The Edmonton Oilers blasted the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 at home Wednesday to square their second-round playoff clash at two wins apiece. Edmonton needs to tick these four boxes to triumph in the series as it goes down to the wire.

Be cool under pressure

Vegas' tenacity and pace have troubled the Oilers on occasion. The Golden Knights forecheck aggressively, reducing a defenseman's time and space to move the puck, and race up ice to try to strike in transition when those opportunities arise.

Edmonton was prone to blunders in Games 1 and 3. Giveaways, blown tires, and lackadaisical checking produced Golden Knights goals. Vegas scored on numerous three-on-three rushes when the Oilers' defenders got disconcerted and left a man open.

Game 2 supplied the blueprint for Edmonton to stem the tide. Defensemen made short, simple passes that eluded the high forecheckers and sparked breakouts, which stopped Vegas from racking up quick-hit chances and offensive-zone time. Stuart Skinner stoned every rush shot he faced in a 5-1 win.

Edmonton flipped the script on Vegas in Game 4. Forechecking hard, Nick Bjugstad stripped Shea Theodore by the Golden Knights' net before depositing a wraparound. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' snappy release beat Adin Hill at the end of a lengthy cycle shift. The Oilers' puck poise and crisp passing in the D-zone helped them dominate on the shot clock and scoreboard in the first two periods.

Crucially, Skinner cleaned up a defensive lapse. When Mattias Ekholm and Kailer Yamamoto both converged on the puck-handler on one Vegas foray, letting Mark Stone slip to the net behind them, Skinner denied Stone's deke with his pad. Leon Draisaitl teed up Ekholm's blast from the left faceoff dot 20 seconds later.

Some nights, the Oilers author their own demise. When the puck's in their zone, they need to be in sync in man coverage, box out the screener on point shots to deter tips, and avoid handing Vegas possession on a platter. They can't afford to repeat the careless plays that led to backbreaking goals earlier in the series. Game 4 was a positive step, though Game 5 will be tougher if Darnell Nurse is suspended for instigating a late fight.

Swamp Vegas on power play

Edmonton's incandescent power play has started to cool. The Oilers are 1-for-8 since Hill entered Game 3 as Laurent Brossoit's injury replacement. That said, they potted the one goal efficiently. Evan Bouchard accepted Connor McDavid's pass and tickled twine Wednesday nine seconds after Shea Theodore went off for a retaliatory slash.

Edmonton's top unit marries three dynamic talents - Draisaitl, McDavid, and Bouchard - with a complementary 100-point playmaker in Nugent-Hopkins and a skilled worker bee in Zach Hyman.

This quintet scores off Draisaitl's one-timers, McDavid's snipes, Bouchard's bombs from the blue line, and the rebounds and scrambles those clappers create. Six of Draisaitl's playoff-high 13 goals have come on the man advantage. Edmonton's success rates in the series (35.3%) and postseason (45.5%) remain extraordinary.

The NHL's least penalized team, the Golden Knights were shorthanded 2.38 times per game in the regular season and 2.40 times per game in Round 1. That rate has rocketed to 4.25 times per game against the Oilers. The minors they took in Game 4 included a blatant too-many-men offense and an elbowing infraction in the Edmonton zone. Alex Pietrangelo's late, reckless slash to the hands of Draisaitl could trigger a suspension.

Five NHL power plays have scored at a 35% clip over a full postseason (minimum 10 games played) since 1978, when data for this became available. The top team's success rate - the 2021 Colorado Avalanche - hit 41.4%. The Oilers' power play could set a new record in defeat or propel them to the conference finals.

Match Golden Knights' scoring balance

When they click into top gear, any of Vegas' top three lines can dictate tempo and turn defense into offense. They force turnovers, string together nice passing sequences, cycle the puck back and forth, and create openings to pepper it on net. NHL ironman Phil Kessel has been scratched since Round 1 because Vegas boasts so many capable scorers and potent forward combinations.

Six Golden Knights - linemates Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel, and Jonathan Marchessault, plus Chandler Stephenson, Michael Amadio, and Zach Whitecloud - tallied goals at even strength in Games 1 through 3. Besides Draisaitl, Warren Foegele was the lone Oiler to score in that phase until Wednesday. It's significant that Bjugstad, Ekholm, and Nugent-Hopkins all lit the lamp at five-on-five.

The Oilers excel if their stars uplift the supporting cast and vice versa, like when Yamamoto shrugged off Stone's huge hit in Game 2 to collect his own rebound and feed Draisaitl to score. McDavid's two assists in Game 4 upped his playoff total to 12, the league high.

At worst, no one produces when the big guns rest. That wasn't a problem in Round 1: Yamamoto, Hyman, Bjugstad, Evander Kane, and Klim Kostin all bagged important goals. Although Hyman and Kane are scoreless in the last five contests, Nugent-Hopkins just snapped his 11-game skid.

Subdue Eichel

Vegas' first-line center was productive in Game 1 (assist, empty-net goal); out of sorts in Game 2 (two defensive-zone penalties); and forceful in Game 3 (two helpers, snipe that chased Skinner from the net). In Game 4, Eichel fired five shots on target and whipped a dangerous no-look pass to Barbashev to no avail.

Forever linked to McDavid as the second guy drafted in 2015, Eichel never lifted the Buffalo Sabres to the playoffs, idling as the Oilers experienced the highs and lows of the Stanley Cup chase. In his first postseason, Eichel has done damage as a shooter and facilitator on the Vegas power play's left flank. The Golden Knights' expected goals share is 62.6% when he skates with Barbashev and Marchessault at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

Eichel is tied with Draisaitl for the series lead with four points at even strength. He and Marchessault are Vegas' top shot generators by a wide margin. They won't outscore Edmonton's superstars on most nights, but managing it once more would dent the Oilers' Cup hopes. More than anyone, Eichel is the player Edmonton has to quiet.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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