Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid and Seattle Kraken defenceman Will Borgen battle along the boards for a loose puck during the first period at Rogers Place. The Oilers won 5-3 on Oct. 7, 2022.Perry Nelson/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
The dress rehearsals are over, and you can count Connor McDavid among those raring to get going for real.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists as the Edmonton Oilers closed out NHL pre-season play Friday with a 5-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken.
“I liked that we won, I think that’s always a good thing,” said McDavid, who had a goal and an assist. “We found a way to win a couple of games in the pre-season when we didn’t have our best.
“I thought Soup (goalie Jack Campbell) played a great game and I thought we did enough to win, which is not going to be good enough when the real bullets fly. We have a couple of days to regroup and I’m looking forward to getting it going for real.
“We feel good about our group, we have lots of different pieces. We’re excited to get it going, everybody is excited to get the regular season under way and we’re not any different.”
Jesse Puljujarvi, Tyson Barrie, and Evander Kane also scored for the Oilers, who ended up with a 5-3 record in exhibition action.
“I thought it was a competitive back and forth game,” said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. “Both teams had good moments, I thought they started well and we got better as the first period wore on.
“Both teams scored a power-play goal and it came down to the last few minutes of the game and some of our top players made big plays. It’s nice to put the pre-season to bed.”
Daniel Sprong, Matty Beniers and Jared McCann responded for the Kraken, who dropped to 4-2.
“The game didn’t get away from us, we gave the puck away. That is one thing you can’t do against this hockey team,” said Seattle head coach David Hakstol.
“Even on the first goal against tonight, a power-play goal for them, we had been playing a hell of a period on the road and the defenceman takes a penalty with a minute to go 200 feet from our net. It is those sorts of things and giveaways that end up coming back at you, much like the third and fourth goals. Those plays hurt you against teams like this.”
It took 13 minutes for the first goal of the game when Seattle’s Sprong was able to dig a puck out of defender Brett Kulak’s skates during a scramble in front and lifted a rebound past Campbell for his second goal of the pre-season.
Edmonton pulled even on the power play with 33 seconds remaining in the opening period as Draisaitl fed it back to Barrie and he unleashed an absolute bullet past Kraken keeper Phillip Grubauer. It was also Barrie’s second goal.
Campbell kept it a tied game with a sequence of saves five minutes into the middle frame, stopping Oliver Bjorkstrand on a point-blank shot and then making a stop while prone on the ice on a rebound by Sprong.
Seattle edged back ahead 11 minutes into the second period as Andre Burakovsky missed an open net, but the puck caromed back in front to Beniers, who chipped his fourth pre-season goal into the net before Campbell could get back across.
Edmonton tied the game five minutes into the third period as McDavid sent a deft pass through the net front to Puljujarvi, who sent it past Grubauer.
Draisaitl got a gift goal with five minutes left in the third as Grubauer tried to clear a puck with a pair of Oilers charging toward the net and inadvertently banked it off the Edmonton forward and into a wide-open cage.
Seattle looked to have sent the game to extra time when McCann scored on the power play with a long-range bomb with 2:18 remaining.
However, just 20 seconds later, Draisaitl made a nice pass to Kane in front and he scored to give Edmonton the late lead. McDavid would add an empty-net goal.
Notes
Both teams launch into regular-season action on Wednesday as the Oilers host the Vancouver Canucks and the Kraken head to Anaheim to take on the Ducks ... The Oilers placed forward Mattias Janmark and defenceman Dmitri Samorukov on waivers Friday with the expectations of assigning them to the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors should they clear waivers. Goalie Calvin Pickard and defenceman Slater Koekkoek cleared waivers earlier in the day.