Leon Draisaitl Hits Major Milestone In Oilers' Gutsy Comeback Win

The Leon Draisaitl MVP train just keeps on rolling.

Draisaitl was instrumental in yet another Oilers win on Thursday night, picking up three assists as the Oilers engineered a late comeback to beat the Boston Bruins in overtime by a score of 3-2.

His third assist, on Mattias Ekholm's overtime winner, was the 900th of his career and his 50th of the season, vaulting him up to second in the league behind only Nathan MacKinnon.

But for the first 58 minutes of Thursday's game, it looked like the Oilers would lose their second straight. Boston throttled them in the first period, outshooting the Oilers 11-5 and leading 2-0 after 20 minutes thanks to goals from Elias Lindholm and Mark Kastelic.

While the Oilers rebounded in the second, the Bruins didn't make it easy. Befitting such a slow, methodical, grind-it-out game, it was the bruised and bloodied Zach Hyman who finally broke through for Edmonton.

Sporting two black eyes, a cast on his nose, and a full-face visor, Hyman found the back of the net halfway through the first to cut the Bruins lead in half midway through the second. He's been red-hot since returning from injury two weeks ago, with eight goals in his past seven games.

For a long time, that looked like all the Oilers would be able to muster. The Bruins proceeded to choke the life out of the game in the second half, giving the Oilers absolutely nothing for half an hour of play.

So of course, it had to be Connor McDavid who played the hero for Edmonton, basically willing the puck into the net to knot the game up at 2 with 2:21 remaining in regulation.

It didn't take long for the Oilers to finish off the comeback in overtime. Just one minute into the extra frame, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found Mattias Ekholm in the slot and Ekholm made no mistake, notching his fourth-career OT winner to give the Oilers a 3-2 win on home ice.

This was Ekholm's first OT winner as an Oiler, though he's got plenty of experience scoring them from his days in Nashville: he scored the Predators' first-ever 3-on-3 OT winner way back in 2015-16.

Player of the Game: Leon Draisaitl

Of course.

Draisaitl's charmed season continues, as he now sits second in the league in points, while still leading in goals with 23. That's a 59-goal, 128-point pace, which would set a new career-high in goals and match his career-high in points. He's unquestionably been the Oilers' best player this season, and just maybe the best in the league.

Even better, though, is notching his 900th point in just his 751st game. That makes him the fourth-fastest active player to reach that plateau (behind McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and Nikita Kucherov), and the fifth-fastest European to do so.

Just as Draisaitl keeps on rolling, so too do the Oilers. They've now won 10 of their last 13 games, with significant contributions from almost everyone in the lineup. With only a back-to-back against San Jose and Ottawa ahead of them before Christmas break, the Oilers stand poised to enter the holidays as one of the best, and hottest, teams in the NHL.

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