Oilers overwhelmed by Mammoth in OT loss as NHL playoffs approach

The Utah Mammoth took a 6-5 victory over the Oilers Tuesday night, but Edmonton remains in first place with 88 points in the Pacific Division.

They led for most of the game – by two goals at one point – but the Edmonton Oilers allowed the Utah Mammoth, a potential playoff opponent in two weeks, too much time in their own end on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.

The result: a 6-5 Oilers overtime loss.

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said the chief factor in the loss was his team’s inability to muster enough breakouts out of the defensive zone.

“So many problems tonight started with just not being able to get the puck up ice and having to spend time in the defensive zone, where if we get those breakouts, we’re out of the zone,” Knoblauch told media after the game.

And while Edmonton gained a point out of it, the battle for playoff positioning in the Pacific Division and Western Conference is tight.

The overtime loss to the Mammoth, coupled with a Vegas Golden Knights win on Tuesday, see the division rivals tied in points, with the Oilers holding the Pacific lead because they have more regulation wins.

“The result wasn’t the one that we wanted or hoped for and pushed for there at the end, but in the same token, we got something out of it,” Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse told media after the game.

The Mammoth, a member of the stacked Central Division, hold the first wild-card spot in the conference with the same number of points (88) as the Oilers and Golden Knights.

The Central also includes the league-leading Colorado Avalanche (112 points), the third-overall Dallas Stars (104 points), the Minnesota Wild (seventh overall, 102 points) and the Nashville Predators, who are four points behind Utah in the final wild-card playoff spot.

The Oilers are now in California for the next four days, starting with Wednesday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks (8 p.m.) followed by a Saturday matinee in Los Angeles against the Kings.

And given that both the Sharks and the Kings are still fighting for a playoff spot – San Jose is three points behind Nashville with two games in hand, Los Angeles one point with one game in hand – the Oilers need to prepare for tough competition, said forward Colton Dach, who scored a goal in his return to the Edmonton lineup after missing 12 games with an injury.

“All these games are going to feel like that,” Dach said. “We’re playing all playoff-contending teams here going to the finish, so we’ve got to be ready to bring the energy.”