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LAS VEGAS — Connor McDavid put it best after the Edmonton Oilers registered back-to-back routs over Pacific Division punching bags Anaheim and San Jose.
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“Vegas will be the test.”
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While the Oilers looked fantastic in outscoring the lowly Ducks and Sharks 13-3, the true measure of where this team stands as it begins what it hopes is a second half charge up the standings would come against the division-leading Golden Knights.
Edmonton answered its own question with a vengeance Saturday. Playing the second of back-to-back road games and third game in four nights, they were the better team from start to finish in a hard-fought 4-3 decision at T-Mobile Arena.
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“It was a good effort again, I think we’ve been playing some good hockey lately and we have to continue that,” said Leon Draisaitl, who had a pair of goals in the win.
“This is always a tough building to play in; the momentum swings seem a little higher here than any other rink. But we played a really, really good third period and Soupy (goalie Jack Campbell) stood tall in there and was really good again. That’s a recipe for success.”
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After a hard defeat in Los Angeles, the Oilers regrouped, fought back and finished their four-game trip with six of eight points. And, now, just a few days after it looked like they might be fading out of the wildcard chase, they are now just five points out of second place in the Pacific — a gap they can close to three when Seattle visits Tuesday.
“This part of the year for us is where we either go down or start climbing here,” said Mattias Janmark, who opened the scoring against his former team.
“If we’re going to climb we’re going to have to string wins together and we’re going to have to beat teams like this in buildings like this. And it’s not just today, it has to keep growing here going forward.”
It was another epic start for Edmonton. After storming out to 2-0 leads in both Anaheim and San Jose, they had Vegas by the throat before the night was two minutes old on goals from Janmark at 45 seconds and Draisaitl at 1:42.
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Slow starts used to be Edmonton’s downfall, but they seem to have figured things out.
“It’s always easier to play with the lead,” said Draisaitl. “To start the year we never planned on going down early in every game. It just seemed to happen that way. We’ve been digging in lately from the get go and it’s showing.”
From then on it was a back and forth beauty of a hockey game, but each time Vegas tried to mount a comeback the Oilers responded with a clutch counter-punch.
When Vegas closed it to 2-1 late in the first, Draisaitl made it 3-2 early in the second. When Vegas closed it to 3-2 in the second, Klim Kostin made it 4-2 on the very next shift.
“Today felt like a playoff game in that sense,” said Janmark. “We’re getting to that time of year where you have to get these points. We did a good job those two games (Anaheim and San Jose) and today was a different challenge and we were up to it.”
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Vegas closed it to 4-3 late in the second place, setting the stage for what they thought would be a classic comeback.
But, as impressive as they were in building the lead, the Oilers looked just as good closing it out in a scoreless third period.
“Without being under siege, without taking our foot off the gas,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “We played our game in the third period. We talked about making sure that their defense had to go back to fetch the puck and work through five of us to get back to our end.
“For the most part I thought we controlled most of that game.”
Sweet revenge
Janmark is money in the bank against his old teams. He’s played for Dallas, Chicago and Vegas and has four goals this season, two against Dallas, one against Chicago and one against Vegas. His two-point night Saturday gives him seven points in three games against the Hawks, Stars and Knights.
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“I don’t know, it just brings a little out of me, I guess,” he said. “These are the games you hope you come through and it just happened to be like that this year. I’ll take it, for sure.”
LATE HITS — Campbell improved to 12-8-1 on the season with 27 saves in his third-straight win. … After a stretch with zero goals in seven games, Draisaitl’s two goals in Vegas give him four in the last three games. It’s the 50th time in his career he’s posted a two-goal game. … Kostin now has seven goals in the last nine games in what is turning out to be an incredible trade for Edmonton. Defenseman Dimitry Samorukov, who went the other way, is currently playing for the St. Louis Blues farm team. … The Knights were missing some of their big dogs: Mark Stone, Shea Theodore and Zach Whitecloud while the Oilers were down Evander Kane and Kailer Yamamoto. Yamamoto says he’s feeling better after missing a couple of games due to illness.
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On Twitter: @Rob_Tychkowski