Leon Draisaitl will try to extend his 18-game point streak when he leads the Edmonton Oilers against the visiting Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday night.
Draisaitl has 27 points (14 goals, 13 assists) during his red-hot streak, which is both the longest in the NHL this season and the lengthiest of the forward’s career. Wayne Gretzky (who did it six times) and Paul Coffey are the only Oilers in franchise history with points streaks of 19-plus games.
Leading the NHL with 49 goals, Draisaitl is one tally away from his fourth career 50-goal season.
As a team, the Oilers (39-24-4, 82 points) have scored 32 goals over their last 12 games. With goals at a premium, the team has adjusted to sweating out results.
Edmonton is 4-2-0 in its last six games, and Sunday’s 3-1 road win over the New York Rangers was the only game in that stretch decided by more than a single score.
“Definitely tight checking on both sides… but that’s kind of definitely our mandate as to how we want to play games,” forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “Obviously, a lot of the time when you do that to teams, it leads to more offense.”
“I think, overall, that needs to be our mindset down the last 15 games here.”
The Oilers are four points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for first place in the Pacific Division. They are also trying to stay ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for at least a top-two finish.
Utah (30-26-11, 71 points) is facing more desperation in the battle for the final Western Conference wild-card berth. The Utah Hockey Club, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues are all within two points of each other for that single playoff spot.
Rising to the challenge in direct competition, Utah HC has posted a 7-1-0 combined record in eight games with the Blues (2-1-0), Flames (2-0-0) and Canucks (3-0-0) this season.
The latest of those victories came in Sunday’s 3-1 road win in Vancouver. Trailing 1-0 through 32 minutes, Utah scored three unanswered goals, including tallies from Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller in the third period.
“It doesn’t get much bigger than that… Playoff hopes are on the line to an extent in a game like this, and so it brings us right back into the mix,” forward Alex Kerfoot said. “And we’ve just got to keep building because we’re still trying to track down three teams.”
Goaltender Karel Vejmelka has started all of Utah’s last 10 games, going 6-2-2 with a .911 save percentage and 2.08 goals against average. Since Connor Ingram is out indefinitely and current backup Jaxson Stauber has only 10 games of NHL experience, expect Utah to keep riding Vejmelka during the playoff push.
Stuart Skinner will likely be in Edmonton’s net on Tuesday. Skinner has been struggling in recent weeks, but looked good while stopping 21 of 22 shots against the Rangers on Sunday.
Oilers defensemen Mattias Ekholm (illness) and John Klingberg (undisclosed) are questionable for Tuesday’s game after missing the last six.
Edmonton is looking to sweep the season series with the Utah Hockey Club. The Oilers won 4-3 in overtime in Salt Lake City on Nov. 29 and 4-1 in Edmonton on Dec. 31.
–Field Level Media
