McDavid fuels Oilers in win over Jets

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This article was published 01/12/2016 (3280 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers had too much for the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. Too much skill, too much speed and too much star power.

McDavid, the NHL’s leading scorer, added three assists to his league-leading point total (he has 34 points in 24 games) and linemate Leon Draisaitl scored twice and added an assist to spark the Oilers to a 6-3 triumph over the Jets at the MTS Centre. McDavid has points in seven straight games.

The Jets, who dropped to 11-13-2 and sixth in the Central Division, head out on the road for a pair of games against the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

“They definitely have some firepower,” said Jets captain Blake Wheeler. “We just gave them too much space, too much time and space, too much respect tonight. I think even though we were up 2-1 after the first, they had a bunch of shots and we were just giving them too much ice. Players of that calibre are going to make you pay.”

The Oilers, who are 12-10-2 and second in the Pacific, held a 29-8 edge in shot attempts after 20 minutes.

Edmonton’s territorial advantage started to translate to the scoreboard in the middle frame, with Draisaitl and Mark Letestu scoring power-play goals 4:57 apart.

Both goals were triggered by the elusive McDavid, who drew a holding-the-stick minor from Jacob Trouba eight seconds into the period to generate the man advantage in the first instance. Minutes later, he fed Draisaitl perfectly in the offensive zone, forcing Winnipeg’s Drew Stafford to apply the hook to set up another power play.

McDavid went on to assist on both goals.

Patrick Maroon put the Oilers up 4-2 later in the period.

In the third, rookie Patrik Laine potted his second of the night and 15th of the season, overpowering Oilers goalie Cam Talbot with a point blast on a 5-on-3 power play at 1:46. The goal gave the hosts some life but Draisaitl, with his ninth, and Benoit Pouliot, with his fourth, soon extinguished the threat with markers 30 seconds apart.

“Everybody wants to win. That’s why we do this sport and it wasn’t enough today,” said Laine. “They had a good power play, they scored three goals. We took some not-so-smart penalties and we knew that they were going to have a good power play. That’s not the way we wanted to play. That kind of stuff happens and we have to deal with that. It wasn’t our best game.”

Pouliot’s goal spelled the end for Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped 23 of 29 shots in his fifth straight start. Michael Hutchinson came on to save all four shots he faced.

“Our penalty kill probably wasn’t where we wanted it to be,” said Wheeler, whose club was torched for three power-play goals. “You get two on your (own) power play and that should give you a chance. We cut it to a goal in the third and they bounce back and get two more. It’s kind of deflating. You get a little momentum off the power play at the beginning of the third period.”

Said Jets head coach Paul Maurice: “I don’t know if we ever got up to speed to say that we were behind their game. I don’t think we gave ourselves a chance to match or consider the match of speed. We were off it and tentative with it and late, so you really can’t hit when you’re five or six feet off the puck carrier when he moves it. We were just slow. I think we gave them too much room, probably spent too much time worried about the speed.”

Bryan Little, playing his second game since returning from a 23-game absence due to a lower-body injury, gave the Jets a 1-0 lead 35 seconds into the game. Letestu, who has scored three times in two games against Winnipeg this season, tied the game before Laine gave the Jets a 2-1 lead.

“These guys are going to get a lot more respect this year,” said Little. “They’re a good team. They’ve got some good players and they played at a high tempo the entire night. Not saying we didn’t but we couldn’t find a way to get back in the game when we got down.”

Perreault’s return

The Jets activated veteran Mathieu Perreault from injured reserve, hoping for a lift from the shifty forward. It never materialized.

“We want to stay out of the box but at the same time we’ve find a way to get the kills done, too,” said Perreault. “We’ve got to work on our penalty killing and try to figure out what happened there because we can’t give up three goals like that.”

Noteworthy

Winnipeg left-winger Marco Dano was back in the lineup Thursday after being struck in the face with a stick by New Jersey defenceman Kyle Quincey Tuesday night. Quincey, who was not penalized on the play, cut Dano for 10 stitches near the bridge of his nose and three more stitches at the corner of his right eye… Winnipeg’s power play went 2-for-4 while Edmonton was 3-for-4… Cam Talbot had 23 saves in the Edmonton net.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14