The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 in Game 1 of the second-round series between the two teams Wednesday night.
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Leon Draisaitl put in an outstanding four-goal performance, but it wasn’t enough for the Oilers.
Draisaitl opened the scoring early in the game with a power play. But the Golden Knights immediately fell behind with three unanswered goals from Ivan Barbashev, Michael Amadio and Mark Stone. However, Draisaitl reduced the gap to one goal with his second half before the end of the first period.
After a goalless middle period, Leon Draisaitl completed his hat trick early in the third period with another power play. However, the Golden Knights responded with two goals in 50 seconds, while Ivan Barbashev with his second and Chandler Stephenson defeated Stuart Skinner. The German Oilers forward then scored his fourth goal to make it 5-4 for Vegas.
However, Edmonton came up short and Jack Eichel completed the hit into the empty net.
Connor McDavid finished the game with two assists.
Golden Knights goaltender Laurent Broissoit faced 27 shots and made 23 saves. His opposite number Stuart Skinner gave up five times in 33 shots.
Oilers forward Mattias Janmark left the game in the first half after banging his head on the ties following a bad fall.
Leon Draisaitl is the first player since Newsy Lalonde in 1919 to score 11 goals in the first seven playoff games.
The second game of this series takes place in Las Vegas on Saturday.