In Edmonton, the Winnipeg Jets didn’t find their offense until the third period on Friday and by then they were trailing 5-0 to the Oilers.
In the end, the Oilers scored a 6-3 win over the Jets.
For Winnipeg, it was fifth straight loss.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice in the game, he now has 30 goals on the season.
“Obviously, I wanted to bear down a little bit after last year,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “… I know that I need to step up a little bit offensively and help produce and still try to play that two-way game. But I think it just goes to show the way that we’re rolling as a team right now, and individual stuff kind of comes from a team playing well.”
Stuart Skinner made 25 saves for the Oilers win.
“We got the result tonight, which was nice, but I think we’ve been playing some nice hockey since Christmastime,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “In the last 20, 21 games, we’ve lost three in regulation; that means you’re doing a lot of things right.
“There’s mistakes that are made, when the game was 6-1, we made a couple of errors and there is always areas of improvement [but] I was happy our team dug in today and found a way against a tough opponent.”
Edmonton improved to 34-21-8.
Leon Draisaitl scored early in the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead.
Nugent-Hopkins opened the middle frame with another early goal for a 2-0 advantage.
Connor McDavid’s streak of multi-goal games ended on Friday, he did have three assists on the night.
Two of the Oilers’ goals came off the power play, Edmonton was 2-for-9 with the extra skater.
“I’ve never coached a team, I don’t think, that was so undisciplined and took so many penalties,” Jets coach Rick Bowness said. “You play a third of the game short-handed against that team, they’re going to make you look bad and they made us look bad tonight.”
Kailer Yamamoto hit for a double for the Oilers to add to the pile and make it 4-0 headed to the third period.
“Anytime you’re playing with ‘Leo’ and ‘Nuge’ it’s pretty easy to get going as well,” Yamamoto said. “I’m happy I got two on the board and an assist, but it was a good team win.”
Nugent-Hopkins made it 5-0 early in the third before the Jets finally found the back of the net.
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored to get the Jets on the board at 5-1, but Draisaitl hit for his double to deflate the Jets and make the score 6-1.
“We said before the third period, to go out there and try and our best and try to build on that for tomorrow,” Jonsson-Fjallby said. “I thought the third period was a little better, but overall, it wasn’t a good game.”
Mark Scheifele score off the power play,Brenden Dillon scored for the 6-3 cosmetic final.
Connor Hellebuyck got the start for the Jets and surrendered four goals, making 20 saves before getting the hook in the second intermission.
David Rittich made seven saves in a mop up role.
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