NHL: East-leading Canes out to dent Oilers' playoff aspirations

The Carolina Hurricanes will try to contain red-hot Leon Draisaitl when they visit the Edmonton Oilers on Friday night.

Edmonton, meanwhile, will have its hands full with Carolina's Nikolaj Ehlers, who has scored four goals in his past two games, including a hat trick.

Draisaitl had five points—two goals and three assists—in a 5-4 overtime win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. He has 10 points, with four goals and six assists, in his past three games. He assisted on Edmonton's final three goals, including Evan Bouchard's game-winner, as the Oilers rallied from a two-goal deficit.

"We did a good job in the third of putting them on their heels and keeping it fairly simple," Draisaitl said. "But we have to be careful not to be in those situations too many times. You can't keep chasing games going into the third; it's not a recipe for success."

Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored, and Connor McDavid had two assists. Connor Ingram made 17 saves for Edmonton, which has won two of its last three games after losing four straight.

"Desperation," Hyman said. "You gotta win games, and we gotta keep the puck out of our net. But when we are down, we have the firepower to be able to come back."

Defense has been an issue for Edmonton, which has allowed four or more goals in seven of its past nine games. Their 3.34 team goals-against average ranks tied for seventh from the bottom this season entering Thursday.

On Thursday, the Oilers made their second trade with the Chicago Blackhawks this week, acquiring forwards Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach for forward Andrew Mangiapane. Dickinson has six goals and seven assists in 47 games this season, while Dach has three goals and six assists in 53 games.

Ehlers’ hat trick led Carolina to a 6-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, the second game of the Hurricanes’ four-game Western swing. Sean Walker, Andrei Svechnikov, and Sebastian Aho each had a goal and an assist. Brandon Bussi made 18 saves as Carolina held on after giving up most of a 5-2 lead.

"I don't think we loved that game; we gave up way too many big chances and made Bussi work for it," Ehlers said. "We didn’t play 100 percent the way we need to. There are some things we need to clean up."

Sitting atop the Eastern Conference, Carolina has won five of six games and is 11-1-2 in its past 14, opening a nine-point lead in the Metropolitan Division.

Bussi improved to 25-3-1 in 29 career NHL games, becoming the fastest goaltender in league history to reach 25 wins. He has won nine straight games for the second time this season, a feat not achieved since Marc-Andre Fleury did it twice in 2011-12.

"In this league, you just have to find ways to win games," Bussi said. "I think I've gotten better, but it was good enough tonight. The team was really good in front of me offensively. Putting up six goals is really nice, so we’ll take the positives."

Draisaitl also scored 19 seconds into overtime to give the Oilers a 4-3 road win over the Hurricanes in their first meeting on Nov. 15.

-Field Level Media/Reuters