Saturday, February 26, 2022 12:30 PM (ET)

Derek Ryan’s hat trick leads Oilers past Panthers

Field Level Media
Feb 26, 2022

Derek Ryan scored three goals for his first NHL hat trick, leading the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Fla., on Saturday.

Aleksander Barkov scored two power-play goals for Florida, which lost its third consecutive home game after going 23-3-0 in its first 26.

Mikko Koskinen earned the victory for Edmonton by making 44 saves -- many of them on breakaways or odd-man rushes.

Ryan, who entered the game with four goals this season, overshadowed the league's top three scorers: Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton and Florida's Jonathan Huberdeau. McDavid had two assists and Huberdeau had one, giving each an NHL-leading 75 points.

Draisaitl's second-period goal gave the Oilers a 3-2 lead and gave him 35 goals on the season, tying him for the league lead with Toronto's Auston Matthews, who played later Saturday. Draisaitl has 74 points.

Anton Lundell also scored for the Panthers. Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 18 saves, lost his second straight game. He is 26-6-3 this season.

Edmonton opened the scoring at 10:14 of the first period. On a two-on-one rush, Warren Foegele made a lateral pass to his right to Ryan, who slipped the puck between Bobrovsky's pads.

Bobrovsky stopped a McDavid breakaway 30 seconds later.

Florida tied the score at 11:50. After Koskinen stopped Sam Reinhart's shot, Vatrano gathered the short rebound and slipped a blind back pass between his legs and between the legs of Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard to Lundell, who lifted the puck over Koskinen's stick.

After Draisaitl was penalized for tripping Sam Bennett, Florida took a 2-1 lead on Barkov's power-play goal at 16:38. Anthony Duclair had stretched Edmonton's defense when his shot hit the left post, and Barkov swept the rebound under the right arm of the diving Koskinen.

Edmonton tied the score 2-2 at 7:29 of the second period when Ryan, again on a rush, snapped a wrist shot over Bobrovsky's glove. The Oilers took the lead for good 10:04 into the second when, during a power play, Draisaitl's shot deflected in off the body of Panthers defenseman Radko Gudas.

The Oilers made it 4-2 on a wild sequence in the last minute of the second period. After Koskinen stoned Mason Marchment on one end, the Oilers raced back and got Ryan's tap-in goal at 19:16 on a great pass from Evander Kane.

Barkov cut the deficit to 4-3 with 3:51 left in the third period when he scored on a power play after the Panthers pulled Bobrovsky for a 6-on-4 skating advantage, but the Panthers could not get the equalizer.

--Field Level Media

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