EDMONTON — Kailer Yamamoto scored the first of three straight goals by Edmonton, and the Oilers held on to beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 on Monday.
Alex Chiasson and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Oilers, who improved to 5-0 against the Senators this season. Connor McDavid had two assists.
Evgenii Dadonov and Tim Stutzle scored for Ottawa (9-18-1). Thomas Chabot assisted on both goals.
The game was the first of three meetings this week between the two teams, and part of a tough stretch for the Senators, who play seven games in 11 days.
The Oilers (16-11-0), who started the night a point behind Winnipeg, jumped the Jets into second place in the North Division with the victory.
Despite playing a night earlier in Calgary — a 4-3 Ottawa win — the Senators got off to a hot start. Dadonov got them on the scoreboard just 56 seconds in when he spun and fired past Mikko Koskinen. It’s the second time this season the Senators scored in the opening minute.
Yamamoto tied it up with a perfect redirect of a long shot by Darnell Nurse at 7:03 of the first period.
The Oilers took their first lead at 6:03 of the second on a power play when Chiasson beat Joey Daccord on a 2-on-1 for his fifth goal of the season.
The Oilers caught the Senators on a shift change to pad their lead at 14:41 of the second, when Draisaitl fired a quick snap shot inside the right goalpost for his first goal in eight games, and 11th of the season.
Stutzle breathed some life into the Senators with a shot over the shoulder of Koskinen at 17:57 of the second period, and Edmonton went into the second intermission with a one-goal lead.
Daccord made a few excellent saves in the final minutes to keep the Senators in the game, but they couldn’t get the tying goal, and fell to 0-6 this season in the second game of back-to-backs.
The Sens and Oilers meet again Wednesday and Friday in Edmonton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2021.
The Canadian Press