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Ten games, 10 wins.

The math may be easy, but the victories didn’t all happen that way, considering half of them were of the come-from-behind variety.

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For the third game in a row, and fifth time on the way to setting a franchise-high 10 straight victories, the Edmonton Oilers allowed the opening goal Saturday at Bell Centre.

Cole Caufield put the home side ahead 1-0 just 1:43 in, snapping a shot from the bottom of the left circle that saw Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner diving across the crease to chase a pass from Nick Suzuki on the power play.

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In the four other games Edmonton fell behind early in the streak, they came up with comeback wins over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday, as well as the L.A. Kings and New York Rangers in December.

Three times over this stretch, Ryan McLeod came up with the opening goal of the game for Edmonton, including four goals and two assists in the first three wins of the streak, having been promoted into a spot in the top-six in place of Evander Kane.

McLeod had five goals and four assists over the previous nine wins. In comparison, that’s only six fewer assists than Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who turned 27 on Saturday, came into the game with on a nine-game personal point streak (five goals and 10 assists), which he increased to 10 games with an 11th assist on Evan Bouchard’s overtime winner.

Kane appeared back in his usual post on Leon Draisaitl’s left wing, as McLeod sat out Saturday due to illness.

That brought recent Bakersfield Condors call-up Philip Kemp into the lineup to make his Oilers debut, in an 11-forward, seven defencemen formation.

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The 24-year-old blueliner had five assists in 26 games this year in the American Hockey League, where he has tallied nine goals and 27 assists in 164 games with the Condors.

Kemp had originally been recalled on May 2, 2023, for playoff depth but never ended up dressing.

Selected in the seventh round (208th overall) in 2017, Kemp played three seasons with Yale in the NCAA, where he had nine goals and 18 assists in 88 games, before joining USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program.

He signed a two-year, two-way contract extension in the summer.

E-mail: [email protected]

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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