The Edmonton Oilers are once again ramping it up at the right time after two consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup final.
Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists to regain the NHL scoring lead as the Oilers made a big move up the Pacific Division standings, holding on to defeat Anaheim 4-2 on Saturday to move three points back of the division-leading Ducks.
“For the first 50 minutes it was as good as we’ve played all season,” said Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Nothing too fancy, maybe we’d like to have gotten a goal on the power play if I’m being a bit negative. Five-on-five, the penalty-kill was really good. Until we scored the third goal, then they were playing desperate and made a strong push.”
Zach Hyman had a goal and an assist and Jack Roslovic and rookie forward Matthew Savoie also scored for the Oilers (37-28-9) who won their third game in a row after going just 1-9-2 in their previous 12 attempts to win more than two straight.
Savoie has scored in three consecutive contests and has 13 points in his last 16 games while now doing extra duty on the power play and penalty kill in addition to being elevated to the top line with McDavid.
“My confidence is definitely high right now,” Savoie said. “It helps seeing the puck go in, and I’m getting lots of opportunities right now with some pretty good players, obviously.
“I think we’re playing an intense style right now, closing quick in the D-zone, not giving them easy looks inside. I think it’s just the intensity that we’re playing with right now, and that’s playoff style.”
Edmonton is 27-5-5 when scoring first this season.
The Oilers’ strong run of late has happened without star forward Leon Draisaitl, out for the remainder of the regular season with a lower-body injury.
“We have been playing the right way more,” Knoblauch said. “One, we’re at the end of the season and desperate to win hockey games. It’s important to win games to get into the playoffs and move up the standings. The other one is we lost one of the best players in the NHL (Draisaitl) and had to change the way we were playing.
“We don’t have the luxury of having a superstar on our second line. We had to check harder and have other guys step up.”
Connor Ingram recorded 27 saves to earn the win in the Edmonton net.
“He’s been playing great,” said Oilers forward Jason Dickinson. “He’s steady, he makes saves that you need him to make and not only that, he’s also controlling pucks and making breakouts on his own that makes it easier to move up the ice.”
Evan Bouchard picked up a pair of assists to extend his points streak against the Ducks to 11 games. The 26-year-old leads all NHL defencemen with 86 points and looks poised to become just the 13th blueliner in league history to hit the 90-point plateau.
It was the fourth consecutive game McDavid has scored in and he leads the NHL with 31 goals since Dec. 1. The Oilers captain is now three points clear of Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the league scoring lead.
The Oilers have gotten the job done at home against the Pacific, now 8-0-2 against divisional opponents at Rogers Place.
“We’ve been chipping away at it,” said Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse. “It hasn’t been perfect. We still have a lot of work to do. The race is still tight, there’s nothing guaranteed. So for us, it’s not about just putting a few games together, we’ve got to continue this through the final (eight). It’s the time of year we like to play in.”
Beckett Sennecke and Cutter Gauthier replied for the Ducks (41-28-4) who had their four-game win streak halted. Lukas Dostal made 30 stops for Anaheim.
The Ducks have trailed in all 17 games they have played since the Olympic break but have been a tough team to put away, now sporting an 11-5-1 record during that span.
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