McDavid drives Oilers to 5-2 win over Flyers McDavid has goal and four assists in win

Posted on by

In Edmonton, the Oilers won their sixth straight game on Tuesday night, 5-2, over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

Connor McDavid had a goal and five points in the win.

“It’s another nice milestone, a chance to reflect on some of the work you’ve done,” McDavid said. “They’re a hard-working team, they don’t give up much. They defend really well, but we stuck with it, and I thought ‘Stu’ (Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner ) made some great saves. We found a way to score a couple, and it was a good win.”

The Oilers improved to Oilers 19-15-1.

“It looked pretty easy for him, it was nice, he was flying and making unbelievable plays and he did all that tonight, and I couldn’t believe he only had [16:35] of ice time,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said of McDavid. “It was quite remarkable what he was doing, but it never surprises me. I’m over that phase of him surprising me because he’s done it so much. You just like to enjoy it.”

Skinner made 35 saves in the win.

McDavid opened the scoring at 15:55 of the opening stanza with a wrist shot from the right side.

Zach Hyman pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 8:12 of the middle frame.

“For him (McDavid) , it is just another number; he is just happy that we won, knowing him,” Hyman said of McDavid’s 900th NHL point . “He’s a generational talent to be able to do that. It’s pretty special in the era he plays in to be in categories with the guys he is.

“I don’t think anybody is even close in recent memory. It is pretty unbelievable, and it is pretty special having the opportunity to play with him.”

The Flyers dropped to 19-13-5, and ended a five-game roadie at 1-2-2.

The Flyers rallied back with a pair of goals to tie the game, 2-2.

Travis Konecny trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 11:10 of the second, and Marc Staal knotted it, 2-2, at 17:00.

“We finally find our game in the second period, and we just need to kill that one off at the end,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “I think we were looking to try to get a [shorthanded goal]. We left the zone a couple of times, and it ends up in the back of our net.

“We need to get out of that second period at least to give us a fighting chance in the third with some momentum, and we lose the momentum right at the end.”

The Flyers were scoreless on four power play chances.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins restored the Oilers lead with 55 seconds left in the middle frame for a 3-2 advantage headed to the third.

“I’ve played with him for a long time obviously, 600 games, that’s a lot of hockey, but he always finds a way to bring something to the table,” Nugent-Hopkins said of McDavid. “Give him the puck and get open is usually the plan, but usually he can find a way to beat one or two guys so you’ve got to try to get open for him and obviously support him and do some work for him.”

Edmonton scored twice in the final period.

Leon Draisaitl scoed with 87 seconds gone in the period for a 4-2 lead to Edmonton.

Nugent-Hopkins added his double with a wrist shot at 11:19 for the 5-2 final count.Carter Hart made 31 saves in the loss

“I definitely had some people out to watch,” Hart said. “You’ve got to battle, and we know that they’ve got a ton of skill on that team. Five-on-5, we’re right there with them, we can compete. We can take them 5-on-5, but they won the special-teams battle tonight.

“You’ve just got to be ready for anything. You’ve got to be aware when [McDavid’s] out there. Those top-two lines, you’ve got to be really aware where guys are on the ice.”

.