Oilers ground Jets, 3-1

In Winnipeg, the Jets came up short again in their set with the Edmonton Oilers.  On Wednesday, the Oilers posted a 3-1 win, Connor McDavid assisted on all three Oilers goals.

“It’s pretty amazing,” Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “We know how special a player he is, but to be able to do it every night is another story. He does it in practice every day too, so we do get a taste of it. But obviously he’s having a special season and he’s a pretty spectacular player.”

Mikko Koskinen made 29 saves in the win.

“It was kind of a hard-fought game,” Edmonton coach Dave Tippett said. “Koskinen made a couple big saves early for us, but just a lot of wall battles, a lot of battles for pucks. [The Jets] competed hard.”

Blake Wheeler was the lone strikers for the Jets.

“It was way better than the last game for sure,” Wheeler said. “We beat them 1-0 5-on-5, [but] they scored two power-play goals. Obviously, that was the difference in the game.

“We’ve got some important games [upcoming] for our group and it was a step in the right direction tonight, but nothing’s going our way.”

Tyson Barrie and Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Oilers.

“I don’t know exactly what it is; we definitely raise our level when we play these guys,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “I think overall we try to limit their high-quality scoring chances from in tight and try to keep it to the outside as much as possible, and we found a way to capitalize on our chances against them.”

Leon Draisaitl added an empty-net goal late in the third period to ice the win.

“Our power play came through with a couple big goals for us,” Tippett said. “It was kind of a slugfest after that. … We got a big kill at the end to also help us. We knew they were going to play hard; they’re a desperate team. I like the way our guys kind of hung in the game.”

Connor Hellebuyck made 24 saves in the loss.

“I thought we were hard tonight,” Hellebuyck said. “We were doing all those details hard. It was a step in the right direction, but we can’t settle for losing. We’re going to snap out of this and it’s going to be big, and we’re going to carry that momentum. It’s just a matter of time.”