O’Reilly’s hat trick, 4 points propel Predators past slumping Oilers

O’Reilly scored 23 seconds into the second period to give Nashville a 2-1 lead. He tapped in the rebound of a point shot by Forsberg.

O’Reilly then put Nashville ahead 3-1 at 3:24 with a one-timer off a cross-crease pass from Forsberg on a power play.

Hyman got the Oilers to within 3-2 at 5:08 when Evan Bouchard’s one-timer on a power play deflected in off him.

“We go into every game thinking we are going to win,” Hyman said. “So when it doesn’t happen, obviously you are not happy. It seems like it is continuing to happen. It is not fun. We know how good we can be and we know what is causing us to be in this spot. There is no magic pill. We just have to go out there and fix it.

“That is the frustrating part is that we have yet to fix those errors that continue to come up in our game. We have the recipe. We know what to do. We just have to go out there and do it.”

Novak pushed it to 4-2 at 15:15 of the second when he got behind Oilers defenseman Vincent Desharnais, received a pass from Luke Evangelista and scored top shelf on Campbell.

O’Reilly completed the hat trick to make it 5-2 at 8:22 of the third peirod, jamming in a puck at the side of the net. However, play continued until O’Reilly scored again on that same shift, which is when a video review then determined the puck had completely crossed the goal line on his earlier shot.

McDavid had an assist but finished the game with a minus-2 rating. Draisaitl and Hyman were each minus-3.

“I like when we put up five (goals), but to only let in two against that group is pretty remarkable,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I mean, they’re probably one of the highest octane offenses in the League with the best player in hockey (McDavid), and I thought we did a good job.”

Lankinen made 23 saves over the final two periods.

“He kept us in it, especially a couple of shifts there where we knew we needed him,” Brunette said. “I thought he was calm, I thought he was quiet, he made some big saves. Even when chaos was going around him, I thought he did a good job of keeping within himself.

NOTES: O’Reilly’s hat trick was his fifth in the NHL. … Predators defenseman Ryan McDonagh took warmups but did not play because of a lower-body injury. He is day to day. He was replaced in the lineup by Marc Del Gaizo, who had an assist in 18:02 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Oilers forward Raphael Lavoie was minus-1 in 9:25 of ice time in his NHL debut. … Edmonton’s only home win this season came in the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium last Sunday (5-2 against the Calgary Flames). … Prior to Saturday, the Oilers’ last loss to the Predators in regulation was Oct. 20, 2018 (10-0-2 in previous 12 games).