In Edmonton on Thursday, it was the Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins show as the Oilers got even with the Vancouver Canucks in a 5-2 win.

McDavid scored the first hat trick of the season and Nugent-Hopkins added a pair of strikes for Edmonton.

“Tonight, [McDavid] was at another level again, and he capitalized on those chances,” Edmonton head coach Dave Tippett said. “The ones that amaze me are the ones that he kind of makes something happen out of nothing. Like that play at the end of the (first) period. You’re lining up for a quick shot, you don’t think you have time for a rebound, but there he is, he’s in a rebound and scores. Great players just find a way to make that play. He was dialed in tonight, right from the start.”

Leon Draisaitl added four assists to the scoresheet.

“It was obviously not our best effort last night, and I thought our group was really solid tonight,” McDavid said. “We came out with a lot of energy, it seemed like we had a just a little more juice than they did, but that happens in a back-to-back. Our power play was good, our [penalty kill] was good, and 5-on-5 I thought we did a pretty good job as well.”

Mikko Koskinen made 38 saves for the win to balance his record on the early season.

“[McDavid] was good, exceptional,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said. “He’s one of the best players in the world. He definitely played well tonight. He was a big part of the game.

“I thought their team had a little bit more urgency in certain areas of the game that we talked about with our group. There is going to be a lot of [that] this year when you play a team two or three times in a row. When you win, you can count on the other team raising their game the next game. I just thought we just didn’t quite raise ours enough.”

Nate Schmidt and Tyler Motte  were the Canucks’ strikers.

“I think all four lines, all six D, right from the start, we had the right mindset,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We knew we needed to clean some things up after last night, and coming in a back-to-back, it was a good chance to get things going right away. You don’t have much time to think and dwell on things. I thought we responded pretty well, and I think our line held on to pucks a lot better tonight and we got some more chances and put some pucks on net too.”

Watch complete game highlights here

Thatcher Demko made 41 saves in the loss.

“I thought they came out a lot harder than we did to start the game,” Schmidt said. “They put us back on our toes early. We have to get used to this, you play the same team on back-to-back nights in their own building, and it’s going to happen. You know, you’re going to get a better effort out of them after we come in and win Game 1 in these miniseries that we’re going to be having all year.”