GAME STORY: Maple Leafs 4, Oilers 3 (OT)

FIRST BLOOD

Both the overtime goal and the opening goal were tough bounces for the Oilers as Pierre Engvall got credit for Toronto’s first tally at 4:14 of the first period as his sharp-angle shot attempt deflected off the stick of Darnell Nurse, fluttered through the air, struck Mike Smith first in the helmet and then on the arm before landing in the net.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl made plenty of magic in the middle frame as they either scored or set up all three of Edmonton’s goals. The best of the best was the second Oilers goal as McDavid exploded down the left wing and kept his eyes locked on the net while he fired a perfect pass back to a trailing Draisaitl, who unleashed his patented one-timer past a helpless Jack Campbell for his 19th of the season.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Smith made 27 saves on Saturday and many of them were of the highlight-reel variety, including a point-blank stop on Mitch Marner eight minutes into the third period. Zach Hyman set up Marner for a one-timer and the Oilers netminder was able to dart his pad out for the denial despite the shot going in the opposite direction of his momentum.

TURNING POINT

The Oilers were less than eight minutes away from closing out what would have been a significant road victory when Alex Galchenyuk set up Leafs captain John Tavares for a nifty tally that kick-started their comeback. William Nylander tied it up just over four minutes later to send the game to OT, paving the way for the ricochet winner from Auston Matthews.

Video: POST-RAW | Tyson Barrie 03.27.21

TOP PERFORMER

Draisaitl scored once and added a pair of assists to lead the game in scoring, bringing him up to 53 points on the season and moving him one point closer to McDavid for the NHL scoring lead as the Oilers captain had two points on Saturday to give him 64. Draisaitl is tied with Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen for third in the goal-scoring race with 19, trailing McDavid (21) and Matthews (22).

FACT CHECK

With his two-assist effort, McDavid extended his point streak to 10 games, his second double-digit run of the season. He also now has four consecutive multi-point performances. McDavid became the fifth player in franchise history to record his 40th assist of the season in 35 games or fewer, and first in 30 years to do so as Mark Messier required 34 games in the 1990-91 campaign.

Video: POST-RAW | Leon Draisaitl 03.27.21

NEXT UP

The Oilers and Leafs will have Sunday to rest and recover before squaring off again on Monday. As of right now, the Oilers will have Tuesday through Thursday off as well before hosting the Calgary Flames for the seventh Battle of Alberta of the season on Friday.

PARTING WORDS

“That’s the nature of the sport, you want results,” Tyson Barrie said of the final stretch of the game spoiling a solid effort. “We can say we played a good second, or whatever you want, but at the end of the day that’s not the team you want to be where you have a two-goal lead and you give it up with seven minutes left in the third period. Those are games we have to close out.”

Video: POST-RAW | Dave Tippett 03.27.21

“Of course we can beat that team, there’s no question about it,” Draisaitl said of the Oilers dropping their last four games against Toronto. “It’s a good team, we’re a really good team. It’s always tight games. There’s no question in our heads that we can beat them.”

“We didn’t play well enough to win the game,” Head Coach Dave Tippett said. “We gave up too many chances and we didn’t execute well enough. There’s things we can do a lot better.”