Leon Draisaitl produced two goals and an assist, while Connor McDavid contributed three helpers to propel the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night in Edmonton, Alberta.
The win ended a brief two-game skid for the Oilers, who improved to 12-3-3 on the campaign and maintained an impressive 10-0-2 mark when registering the first goal. Vancouver continued to struggle, dropping its fifth consecutive contest to fall to 3-15-1 overall, having managed just one victory in sixteen outings following an early 2-1 start.
Milestones for McDavid and Third-Period Surge
With his three-assist performance, McDavid stretched his season-opening assist streak to 18 consecutive games, matching Adam Oates for the second-longest such run in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky’s 23-game mark set during the 1990-91 campaign. The Oilers captain also became only the sixth player in league history to record a point in each of his team’s first 18 games of a season. McDavid sits atop the league scoring charts with 37 assists and 47 total points.
After earlier tallies by Mattias Ekholm for Edmonton and Max Sasson for Vancouver, Jason Dickinson broke the deadlock early in the third frame to put the Oilers ahead. Edmonton quickly extended the advantage to 3-1 on a power play four minutes into the period, capitalizing when McDavid delivered a pass across the ice to Draisaitl, who finished with a one-timer.
Goaltending and Closing Stages
Goaltender Devon Levi made his return from injury for the Oilers, turning aside 20 shots to lift his personal record to 7-1-0. At the opposite end, Leevi Merilainen made 26 saves for the Canucks, who entered the matchup surrendering an average of 4.61 goals per contest against Edmonton’s league-leading offense of 4.12 goals per game.
Brock Boeser narrowed the deficit for the Canucks by finding the net at 17:25 of the final period. Vancouver could not pull level, however, and Draisaitl secured the result by sliding in an empty-netter with 45 seconds remaining for his 16th goal of the year.
Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard also picked up an assist to stretch his personal scoring run to six games, joining Draisaitl as the second Oiler to register points in 16 of the squad’s 18 fixtures.
Both teams return to the ice on Monday night, with Vancouver hosting the Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton welcoming the New York Rangers.
