Evan Bouchard scored in overtime to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Place on Tuesday (March 3).
Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl had a five-point night, including two goals. Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also tallied for Edmonton.
Ottawa’s Drake Batherson scored twice, and the Senators got one goal each from Michael Amadio and Dylan Cozens.
Connor Ingram made 17 saves between the pipes for the Oilers. Ottawa netminder Linus Ullmark stopped 32 of the 37 shots he faced.
With the victory, Edmonton leapfrogs the Seattle Kraken into third place in the Pacific Division standings. The Oilers now have 68 points from a record of 30-24-8.
Oilers Pull Off Another Rally
The Oilers never held the lead on Tuesday. They trailed by scores of 1-0 and 2-1 during the first period, and found themselves behind 4-2 after 40 minutes.
Nugent-Hopkins got Edmonton’s third-period comeback started, scoring on the power play 1:52 into the final frame. Then, with just 1:25 remaining and Ingram pulled for the extra attacker, Hyman put the puck past Ullmark from the side of the net, tying the score at 4-4.
ZACH HYMAN TIES IT UP 😱 pic.twitter.com/ewOw8oCOio
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 4, 2026
At that point, Ottawa had fired just one shot on goal in the third period. Were the Senators guilty of backing off while trying to hold on to their lead? Maybe. But the Oilers deserved credit for their play over the second half of the game, particularly during the third period.
This was the fifth time this season that Edmonton has scored the tying goal at 18:35 or later in the third period. The Oilers have gone to overtime in all five of those games and won four of them.
Edmonton now has six victories this season when trailing after two periods, which is tied for the most in the NHL. Tuesday was the fourth occasion that the Oilers have won a game when trailing by multiple goals in the third period.
Those are astonishing stats, but ideally, the Oilers would not keep digging such a huge hole to climb out of. They’re comfortable – maybe a bit too comfortable – playing from behind. However, it’s that poise that allows them to execute time and again in these late-minute situations.
“It’s certainly something that we can do, and we’re going to do it again, I know that, that’s what we do,” Draisaitl said while speaking to media after the game. “But long term, if you want to go deep, if you want to be all the way at the end, that’s not a recipe that you want every night, or every other night, in a playoff series. So it’s something we need to clean up a bit.”
Milestone Night for Oilers Players
With the seventh five-plus point performance of his career, Draisaitl passed Hall-of-Famer Jari Kurri for the third most regular season points in franchise history. Kurri, who played in Edmonton from 1980 to 1990, racked up 1,043 points as a member of the Oilers.
Draisaitl now has 1,046 career points, from 432 goals and 614 assists. On the Oilers’ all-time NHL regular season leaderboard, he trails only teammate Connor McDavid (1,187) and Wayne Gretzky (1,669).
Meanwhile, Bouchard tied teammate Darnell Nurse for most overtime goals by a defenceman in franchise history, with six. Fellow blueliner Mattias Ekholm also achieved a milestone on Tuesday, notching his 300th career assist, on Draisaitl’s first goal in the opening period.
Edmonton’s Defensive Woes Persist
In the last 11 contests, Edmonton has given up a total of 50 goals, which is tied for the most goals the Oilers have allowed over an 11-game span in the last 30 years. Tuesday marked the ninth time in those 11 games that the Oilers have surrendered at least four goals.
The Oilers have now given up 207 goals, which is fifth most in the NHL, and their team save percentage of .876 is tied for third lowest in the league.
Related: 3 Bright Spots on a Struggling Oilers Defence
While the play of Edmonton goaltenders Ingram and especially Tristan Jarry could be better, it’s the skaters in front of them who are most guilty for the team’s ghastly goals-against stats. For example, look no further than the opening goal on Tuesday, which saw Edmonton blueliner Jake Walman fire the puck out of his zone right onto the stick of Ottawa’s Thomas Chabot, leading to a dangerous scoring opportunity that Cozens converted.
In an effort to fix his broken blue line, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch shook up his defensive pairings for Tuesday’s game, playing Walman with Bouchard, Nurse with Ty Emberson, and Ekholm with Spencer Stastney. The changes didn’t work, at least not at first, as the Senators scored four times in the first 25:11 of the game. But from that point on, the Oilers kept Ottawa off the board, giving themselves a chance to come back.
Edmonton’s defence is about to get another shake-up, with newly acquired blueliner Connor Murphy expected to make his Oilers debut on Friday, when the Carolina Hurricanes pay a visit to Rogers Place.
