In Edmonton, the Oilers clinched their playoff spot on Friday night in a 6-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
Evander Kane had a hat trick and four points in the win.
“It was a good team win, it’s great to clinch the playoffs here at home,” Kane said. “I thought in the first period we came in a little flat, we didn’t do what we talked about heading into the game, but we got off to a strong start in the second and carried the momentum all the way through.”
Mike Smith made 34 saves in the Oilers win.
“I’m so happy for Evander, it’s been an interesting year for him,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “I’m glad that he wanted to come to Edmonton and be part of the Oilers organization and he’s a big reason why we’re where we’re at right now. To see him have a game like that when we clinch a playoff spot, he’s driven to show that type of play in a playoff series.”
Valeri Nichushkin hit for a double for the Avs in the loss, their third straight.
“Yeah, it’s definitely concerning, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot a lot of the time,” the Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon said. “I feel like a lot of those goals are preventable — most of them — I can think of three. It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup, we can be good with the puck, all of us are NHL-caliber players, we can make smart decisions. Regardless of the guys we’re missing and regardless of the standings, we’re trying to get better, and we need to definitely improve.”
Evan Bouchard had a single marker for the Oilers to give them a 2-1 lead in the middle frame.
“We obviously didn’t get off to the start that we wanted and came out in the second and did a lot of good things,” Edmonton’s Connor McDavid said. “Kane had some real nice goals, some big goals for our group. He was great.”
MacKinnon also scored for Colorado, who remain two points back of the Florida Panthers for the NHL’s President’s Trophy.
“I thought we competed real hard, it was a physical game,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t love our first few minutes of that game and then I thought we really started to play. And a couple of turnovers and I’d say a handful or just over a handful of execution problems cost us that game.”
Kailer Yamamoto and Evan Bouchard added single markers for Edmonton.
Kris Russell hit for an empty-net goal for the 6-3 final.
Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves in the Colorado loss.
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