Oilers dominate Golden Knights in Game 4 to take 3-1 series lead: Takeaways

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EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers landed a haymaker early in Game 3 and never let the Vegas Golden Knights off the mat.

Adam Henrique scored twice in what was a brutally physical first period, sparking the Oilers to a dominant 3-0 win to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round series. Edmonton controlled the contest throughout, limited Vegas to only 24 shots and pushed the regular season Pacific Division champs to the brink of elimination.

Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner earned the shutout and his first win of this postseason. His biggest moment came early when the game was still competitive, making a confident stop on Ivan Barbashev, who skated in all alone and tried slipping the puck underneath him. Skinner slammed his pads to the ice and shut the door.

Evander Kane added to Edmonton’s lead midway through the second period, streaking down the left halfwall and firing a shot that deflected off a sliding defenseman’s skate and past Adin Hill. The Vegas netminder was fired up from the opening puck drop, engaging with Oilers players early on. Hill made a few big saves, but was taunted by the Oilers fans with chants of “Adin” for most of the game.

The Oilers sat back protecting a lead in the third period and never allowed Vegas to generate any sort of push.

The win for the Oilers extends their winning streak in Game 4 of a series to eight. They haven’t lost at that point of a series since the 2022 Western Conference final when they fell 6-5 in overtime to the Colorado Avalanche as part of a sweep.

The Golden Knights fall to 10-8 all-time in Game 4’s. This is the third time they have fallen behind 3-1 in a playoff series, and they were eliminated in Game 5 on both of the previous occasions (2018 Cup Final to Washington and 2020 conference final to Dallas).

Adam Henrique provides an unexpected scoring punch

Considering all the firepower on the Oilers, Henrique’s name is fairly far down the list of those expected to provide an offensive impact. The team’s third-oldest player behind Corey Perry and extra forward Derek Ryan, Henrique had 12 goals and 27 points in 81 games in the regular season. His playing time was almost exclusively in a bottom-six role.

But Henrique led the charge for the Oilers in Game 4, finishing off two chances in close early.

Henrique was the beneficiary of some excellent forechecking by Kane, who knocked Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud off the puck, and then a heady feed from Connor Brown. Henrique was all alone in the slot when he got Brown’s pass and quickly beat Hill over the glove just 1:27 into the game.

Henrique showed off his hands around the crease on his second goal. With Keegan Kolesar defending him, Henrique pulled the puck between his legs and flipped an attempt over Hill’s right pad and under his armpit at 13:03 of the first.

The celebration was epic. We’ll call it Nail Yakupov-esque. The Oilers never looked back after those two tallies.

This was just the second time Henrique has scored twice in a playoff game. The only other occurrence was way back on April 26, 2012, against the Florida Panthers when he was a rookie on the New Jersey Devils’ run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Stuart Skinner rebounds to continue Game 4 magic

Skinner wasn’t the reason the Oilers lost Game 3, but he sure wasn’t at his best while allowing four goals on 24 shots. The Oilers needed more from their regular-season starter who was supplanted by Calvin Pickard less than six periods into this playoff run and only returned to the crease because of a Pickard injury.

Skinner was up to the task, notching his second career playoff shutout.

Sure, it’s not like he had to steal this game or anything. The Oilers dominated on Monday from the moment Henrique opened the scoring. But Skinner came up big whenever he had to, including before the midway mark of the third when he blockered away a shot from Tomas Hertl.

His two biggest saves might have been on Barbashev and Brayden McNabb in close before Henrique’s second goal. The whole tenor of the could might have changed if either chance goes in.

Neither did, and so Skinner continued his excellence in Game 4’s. Entering Monday, had won all four of his starts in that situation, posting a .944 save percentage. His only other playoff shutout came when he stopped all 33 shots against the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 last year.

Kasperi Kapanen isn’t shy in Oilers playoff debut

Kasperi Kapanen was a fixture in the lineup after being acquired off waivers in November but had been scratched all playoffs after Trent Frederic and Kane were deemed healthy enough to play. That changed on Monday with the Oilers looking for some energy.

Kapanen didn’t disappoint. He got a primo assignment on Leon Draisaitl’s wing alongside Vasily Podkolzin and was a wrecking ball early in his first playoff game as an Oiler. Kapanen threw three hits on his first shift, and his speed and physicality were evident in his 14:21 of work. That line did yeoman’s work against Golden Knights star Jack Eichel.

High-profile offseason signee Viktor Arvidsson was scratched to make room for Kapanen. That represented the biggest change to the lineup, but there were many others.

Perry scored twice and was arguably Edmonton’s forward in Game 3 but he started Tuesday on the fourth line with Frederic and Mattias Janmark. Kane took what had become Frederic’s customary spot on spot with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown.

On defense, Troy Stecher made his Oilers postseason debut. He played mostly alongside Darnell Nurse. Stecher had been cleared to play since Game 4 of Round 1 but had to bide his time with the team on a winning streak. He took Ty Emberson’s spot in the lineup, which meant Jake Walman was thrust back into penalty-killing duties.

Adin Hill kick-starts a violent first period

The penalty boxes were a busy thoroughfare over the first 20 minutes on Monday night.

In the opening moments of the game, Hill pushed Zach Hyman to the ice after the whistle. That was the first of many extracurriculars in the opening frame, which included 22 combined penalty minutes. The Oilers sent players to the crease, and Hill engaged with them regularly.

Shortly after, Hill stuck his pad out into Janmark after a whistle and fell to the ice, sparking a massive scrum in the corner and a lengthy bout between Nicolas Hague and Frederic.

Almost simultaneously to Henrique’s second goal of the period, Kane crashed into Hill — earning him a charging penalty — although it looked like he was helped by a shove by McNabb on the play. Nurse and Kolesar received matching roughing calls. It was a chaotic period with several other scrums that didn’t result in penalties, and it seemed to work out better for Edmonton than it did for Vegas, as the Oilers took a 2-0 lead into intermission.

Golden Knights offense disappears

Vegas struggled to generate chances of any kind on Monday. The Golden Knights managed only five shots in the first period despite spending six minutes of it on the power play, and things didn’t pick up much from there.

This was the fifth time Vegas has been shut out in the 105 playoff games, and the first time since May 26, 2021, against Minnesota.

Edmonton did an excellent job of keeping three players above the puck at all times, limiting Vegas’ transition offense and forcing the visitors to dump and chase for most of the night. When the Golden Knights did manage to get sustained offensive zone time, the Oilers protected the slot and Skinner handled his rebounds well.

The team’s leading goal scorer in the regular season, Pavel Dorofeyev, led the team with four shots on goal, but missed the net on a couple of good chances and was muscled off the puck several times to kill possessions. Meanwhile, Eichel was held without a single shot and Mark Stone and William Karlsson managed only one shot each.

(Photo: Walter Tychnowicz / Imagn Images)

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