Connor McDavid made history with three assists while Tyson Barrie and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both collected one goal and one assist to lead the visiting Edmonton Oilers to a 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.
Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl also scored and goalie Mikko Koskinen made 29 saves on yet another big night for McDavid. The Oilers captain set an NHL record with nine consecutive multi-point games against a single opponent in one season. McDavid amassed 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in nine clashes with the Jets.
The Oilers (29-16-2, 60 points) have a three-point edge on the Jets (27-19-3, 57 points) in the chase for second spot in the North Division, and Edmonton has two games in hand. The Oilers won seven of the nine meetings this season against a struggling Winnipeg team that it will likely face in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
McDavid — who leads the NHL with 84 points and has collected 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in a five-game point streak — is the first player since Wayne Gretzky to earn 20 or more points against multiple opponents in a single season. He also reached that standard against the Ottawa Senators.
Blake Wheeler scored Winnipeg’s lone goal. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 25 shots for the Jets, who are on a season-worst, five-game losing streak, with all of those defeats coming at home and in regulation time.
Barrie’s power-play tally opened the scoring just past the midway point of the first period. McDavid sent a pass to the defenseman for the one-timer from the high slot that resulted in Barrie’s seventh goal of the season.
Wheeler snapped an eight-game drought when he evened the count. Andrew Copp sent a pass to the wide-open Wheeler in the left circle, and he buried the chance at the 4:29 mark of the second frame.
However, Nugent-Hopkins responded with another power-play goal 111 seconds later by ripping a shot from just beyond the left faceoff dot through the screen. He has points in all three games since returning from injury.
Draisaitl’s empty-net goal with nine seconds remaining in the game rounded out the scoring.
–Field Level Media