Ingram makes presence felt as birthday closes

EDMONTON – It may have been his birthday, but goaltender Connor Ingram was the one who gave the Edmonton Oilers a present on Tuesday.

Celebrating his 29th birthday, Ingram made 27 saves for his second shutout of the season and ninth of his career as the Oilers extended their winning streak to four games, past the Seattle Kraken 3-0.

“He played really well,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We talk about our defensive zone coverage and how we’re playing really well, eliminating turnovers and all that, but if he doesn’t make those saves, we’re probably talking about our turnovers and our defensive mistakes.

“We had turnovers, we had mistakes in our coverage, but when your goalie makes all the saves and plays as well as he did tonight, we ignore those things.”

Ingram became the first goalie in Oilers history to post a shutout on his birthday and the sixth in franchise history to record multiple shutouts in his first season with the club. The Saskatchewan native was picked up by Utah for future consideration on Oct. 1, as some insurance will likely remain on the farm, but has ended up becoming Edmonton’s starter, now with a 14-8-2 record.

“The more you play, the easier it gets,” Ingram said. “I thought everyone in front of me did a great job today. I didn’t have to do much there, maybe that bad bounce on the PK that starts in the slot. Other than that, I thought everyone in front of me made my job very easy.”

Ingram has battled obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, earning the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in 2024 in recognition of his mental health struggles.

Max Jones, Kasperi Kapanen and Connor McDavid scored for the Oilers (38-28-9) who have won six of their last eight and became the second last team in the NHL to put together a four-game winning streak, with only Philadelphia unable to have such a long stretch this season.

“Our game is not sexy right now. It’s not fancy,” Knoblauch said. “It’s just a lot of little things and that’s usually the difference between winning and losing. We have six Ds and 12 forwards every night that are doing that.”

Edmonton moved two points behind Pacific Division-leading Anaheim and three points above third-place Vegas.

“I feel like ever since we had the conversation that everybody’s growing up a little bit, it seems like everybody’s doing a little bit more out there,” Jones said.

The Oilers have been playing stronger defense lately, especially since rookie forward Leon Draisaitl was lost for the rest of the regular season with a lower-body injury.

“I think we’re just trying to simplify the game a little bit right now, trying not to do too much,” Kapanen said. “Obviously we’ve still got great players who can play on the ball and make plays, but I think the overall idea is to simplify. Obviously we’re missing Leo there, so it seems to be working now and so we’ve got to keep doing that.

“The main thing is that we are playing the right way now and that matters, so we just have to keep building.”

McDavid extended his scoring streak to five games. He leads the NHL in goals since Dec. 1 with 32. The Oilers captain is now one point behind Dale Hawerchuk for the third-most points by a player before the age of 30. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux are first and second on that list.

The Kraken (32-30-11) have lost six of their last seven and are two points out of a playoff spot.

“We know where we are,” Kraken forward Matty Beniers said. “Obviously tonight was very important and we didn’t do it, but there’s really no reason to stop now, we have to learn from it and then win the next one. Then we’ll win the next one, and that’s the mentality we have here.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 1, 2026.

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