In Edmonton, Connor McDavid hit for a pair on goals on Wednesday night, and the Oilers throttled the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1.
It was the fifth straight game where he scored two goals or more.
“Sometimes it just goes in,” McDavid said. “I felt like I was playing good hockey before and it just wasn’t going in for me. You kind of get a bounce and it seems to go in for you. It is a funny game that way.”
Stuart Skinner made 26 saves in the Edmonton win.
“I think we’ve been trending in the right direction post-Christmas,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “Against two of the best teams in the League this week at home (they lost 3-2 to the Boston Bruins on Monday) I think we played the right way, and part of that is offensively and part of that is defensively, and we got contributions from everybody who played tonight.”
The Oilers improved to 33-21-8, .
McDavid scored twice in the first period, his two goals bookended a strike by the Maple Leafs’ David Kampf .
“I think at this level we all have an understanding of what you have to bring to the table and the level of execution, especially when you’re playing the No. 1 offensive team in the League and with the type of year [McDavid] is having,” Toronto forward John Tavares said. “We just didn’t do a good enough job, especially early, taking care of things in the neutral zone. [McDavid] got going with a power-play goal, and he’s been hot all year. Especially in the last number of games, he’s been putting the puck in the net. We didn’t make it more difficult gaining entry into our zone and earning offense that way.”
Zach Hyman scored in the first to give the Oilers a 3-1 lead headed to the middle frame.
Toronto dropped to 37-16-8.
Edmonton pushed the advantage to 5-1 in the second period on markers from Kailer Yamamoto and Klim Kostin.
“We just didn’t play with any purpose or intelligence,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “To me, our opponent tonight was very focused and very committed to playing together to win the game. I thought our guys started fine, but just the way we started the penalty kill … we get our first zone exit and we give it right back. We’re not serious about winning when that’s the case.”
Mitchell Marner scored in the third period for the 5-2 final.
“We wanted to try and keep them out of the middle and didn’t do a great job of that tonight,” Marner said. “We let them have the freedom, speed and space through that neutral zone, and they can make you pay for it, and they did.”
Ilya Samsonov made 27 saves in the leafs loss.
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