SALT LAKE CITY, UT – The Edmonton Oilers couldn’t defend three separate leads on Tuesday in a 6-5 overtime defeat to the Utah Mammoth, opening their back-to-back and three-game road trip at Delta Center with a single point to stay atop the Pacific Division.
The Oilers held separate leads of 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4 during regulation, but were forced to settle for only a single point after the Mammoth battled back to force overtime and win it only 35 seconds into the extra period on a power-play snipe from Clayton Keller.
Keller had a goal and an assist for Utah along with Alex Kerfoot, and Nick Schmaltz reached 30 goals on the season with a two-goal effort, including one shorthanded that made it 4-4 before the second intermission.
Connor McDavid scored a dazzling goal on the power play to go along with an assist, while Curtis Lazar, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Vasily Podkolzin and Colton Dach also scored in the defeat that was Edmonton’s first against the Utah franchise in seven meetings.
Mattias Ekholm recorded his 400th career point with the assist on Lazar’s quick response that came just 11 seconds after J.J. Peterka opened the scoring for Utah less than two minutes into the first period.
The Oilers hold onto first place in the Pacific with the tiebreaker on Vegas after they defeated Vancouver, while Anaheim was shut out by Calgary on Tuesday to fall to third in the division.
Edmonton will wrap up its back-to-back on Wednesday night against San Jose.