Kane had one goal in four games since returning from an undisclosed injury before breaking out in Seattle. Kane missed nine games with the injury, suspected to be an upper-body issue, adding to the 31 games he missed when his wrist was sliced open in Tampa Bay, inadvertently stepped on by Lightning forward Patrick Maroon.
Kane took a cross-ice pass from Zach Hyman on the play and beat Grubauer from the bottom of the left face-off circle. Hyman was back in the lineup after missing the past two games with an undisclosed injury.
“I’m happy for him; he’s a warrior, he plays through injuries,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said of Kane. “He’s just getting up and running again, because of his injuries and whatnot; it’s kind of been a stop-and-start season for him. But he’s been all around the puck in every game that he’s played, and for three to go in for him today, I was happy.
Kailer Yamamoto restored the lead for the Oilers with three-and-a-half minutes left in the period, tipping in a centring pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
“It was a good forecheck and I think Leo (Leon Draisaitl) gave it to Nuge (Nugent-Hopkins),” Yamamoto told Oilers TV. “I thought Nuge was actually going to shoot it, but it was a great pass and I was able to slide it five-hole. It was nice, especially with my parents in the stands, it felt good.”
Kane scored his second of the game 43 seconds into the second period, one-timing a pass from Connor McDavid after the puck bounced to him at right face-off circle.
Jordan Eberle cut the lead to 3-2 just under four minutes later, on a shot through Skinner. Eberle spun away from a check from Evan Bouchard and was fortunate to find the puck in his skates. He took an open lane to the net and beat Skinner from the slot.
Just after the goal, Grubauer skated to the bench in some distress, and had to be replaced by Martin Jones. Grubauer may have pulled something stretching out to try and contend with Kane’s one-timer minutes earlier.
“He just had some lingering stuff that was bugging him,” Woodcroft said of Hyman. “He’s had good numbers versus Seattle throughout the year, and he came up to me yesterday and said, ‘I’m in.’
“I was pleased, but sometimes when you play as hard as he does, when you’re a warrior like that, you accrue some bumps and bruises during the long grind of an 82-game schedule. And in the end, he played today and was a big factor in our win.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand cut the lead to 4-3 with 5:42 left in the period. He was left unattended in the slot, took a pass from Yanni Gourde and snapped a shot past Skinner.
“Part of my job is to be productive for this group,” Kane said. “We have two of the best players in the world, but they can’t carry a team and win a championship by themselves; you need everybody pulling their weight. We’ve had some really good depth scoring in the bottom half of our lineup and that’s been huge in some of our wins lately, and you need everybody going down the stretch here.”
McDavid sealed it with his 58th goal of the season, sifting a shot through Jones on the power play with just under four minutes to play.
The Oilers return to Edmonton and host the San Jose Sharks on Monday in the first of a three-game homestand. They will host the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday and Vegas Golden Knights Saturday.
“I like the way we started periods; we did some good things special-teams wise,” Woodcroft said. “It’s a tough building, they’re a good team. They have four lines that can all score and, in the end, we found a way to get the two points in a tough building. We’ll take them and move on.”
