Connor McDavid had a aim and two assists and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 on Thursday evening in a matchup of groups jostling for residence ice in a attainable first-round playoff conflict.
Leon Draisaitl had three assists, Evan Bouchard had a aim and an help, and Adam Henrique and Cody Ceci additionally scored for the Oilers. They’re 44-23-4, going 15-2-2 at residence since Jan. 1 to maneuver 5 factors up on the Kings for second place within the Pacific Division with a sport in hand.
“It is at all times arduous towards these guys. They’re as stable as they arrive,” McDavid mentioned. “They’re structured and accountable. They’re good, it is at all times troublesome. It requires a affected person sport, a mature sport. I assumed we confirmed that on all ranges.”
Stuart Skinner made 32 saves, permitting solely Arthur Kaliyev’s aim.
“It is good to get this win and have just a little extra leeway in home-ice benefit,” Skinner mentioned. “However on the identical time these guys play arduous each single evening and know what they need to do towards us. It is at all times an important battle taking part in towards them. If we face them it will likely be very thrilling.”
Los Angeles dropped to 38-23-11, falling a degree again of Vegas right into a wild-card place. The Kings had received 4 in a row.
“It was a tough sport, quite a lot of battles, quite a lot of hits from the beginning,” Kings ahead Kevin Fiala mentioned. “It felt like we weren’t that unhealthy, we had attractiveness and it was a tough battle. There wasn’t something open for each groups, there have been quite a lot of chips, quite a lot of forechecks and never a lot Grade A probabilities general, so I feel it was like a playoff sport.”
The Oilers began the scoring 5:37 into the opening interval with the groups taking part in 4 apart when McDavid knocked down Mattias Ekholm’s level shot in entrance of the online and steered the puck previous goalie Cam Talbot.
McDavid prolonged his factors streak to 6 video games together with his twenty seventh of the aim and have become simply the seventh participant in NHL historical past with 120 factors in three consecutive seasons. He added his NHL-leading 94th and ninety fifth assists.
UP NEXT
Kings: At Calgary on Saturday evening.
Oilers: Host Anaheim on Saturday.
