The Edmonton Oilers have finally won three games in a row, for the first time in almost a full calendar year, grinding out the victory from a 3-0 deficit created early in the first period from some terribly unserious defensive play.

26 seconds into the game Matthias Ekholm turned over the puck in Edmonton’s end, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins regained possession but was poke checked away; Nugent-Hopkins blocked a pass but deflected the puck off his skate back to Will Smith who then sent a cross seam pass to Collin Graf who buried the shot on a practically empty net. Basically everything that could have went wrong in the first 30 seconds went wrong.

Almost a minute later Ty Emberson turned over the puck in the neutral zone leading to a breakaway rush by Adam Gaudette, who went forehand backhand top shelf to make the game 2-0 for San Jose not even 90 seconds into Thursday’s match.

The Sharks continued circling the Oilers, and on a rush chance Michael Misa fired into Connor Ingram, who made the save, but the rebound deflected off of Evan Bouchard’s skate and into the net for a three goal deficit.

Edmonton wouldn’t begin their rally until the third period. At the top of the third Evan Bouchard sent a floater towards the San Jose net from the blue line; the shot was stopped but trickled between his pads, and before he could freeze the play, Leon Draisaitl pounced on the chance tapping the goal in for Edmonton’s first of the night.

With the goalie pulled and three minutes left to play McDavid was able to score a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot using two of the San Jose Shark defensemen as screens. The Oilers continued to scramble for the dying minutes. With a mere minute left, Matthias Ekholm managed to stop a clearing attempt with a desperation hold and pass the puck to Evan Bouchard to tie the game with a slapshot.

Finally, the Oilers completed the comeback courtesy of Zach Hyman. McDavid entered San Jose’s end with possession, drawing a defender, and Zach Hyman lost his man with a shove move to create distance. Timothy Liljegren of the Sharks lost an edge in the sequence and fell right into his own goalie – McDavid quickly passed to Zach Hyman who was now in the perfect shooting position, and the goal post rang a second later – ending the score 4-3 for the Edmonton Oilers in overtime.

And with that monumental comeback, the Oilers have finally won three games in a row. They certainly did not make it easy for themselves, but they’re finally over their self imposed seasonal hump. Game 55 showcased everything about this season’s Edmonton Oilers; when they pour it on, they are a juggernaut, when they’re caught flat-footed, they’re a pushover.

Luckily they finished the night as the former.

Edmonton faces off against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night for another chance at extending the win column.