Connor McDavid reached a milestone with two assists and Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also had multi-point performances as the Edmonton Oilers recorded a 4-2 win over the visiting New York Islanders on Thursday.
The Oilers snapped two-game losing streak and a five-game skid (0-4-1) on home ice.
Draisaitl had a goal and an assist and Nugent-Hopkins collected two assists. Kailer Yamamoto, Dylan Holloway and Zach Hyman scored Edmonton’s other goals.
McDavid’s assists were the 499th and 500th of his NHL career. In league history, only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Stastny and Bobby Orr have reached the 500-assist threshold in fewer games than McDavid, who was playing in his 527th career contest.
Mathew Barzal and Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders. Barzal is on a career-best, five-game goal streak, and he has six goals and two assists during that span.
The Oilers outshot the Islanders 38-22, including a lopsided 18-4 margin in the first period. That early dominance translated into a pair of special-teams goals, with Draisaitl scoring on the power play at the 9:26 of the first frame and Yamamoto adding a short-handed tally at the 18:40 mark for a 2-0 lead.
Edmonton was 1-for-4 with the extra attacker, which counts as a relative off night for the league’s top power-play unit. The Oilers lead the NHL with a 31.94 percent power-play success rate.
New York rebounded from its tough opening with a quick start in the second frame, as Barzal scored at the 4:42 mark. A little over a minute later, the Islanders nearly equalized when Hudson Fasching had a shot ring off the post.
Goals from Holloway and Hyman reinforced Edmonton’s lead before Clutterbuck scored in the final minute of the second period to give the Islanders some hope. Clutterbuck had missed New York’s previous eight games due to an upper-body injury.
Oilers goaltender Jack Campbell stopped 20 of 22 shots to improve to 9-7-1 on the season.
New York goalie Ilya Sorokin stopped 34 of 38 shots, playing well against the Oilers’ steady pressure.
The Islanders are 1-7-3 in their past 11 games in Edmonton, dating back to the 2007-08 season.
–Field Level Media