Are the super streaky Edmonton Oilers back to their winning ways again?

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Move over, Frank the Tank. These Edmonton Oilers are going streaking.

Unlike Will Ferrell’s character in the movie, Old School, they prefer to be fully clothed when they do it. But that doesn’t make it any less noticeable.

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So far under new head coach Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers have strung together runs of eight-straight and 16-straight victories to dig themselves out of a 3-9-1 start to the season that had them hovering just over the basement of the NHL standings.

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Since then, they’ve gone 34-11-1 to climb into the top-10 in the standings, sitting second in the Pacific Division following Sunday’s 6-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And if they’ve shown anything in that time, it’s that once they’ve gathered up a head of steam, the Oilers’ momentum has proven difficult to stop.

An 11-0 January schedule turned into a back-and-forth February that saw them go 6-5-1. But two of those wins came at the end of the month and combine with a 2-0 start to March to put them on a four-game win streak as they embark on a four-game road trip through the Eastern Conference this week.

In other words, the Oilers have their mojo back.

“I think so. You feel it in the room, you quickly fall back on what you start feeling works for us and that’s just keeping pucks moving forward and spending time in the offensive zone,” Oilers defenceman Brett Kulak said of the latest win streak. “I don’t know, it just shows a lot of composure from the group and that’s a big thing for us.

“I think since I’ve got here, there’s been times where everyone wants to win so bad and it’s frustrating when things aren’t going your way. But I’ve found now we’re able to just keep moving on and play the next shift and play the next play and just carry on with the game. We’ve found success that way.”

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It seems the more they play, the more they get rolling, whereas the interruption of the NHL all-star break at the beginning of February knocked them off course. They returned to action with a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights that spelled an end to the 16-game streak, which sits one shy of the league record.

“We had a little lull there after the break,” said Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl. “I think the break maybe took a little steam out of us. But a season like this has its ups and downs and we know that.

“I thought we handled it well and we are playing well right now and looking to continue it.”

They will have a chance to do just that, as there are no breaks in the schedule over the final one-third of the regular season. The Oilers will play what basically amounts to every other day the rest of the way, with their final 23 games coming in a span of 45 days.

And the hope is for it to turn out much more like January and less like February.

“I think a lot of the last four, especially two of them, maybe three of the four we could have easily lost,” Knoblauch said. “Goaltending was outstanding. So, good defence usually wins you hockey games. You look at our goals-against, down. And also our penalty kill is looking a lot better than it had been previously.

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“And there are always stretches where you can’t win every game, and there are some games during that stretch we lost more than we won, but I think there were a lot of games we certainly could have won in that stretch.”

Edmonton’s last loss was a 6-3 humbling at the hands of the Calgary Flames on Feb. 24. Since then, they appear to have rediscovered the winning formula.

“Playing simple with everyone contributing,” said Oilers forward Warren Foegele, who earned two assists Sunday to establish a career high 31 points on the season. “It was a game we weren’t satisfied with and we knew we needed to be better.

“Everyone is pushing in the right direction and trying to get ready for the playoffs.”

How they finish down the stretch will go a long way in determining not just seeding and home-ice advantage in the post-season, but provide some valuable momentum to an already powerfully propelled Oilers team which a season ago closed out the regular season with nine straight wins.

E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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