The Oilers defeat the Kraken for the seventh straight game & secure their third win in a row with a 4-2 victory at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday night
© 2025 NHLI
SEATTLE, WA – Now you SEA us, now you don’t.
The Edmonton Oilers turned the lights out on the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night to claim their third straight win and their seventh straight victory over their Pacific Division foes with a 4-2 result at Climate Pledge Arena, starting their four-game road trip off with a victory in the second of back-to-back games.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, with the German’s empty-net goal with 1:58 remaining in regulation marking his league-leading 29th of the season after stretching his personal point streak to 14 games less than a minute into the first period with the primary helper on Vasily Podkolzin’s opening tally.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the game-winning goal 11:52 into the second period, finding the back of the net in his third straight game after Jeff Skinner made it 2-0 for the Oilers to end a seven-game goalless drought and continue Edmonton’s strong start in Seattle on Hockey Night In Canada.
Viktor Arvidsson contributed two assists, while Brett Kulak, Evan Bouchard, Kasperi Kapanen, Connor Brown and Derek Ryan all got on the scoresheet with helpers in the victory that improves Edmonton’s record to 24-12-3 this season
Goaltender Calvin Pickard only had to make 15 saves, but other than Jaden Schwartz’s 3-2 tally that came off a tricky broken-stick shot from defenceman Vince Dunn in the final frame, the Oilers backup was solid en route to recording his 10th win of the campaign.
The Oilers will now go coast-to-coast as they continue their four-game road trip on Wednesday night against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden.
Ryan talks to the media after Saturday’s win over the Kraken
The Kraken were probably wishing the lights would’ve stayed off.
In a bizarre start to Saturday night’s matchup on Hockey Night in Canada, both the Kraken and the Oilers were shrouded in darkness during the opening moments of the first period when the lights at Climate Pledge arena flicked off, drawing a quick whistle from the officials before they returned within a few seconds to allow play to resume with an offensive-zone faceoff for the Blue & Orange.
Seattle might’ve still been adjusting, but Edmonton was seeing clearly before the first minute had expired when Vasily Podkolzin made a great play on a zone entry to start the scoring play that’d result in the winger firing Oilers into an early 1-0 advantage on the West Coast.
With two Kraken defenders stepping towards him at the blue line, Podkolzin flicked a saucer pass left to an open Viktor Arvidsson, who then offloaded it to Draisaitl to deliver it back onto the tape of the Russian inside the right circle for a quick one-timer that beat the sliding Philipp Grubauer up top for his fourth goal of the season only 57 seconds into the contest.
Draisaitl left it late in the first half of Edmonton’s back-to-back on Friday night against Anaheim to extend his double-digit point streak with the game-winning goal, but the German didn’t waste any time in Seattle tying his career-best point streak to an impressive 14 games, totalling 11 goals and 15 assists.
Podkolzin buries the one-timer from Draisaitl for an early 1-0 lead
Podkolzin’s goal was his first goal in 14 games since scoring in three consecutive outings near the end of November, and the good start for the Oilers didn’t end there, after winger Jeff Skinner ended his own seven-game goal drought off another good play at the blue line by Edmonton’s fourth line less than five minutes later.
Centre Derek Ryan marked his return to the lineup and his home state of Washington by forcing a turnover near the benches before Kasperi Kapanen found Jeff Skinner behind the Kraken defence to dangle Grubauer and roof his first goal since Dec. 14 into the top corner for the 2-0 advantage for Edmonton. Skinner’s tally was his seventh goal of the season to give the winger points in back-to-back games after picking up an assist in last night’s victory over Anaheim.
The Kraken seemed to have no response for the Oilers in the first period, trailing 2-0 and being limited on home ice to only three shots in the opening 20 minutes.
Skinner beats Grubauer with a nifty deke after a setup from Kapanen
For the third straight game, “Nuuuuuuge!” is on the scoresheet.
Early in the middle frame, the Oilers killed off penalties to Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard to keep their two-goal lead intact and improve their League-best penalty kill since Nov. 12 to 47-for-52 (90.4 percent) with a 2-for-2 second period in Seattle.
Calvin Pickard then had to come up with his best save of the game, denying Matty Beniers on a dangerous near the midway mark of the period, which proved vital in leading to Nugent-Hopkins making it three goals for Edmonton and three straight games for No. 93 with a goal.
McDavid grimaced along the boards from a charlie horse delivered from a hit by Vince Dunn, but the Oilers captain had already offloaded a pass to Brett Kulak, leading to a shot from the Parkland County Kid that Connor Brown knocked down to leave it in space for Nugent-Hopkins to snap a shot quickly over the glove of Grubauer for a 3-0 lead with 8:08 remaining in the period.
Nugent-Hopkins also has four goals in his last five games and six goals in his last 10 games, with the Oilers holding a 7-0-1 record this season in contests where their longest-tenured player gets on the scoresheet coming into Saturday’s contest.
Nugent-Hopkins scores for a third straight game on Saturday
The Oilers could’ve put the game out of reach on their first power play two minutes later with Tye Kartye in the box for hooking, but as the penalty was about to expire, a giveaway by Mattias Ekholm in Seattle’s zone led to an odd-man rush that resulted in the Kraken getting on the board.
Forward Chandler Stephenson intercepted Ekholm’s wayward pass and took it all the way to the house by himself, picking his spot low blocker on Pickard three seconds after Kartye exited the box to give the Kraken some life entering the final period.
Seattle fought back from two goals down on Thursday to ultimately earn a point in a 4-3 shootout loss against the Canucks, and the home side would have to do the same in the third period if they were going to scrape any points away from the Oilers at Climate Pledge Arena.
Jeff speaks to the media after Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Seattle
Make it a league-leading 29 goals for the German superstar who wears No. 29 for the Blue & Orange.
Despite Jaden Schwartz halving the Kraken’s deficit 7:27 into the final frame off a broken=stick shot from defenceman Vince Dunn, the Oilers were able to secure their seventh straight victory over their Pacific Division rivals with the help of Draisaitl’s 29th goal of the season that he slid into Seattle’s empty net after Dunn blew a tire at the blue line.
Draisaitl has dominated the Kraken over his career with an average of 2.27 points per game, with a goal and an assist on Saturday night giving him six goals and 19 assists in 11 career games against the NHL’s expansion side from 2021, who’s been owned by the Oilers over their franchise’s history to the tune of a 9-2-0 record for Edmonton.
The Oilers earned their third straight victory to move to 14-3-1 in their last 18 games as they now travel to the East Coast to continue their four-game road trip against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Kris addresses the media as his team was victorious Saturday in Seattle
Hockey News