Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists as the Edmonton Oilers won their fifth in a row, beating the Winnipeg Jets 4-2 Saturday afternoon.
“What I really, really enjoyed about tonight’s game was the fact that they got a little bit of momentum the last eight or nine minutes of the game, but our team didn’t flinch,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said. “Everyone was calm, we were saying the right things on the bench, and we found a way to come out of a tough building with two points which is the most important thing.”
The Oilers were in penalty trouble early, giving the Jets a 90-second two-man advantage. Edmonton’s penalty kill held strong, allowing Winnipeg just one shot on the power play. The Oilers struck on the power play later in the first, with Zach Hyman deflecting Tyson Barrie’s point shot for his 17th of the season.
In the second period, McDavid drove in and sent a pass to Kailer Yamamoto. His first shot was stopped by Connor Hellebuyck, but he was able to flip in the rebound for his tenth. With the teams playing four-on-four a few minutes later, Leon Draisaitl whipped a brilliant cross-ice backhand pass to McDavid who fired in his 26th.
The Jets had two breakaways while killing off a four-minute penalty in the third. Mikko Koskinen stopped Brenden Dillon on the first one, but Adam Lowry scored on the second try to bring the Jets within two with 9:15 left. The Jets pulled close with 5:22 to go when Kyle Connor pounded in a power play one-timer.
“They’re a good team,” McDavid said after the game. “And they were smart. One of their breakaways was a D-man, you don’t see that a ton. So they were sending guys up the ice and challenging us, and we obviously didn’t do enough to stop them. So obviously Meeks makes a great save there on the first one and we can’t give up the second one, that’s totally on us. We can’t do that.”
The Oilers were called for too many men with 2:05 left but were able to kill off the penalty. Darnell Nurse scored a length of the ice empty-net goal with 2.1 ticks on the clock.
Koskinen made 22 saves and is 5-0-1 in his last six games.
“Right now I really like how the team’s playing,” Koskinen said. “There’s still a lot of room to improve and we try to get better everyday, and that’s the key to be successful at the end of the year.”
The Oilers, 28-18-3, are 5-0 since Jay Woodcroft took over as head coach.
Edmonton will host Minnesota Sunday night (630 CHED, Face-off Show 4:30 p.m., game at 6 p.m.).
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