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Connor McDavid surpasses 150-point plateau as Edmonton Oilers roll to seventh straight win

Published

2 years ago

April 8, 2023

Apr 8, 2023; San Jose, California, USA; San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer (47) defends against Edmonton Oilers center Mattias Janmark (26) during the third period at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports Photo by Stan Szeto /USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con

Oilers 6, Sharks 1

Edmonton Oilers continued their white-hot roll on Saturday afternoon, running their latest winning streak to seven games, their longest during the salary cap era. Leading the way once again was Connor McDavid, whose 2 goals and 1 assist made him the first NHL player this century — and only the sixth ever — to surpass the lofty 150-point milestone.

McDavid had plenty of help on this day. Playing their last home game of the season, the Sharks put up a good battle for roughly half the game. The Oilers matched their effort level and were otherwise superior in every way. The suddenly defence-conscious Oilers held their opponents to 1 goal or fewer for the fifth consecutive game, while pouring home 2 of their own… in each period.

With the win Edmonton gained a point on Vegas — in first place in both the Pacific Division and Western Conference — who lost in the shootout at Dallas. The Oil now stand just 2 points back with 2 games to play for each team and hold the tie-breaker as well.

The Oilers outshot the Sharks 35-23. Their true dominance shone through in the Cult of Hockey‘s count of Grade A shots, which they led by 15-4, with an 8-2 advantage in the subset of 5 alarm chances (preliminary running count). As has become our recent custom, we will record individual contributions to Grade A shots, both for and against, at the end of each player’s comment.

Player grades

#2 Evan Bouchard, 8. The young blueliner has been coming on gangbusters since being paired with Ekholm on Mar 01, with with impressive boxcars of 19 GP, 3-14-17, +11 in that span. 2 of the points, both secondary assists, and 4 of the pluses came in an impressive showing in the Shark Tank that saw Edmonton dominate shot and goal share on Bouchard’s watch. Goals notwithstanding, I was most impressed on a play Bouch appeared set to unleash a risky cross-ice pass through the neutral zone, but thought better of it and fed a short, safe pass up the wall to a speeding McDavid. Good decision! GAS: +2/-0

#10 Derek Ryan, 8. Outstanding game for the veteran forward, who scored on the penalty kill, assisted at even strength, and also made an officially-uncredited contribution to a third Oilers tally. His play on the shorty was especially choice, intercepting Erik Karlsson’s pass in the defensive zone, breaking out 3 on 1 with Nugent-Hopkins and Nurse, feeding the puck to RNH and then stopping at the net front, stick on the ice to fire home the return pass. That made the score 4-1 in the dying seconds of the middle frame and ended any doubt as to the outcome. 15:55 TOI including 1:59 on the PK with fabulous shot shares and a team best 5/9=56% on the faceoff dot. GAS: +4/-0.

#14 Mattias Ekholm, 9. The Oilers have been a different club since his arrivial on Mar 01. Ekholm took it to a new level on Saturday, becoming just the second Oiler since 1987 to log +6 in a single game (Sam Gagner was the other, in his famous 8-point game). Ekholm didn’t light up the scoreboard the way Gagner did, but the Oilers were in control of the game for seemingly every second of his 19:07 of ice time. He held mammoth leads in on-ice shot attempts (30-16), shots on net (+18/-8) and especially high danger chances (+16/-3!). His lone assist was a beautiful delayed backhand pass that found Hyman alone in front. Involved in a couple of nice give-and-go plays with McDavid that led to dangerous shots but not goals. But hey, +6. Now leads the 2022-23 Oilers with +25, this despite playing just 19 games with the club. To put that in perspective, runners-up Nurse (+23) and McDavid (+22) have both played all 80 games. I’ve never seen the like. GAS: +3/-0.

#18 Zach Hyman, 7. Another fine showing with 1-1-2, +2. Made a great goal-mouth pass to RNH for the open-net tap-in that opened the scoring, then scored the 3-1 himself by taking Ekholm’s pass at the bottom of the right circle, stickhandling in tight before depositing a backhand shot past an embattled James Reimer. Otherwise fairly quiet, but damage done. GAS: +2/-0.

#21 Klim Kostin, 6. The only Oiler without a shot on goal or even an attempt, Kostin nonetheless had a strong game with 5 hits, some adept passing, and an excellent defensive stop that thwarted a very dangerous chance. Skated with purpose all afternoon. GAS +0/-0.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 7. Another rock solid outing despite the absence of his usual partner, Cody Ceci, back in Edmonton attending the birth of his first child. Nurse was the only Oiler, D or F, to hit the 20-minute mark, despite not having a regular partner all day long. He played at least a minute with all 6 other d-men, including 5, 4, and 3 minutes respectively with Broberg, Desharnais, and Demers, usually at the other end of the rotation. Also led the squad with 2:58 on the PK, recording a +1 on that unit. Put out a few fires, didn’t start any. Crunched Erik Karlsson with an open-ice hit, and made a terrific diving block of a lethal pass. GAS: +1/-0.

