Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' hat trick lifts Oilers over Kraken

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins posted his fourth career hat trick to lead the host Edmonton Oilers to a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.

Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner also scored for the Oilers, who were without their top two scorers, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid, due to injuries.

Mattias Ekholm and Darnell Nurse each collected two assists for Edmonton (41-24-5, 87 points), which sits second in the Pacific Division standings and is on a 4-0-1 run.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner made 27 saves.

The Oilers have won nine consecutive games against Seattle.

Kaapo Kaako scored twice, while Andre Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz replied for the Kraken (30-36-5, 65 points), who have lost two straight and are 14 points outside a playoff spot.

Goalie Joey Daccord stopped 24 shots and Jari Nyman, Seattle's 2022 second-round draft pick, collected a pair of assists for his first career multi-point game. Jared McCann also had two assists.

Seattle was without its top point producer, Chandler Stephenson, due to injury.

The clubs started by trading power-play goals. Henrique opened the scoring at the 14:30 mark with a rocket of a shot from the top of the left circle, but Kaako replied 79 seconds later when he shoveled home a loose puck.

Nugent-Hopkins put the Oilers ahead again at 3:48 of the second period by ripping a shot just inside the far post from his off wing. Kaako tied the clash at 7:01 of the frame when he buried a back-handed deke on a breakaway opportunity.

Jeff Skinner netted his third goal in two games to put the Oilers ahead a third time at 12:31 by converting a shot from the slot, then Nugent-Hopkins extended the edge to 4-2 at 18:11 with another man-advantage marker, a perfect shot from the top of the left circle.

Burakovsky made it a one-goal game at 5:57 of the third period when he threaded the needle from the right faceoff dot, but Nugent-Hopkins potted his third of the game, a short-handed empty-net tally with 2:17 on the clock.

Nugent-Hopkins, who netted his first hat trick since March 26, 2019, has collected four goals and five assists in the last four games.

Schwartz made it a one-goal game with a power-play tally 14 seconds later but it was too little, too late.

--Field Level Media