has now won his last three matches.

In addition to Kane’s three goals, Connor McDavid scored his fourth goal of the season. Jared McCann, Alexander Wennberg and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored for the Kraken.

Oilers defenseman Yvan Bouchard had three assists.

Kyler Yamamoto returns to Edmonton for the first time since leaving the team in June 2023. He was a first-round pick of the Oilers in 2017 and played 244 games with Edmonton.

McDavid and Leon Draisaitl combined their efforts in the opening minutes of the second half. Draisaitl caught the attention of four Kraken players entering the zone, allowing him to pass the ball to his left toward McDavid, who scored on a backhand shot after a nice feint.

But Seattle responded with three straight goals, including two in just two minutes. McCann first redirected Jordan Eberle’s pass into the back of the net, then Bellemare redirected a shot past Stuart Skinner to put the Kraken ahead.

At the end of the period, Wenneberg made a great move by turning in front of the net and beating Skinner to double Seattle’s lead with 20 minutes to play.

Kane then gave the Oilers hope with less than seven minutes remaining in the third period when he redirected a brilliant pass from Evan Bouchard into the back net to cut the deficit to 3-2. Bouchard collected his second point of the game with this sequence.

With less than a minute left in the game, the Oilers refused to give up and were able to send the game into overtime. Positioned at the mouth of the net, Kane completed a beautiful pass from Draisaitl to score his second goal of the game and tie the game at 3-3.

In extra time, Kane forgot at the net and completed a brilliant cross from Zach Hyman.

Joey Daccord stopped 28 of the 32 shots he faced in the game.

The Oilers will return to action on Saturday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Lightning, while the Kraken will return to action on Thursday against the Islanders.

Hughes isn’t slowing down

Quinn Hughes has acted again.

The star defenseman had a goal and two assists in the Vancouver Canucks’ 4-3 overtime win against the New York Islanders.

Having already had two assists in the game, Hughes was forgotten behind the Islanders players in overtime and scored with an excellent wrist shot to play hero.

The 24-year-old defenseman now has 6 goals and 26 points this season.

Filip Hronek scored the equalizer for the Canucks and extended their streak of at least one point to 11.

JT Miller and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks, while the Islanders’ goals were the work of Pierre Engvall, Brock Nelson and Bo Horvat.

The Canucks’ power play gave the Islanders a three-goal headache.

The Islanders are having a tough time lately with six straight losses. It’s quite the opposite for the Canucks, who have won seven of their last eight games.

The game started well for the Islanders, as they took a 2-0 lead after the first period of play, Engvall opening the scoring first, then Nelson doubling the lead just over a minute later.

The two teams exchanged some goals in the second half, ending with the score 3-2. Miller put the Canucks first on the scoreboard, before seeing Horvat give the Islanders a two-goal lead again. Boozer cut the deficit to one goal midway through the period with a single.

Back on the power play in the third period, the Canucks made New York pay. Hronek hit a powerful one-timer to tie the game and ultimately send everyone into overtime.

The third period saw a worrying moment, when Andrey Kuzmenko was hit in the face by a hard blow. After staying on the ground for a while, he returned to the locker room bleeding.

Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko stopped 30 pucks while Ilya Sorokin made 39 saves in the loss.

Avalanche tramples ducks

The Colorado Avalanche exploded offensively with five third-period goals to a dominant 8-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday night.

Already leading 3-1 after 40 minutes of play, the Avalanche cruised into the third period to earn their second straight win and snap the Ducks’ two-game winning streak.

In his second game in an Avalanche uniform, rookie Joel Kiviranta collected a goal and two assists in the game.

Valery Nichushkin scored two goals, Quebec player Samuel Girard scored his first goal of the season, and Colorado’s other goals were scored by Andrew Cogliano, Devon Toews, Ross Colton and Frederik Olofsson.

Cale Makar had three assists. This is the 14th time in his career that he has had three or more points in a game.

Sam Carrick and Max Jones scored the Ducks’ only goals of the game.

Avalanche goalie Alexander Georgiev wasn’t too busy in front of the net and stopped 15 of the 17 shots he faced. In Ducks camp, Lukas Dostal allowed eight goals on 38 shots.

The Ducks have won their last five games on the road.

The Ducks will face the Florida Panthers and St. Louis Blues over the next few days, before hosting the Montreal Canadiens next Wednesday.

The Avalanche will play their next game on Saturday against the Dallas Stars.