#26 Mattias Janmark, 5. Spent too much time in his own end of the sheet (shot attempts +5/-16) but his unit limited the damage to just +4/-6 in actual shots. Took a penalty for a borderline foul. GAS: +1/-0.

#27 Brett Kulak, 5. Similar to Janmark in shot distribution (a poor +11/-25 in attempts, but a middling +7/-8 in shots on net). Played a team high 18:32 at even strength. 4 hits, 3 blocks. GAS” +1/-2.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 6. Struggled at times, marked by an uncharacteristic 3/12=25% on the dot. But created plenty offensively, setting up linemate Kane for 4 Grade A shots, and making a splendid behind-the-back pass to Broberg for the young Swede’s first goal of the season. GAS: +6/-0.

#37 Warren Foegele, 7. Strong game playing with Ryan and various guest stars on the 2-man fourth unit. Made chicken salad out of chicken feathers when he found a bouncing puck in the slot and managed to pop it over to McDavid for the game winner, coincidentally his 150th point. Around the puck all night. GAS: +1/-1.

#44 Jason Demers, 5. Achieved a late career dream with his first NHL game in 2 seasons, and his milestone 700th at that back in his old haunts. Tough start when he lost control of the puck in the corner, leading directly to the Sharks’ lone goal of the game. Recovered nicely thereafter, playing 10:44 in the 7D role with 3 hits and 3 blocked shots. Showed his experience in shutting down a couple of sorties, including a great hit on Tomas Hertl to snuff out a zone entry.

#56 Kailer Yamamoto, 5. Quiet game, okay defensively but created little. 1 shot, 1 hit. 2 takeaways. GAS: +0/-0.

#72 Nick Bjugstad, 5. Also mostly quiet, although that is more in keeping with his job description. His 23 shifts led the forwards and tied Nurse and Kulak for the team lead. Took the rarely-seen minor penalty, “2 minutes for being taller than his opponent”. GAS: +2/-1.

#73 Vincent Desharnais, 7. Moved up the depth chart in Ceci’s absence, even starting the game paired with Nurse. Made lots of good decisions with the puck. Played 16:45 including 2:16 on the penalty kill, during which time the Sharks mustered exactly 1 (one) shot on net. Vinnie himself blocked more shots (3) than did his goalie on his watch. GAS +0/-0.

#74 Stuart Skinner, 7. Kept things tidy on those rare occasions play broke down in front of him. Not much chance on the bang-bang play that beat him. Now has 27 wins this season, 1 shy of Grant Fuhr’s franchise record for a rookie. 23 shots, 22 saves, .957 save percentage.

#86 Philip Broberg, 6. Scored his first goal of the season by going hard to the net to take Draisaitl’s pass, then finding his own rebound behind Reimer and tapping it home. A couple of iffy moments with the puck, nothing costly. GAS: +1/-0.

#91 Evander Kane, 7. Played a solid 18:22 against his old team, firing 7 shots on net to lead both teams and adding 4 hits. GAS: +6/-0, with all 6 Grade A shots coming off his own stick. Unlucky to be held off the scoresheet.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 8. Another first-rate performance with 1-2-3, +4, raising his careers highs to 37-66-103 on the season. Finished off Hyman’s pass at the side of the net for the 1-0; made a splendid cross-crease pass to Ryan for the shorty; and threaded a gorgeous through pass at the blueline to McDavid for the late cherry-on-top. Excellent on the PK as usual, leading all forwards with 2:28 (of 4:00 total). GAS: +3/-0.

#97 Connor McDavid, 9. On fire in the first period, driving the net time and again and creating all sorts of chaos in the San Jose zone. Helped set up RNH’s ice-breaker with a greta drive to the net-front. Scored the 2-1 himself by finishing off Foegele’s pass after first stealing the puck himself to create the chance. That was his 150th point of the season, joining Wayne Gretzky (9 times!), Mario Lemieux (4), Steve Yzerman, Phil Esposito, and Bernie Nicholls (once each) as the only NHLers to ever breathe such rarefied air. That stood up as the game-winner, his league leading (tied) 11th of the season. Converted a late breakaway for his 64th goal of the season, the most of any Oiler since Jari Kurri potted 68 back in 1985-86. Now 7 ahead of David Pastrnak in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy, and appears set to be the first NHLer to win the “triple crown” (goals, assists, and points) since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96. 10 shot attempts, 6 on goal, and 4 takeaways. GAS: +6/-1.

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

17 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

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SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

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FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

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ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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