The Edmonton Oilers lost Game 6 and their season to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in a 5-2 defeat Sunday night..For the second straight game, the Oilers surrendered a 2-1 lead and lost. The Oilers hadn't lost consecutive games since Feb. 25-27..Vegas right winger Reilly Smith opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game. Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner passed the puck along the boards into a crowd of players. His defenceman Mattias Ekholm dug out the puck, but it went straight to Smith, who scored..McDavid scored on the Oilers' first shot 31 seconds later to tie it. Warren Foegele followed up to give Edmonton the lead before Vegas goalie Adin Hill shut the door with 39 straight saves..Jonathan Marchessault scored three straight goals at 4:26, 7:44, and 18:36 of the second period to give Vegas the win. It was the first natural hat trick in Vegas playoff history and was Marchessault’s eighth point in the past three games..William Karlsson scored an empty-net goal at 19:21 of the third period to seal Edmonton’s fate..Leon Draisaitl was -4 on the night. He had 13 goals and four assists in the first eight games of the playoffs, but was minus-7 with one assist in the final four games. ."It's always tough (to score). Guys play me hard, I know that…But I have to find a way to be better,” Draisaitl said.."It hurts. It's tough to find words right now…Obviously, when you start a season, we're in it to win it and we're at that stage. If you don't complete that, then it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts.”.The Oilers’ power play was a remarkable 18-for-39 (46.2%) in the playoffs, but did not score on their only power play in Game 6.."We couldn't create enough 5-on-5, but we scored two 5-on-5 tonight and sometimes that's got to be enough,” Draisaitl said. “I have to take a lot of ownership myself. I wasn't good tonight.”.The Oilers outshot Vegas 40-22 and outhit Vegas 45-22. Vegas had 28 blocked shots, twice Edmonton’s number. McDavid said Vegas played a textbook game.."They did a lot of good things. They shut it down, their third period was clinical," McDavid said. "We still had our looks and didn't find a way to get one past them. I thought in Game 5 they had a better second period than us, Game 6 they had a better second period, and we couldn't claw our way back.".Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse was -3 for the night. ."We just weren't consistent enough," Nurse said. "If you give them chances, they're going to make you pay. We played with fire a little bit, getting behind in the series, and then they found a way to finish their chances tonight and we couldn't.".Skinner was nominated for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie, but the 24-year-old struggled in the playoffs. He had a 3.97 goals-against average and .875 save percentage in the six games against Vegas, and was pulled in Games 3, 5 and 6..Skinner allowed four goals on 17 shots in his final game before taking the bench at the second intermission. Jack Campbell had a 1.01 GAA, one win, and a .961 save percentage in four relief appearances in the playoffs..Coach Jay Woodcroft led the Oilers to their first 50-win season (50-23-9) for the first time since 1986-87, one less than the Golden Knights.."I think we beat this up the last few days in terms of the question," Woodcroft said. "We think about that stuff all the time, but in the end, we win as a team, and we don't win as a team. I thought there’s different points in tonight's game where we have to be better, and that's not on one person, regardless of the position.".Vegas will play in the Western Conference Final against the winner of Monday’s tilt in Dallas between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken..In the regular season, the Oilers had the best power play percentage of all time at 32.4%. They entered the playoffs with a 14-0-1 in their final 15 games, then prevailed over the Los Angeles Kings in six games in round one..Connor McDavid led the league with 153 points (64 goals, 89 assists), and Leon Draisaitl was second. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got 103 points, making Edmonton the first team since 1996 to have three 100-point scorers.
The Edmonton Oilers lost Game 6 and their season to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in a 5-2 defeat Sunday night..For the second straight game, the Oilers surrendered a 2-1 lead and lost. The Oilers hadn't lost consecutive games since Feb. 25-27..Vegas right winger Reilly Smith opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game. Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner passed the puck along the boards into a crowd of players. His defenceman Mattias Ekholm dug out the puck, but it went straight to Smith, who scored..McDavid scored on the Oilers' first shot 31 seconds later to tie it. Warren Foegele followed up to give Edmonton the lead before Vegas goalie Adin Hill shut the door with 39 straight saves..Jonathan Marchessault scored three straight goals at 4:26, 7:44, and 18:36 of the second period to give Vegas the win. It was the first natural hat trick in Vegas playoff history and was Marchessault’s eighth point in the past three games..William Karlsson scored an empty-net goal at 19:21 of the third period to seal Edmonton’s fate..Leon Draisaitl was -4 on the night. He had 13 goals and four assists in the first eight games of the playoffs, but was minus-7 with one assist in the final four games. ."It's always tough (to score). Guys play me hard, I know that…But I have to find a way to be better,” Draisaitl said.."It hurts. It's tough to find words right now…Obviously, when you start a season, we're in it to win it and we're at that stage. If you don't complete that, then it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts.”.The Oilers’ power play was a remarkable 18-for-39 (46.2%) in the playoffs, but did not score on their only power play in Game 6.."We couldn't create enough 5-on-5, but we scored two 5-on-5 tonight and sometimes that's got to be enough,” Draisaitl said. “I have to take a lot of ownership myself. I wasn't good tonight.”.The Oilers outshot Vegas 40-22 and outhit Vegas 45-22. Vegas had 28 blocked shots, twice Edmonton’s number. McDavid said Vegas played a textbook game.."They did a lot of good things. They shut it down, their third period was clinical," McDavid said. "We still had our looks and didn't find a way to get one past them. I thought in Game 5 they had a better second period than us, Game 6 they had a better second period, and we couldn't claw our way back.".Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse was -3 for the night. ."We just weren't consistent enough," Nurse said. "If you give them chances, they're going to make you pay. We played with fire a little bit, getting behind in the series, and then they found a way to finish their chances tonight and we couldn't.".Skinner was nominated for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie, but the 24-year-old struggled in the playoffs. He had a 3.97 goals-against average and .875 save percentage in the six games against Vegas, and was pulled in Games 3, 5 and 6..Skinner allowed four goals on 17 shots in his final game before taking the bench at the second intermission. Jack Campbell had a 1.01 GAA, one win, and a .961 save percentage in four relief appearances in the playoffs..Coach Jay Woodcroft led the Oilers to their first 50-win season (50-23-9) for the first time since 1986-87, one less than the Golden Knights.."I think we beat this up the last few days in terms of the question," Woodcroft said. "We think about that stuff all the time, but in the end, we win as a team, and we don't win as a team. I thought there’s different points in tonight's game where we have to be better, and that's not on one person, regardless of the position.".Vegas will play in the Western Conference Final against the winner of Monday’s tilt in Dallas between the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken..In the regular season, the Oilers had the best power play percentage of all time at 32.4%. They entered the playoffs with a 14-0-1 in their final 15 games, then prevailed over the Los Angeles Kings in six games in round one..Connor McDavid led the league with 153 points (64 goals, 89 assists), and Leon Draisaitl was second. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got 103 points, making Edmonton the first team since 1996 to have three 100-point scorers.
