Connor McDavid collected his third hat trick of the season in a four-point outing to lead the visiting Edmonton Oilers to a 6-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Monday and vault his team into second place in the North Division.
Alex Chiasson, Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse also scored while goaltender Mike Smith made 36 saves for the Oilers (28-16-2, 58 points) to move one point ahead of the Jets. Edmonton, which has won six of eight meetings this season, also has two games in hand on Winnipeg.
Mark Scheifele replied for the Jets (27-18-3, 57 points), who are on a four-game skid in which they have been outscored 18-5. Goalie Connor Hellebuyck stopped 17 of 23 shots in two periods of action. Laurent Brossoit made seven saves in relief.
The Jets and Oilers meet on Wednesday for the last time in the regular season.
Chiasson’s 100th career goal on the power play late in the first period ignited the Oilers, who were looking to make a statement in a potential first-round playoff meeting.
It became the McDavid show after. After the NHL’s leading point producer notched a rebound tally with 89 seconds remaining in the opening frame, McDavid scored his second goal early in the second period with a pin-point shot while racing down the wing.
Draisaitl converted a one-timer fed on a two-on-one rush past the midway point to earn his second point of the night and 488th of his career to surpass Marco Sturm as the high-scoring German-born player in NHL history. Then Nurse finished a three-way passing play a couple of minutes later to make it a 5-0 game.
Scheifele’s power-play goal with five minutes left in the second period put the hosts on the board, but McDavid completed his 10th career hat trick with a breakaway tally before the middle frame ended.
Not only did McDavid’s performance put him at 81 points on the season, but he has netted seven goals and 19 points in eight games against the Jets this season, having collected at least two points in every game. McDavid is also riding a four-game point streak in which he’s collected 12 points.
The game capped a tough day for the Jets, who announced earlier that forward Nikolaj Ehlers is likely to miss the rest of the regular season due to an upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media