Leon Draisaitl’s second goal at night-his 51st of the season-in a three-point game was the overtime winner to give the host Edmonton Oilers a 3-2 comeback victory over Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Viktor Arvidsson also scored for Oilers, who snapped a two-game skid.
The goal Calvin Pickard scored 26 rescues for Edmonton (42-26-5, 89 points), which is even with Los Angeles Kings in points for second place in Pacific Division but has played another match.
Draisaitl, the first NHL player to 50 goals this season, returned after missing four matches due to injury, but Edmonton was without colleague Superstar Connor McDavid for a fourth outing in a row. No. 1 goalkeeper Stuart Skinner and defender Mattias Ekholm are also out.
Yegor Sharangovich and Brayden Pachal scored each goal, where Pachal also gathered an assist for the flames (34-26-12, 80 points).
Calgary is seven points outside a playoffs but has three matches in his hand at St. Louis Blues, which holds the Western Conference’s second wild-card site.
Goalkeeper Dustin Wolf stopped 26 shots.
Seconds after the flames came within a few centimeters from having netted a winner, the Draisaitl trailer was in rush, got the puck in the high slot machine and called a shot from the remote post of 2:25 of the extra period.
Typically for a battle at Alberta Clash, it was a huge boost for the victories and a painful blow for the losers.
With their playoffs in great need of a boost, Flames looked for a quick start and got it when Sharangovich opened the score of 4:32 by joining a rush and finishing a rebound chance.
Arvidsson banded the collision at 16:20 in the second period of a bit of a broken game. A Kors-Ispass ricoceted by a defender right to Arvidsson in the left circle and he converted a short side one-hour.
Pachal broke the deadlock at 7:55 of the final frame. Pachal joined a rush, took a feed when he reached the track and buried a shot for his first goal in 28 matches and third this season.
Nazem Kadri’s couple assists for the flames not only gave him 701 career points but also gave him 10 points (seven goals, three assists) in a six-game point.
But Draisaitl leveled the bill again by hacking his 50th goal of the season with 3:12 left in regulation. Draisaitl, the first player to 50 goals in the league this season, was fed a pass for his off-wing and from the right face-off-dot sent a shot just inside the distant post.
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