EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) Once again, Connor McDavid has put the rest of the NHL in his rearview mirror.
McDavid had two goals to take over the league scoring lead, and the Edmonton Oilers held off the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Saturday night for their third straight victory.
The Oilers captain and last year’s scoring champion has 23 goals in his last 26 games and 12 points in his past six.
”I’m just going to put repeat on,” said McDavid, who added he would be lying if he said he hasn’t kept an eye on where he sat in the race for the Art Ross Trophy.
”We pay attention to it. Guys that are in the race, I’m sure they are paying attention to it. We are so far along in the year and everyone has come so far that you might as well put your best foot forward and go for it.”
Pontus Aberg also scored for the Oilers, who are 4-1-1 in their last six games. During that span, however, they were eliminated from the playoff race.
”Lately we have been stringing some games together, something we didn’t do as well at the start of the season,” forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. ”It was obviously not the way we wanted it to go in the first half, but we can take some confidence and play the game the right way to at least go into the summer with at least a good feeling.”
Jake Muzzin and Jeff Carter had the goals for the Kings, who have lost two of three. Los Angeles remained tied with idle Anaheim for third place in the Pacific Division.
”Chasing games on the road is tough,” Muzzin said. ”We had some chances and didn’t score. I don’t think we were as prepared as we should have emotionally in this game and I don’t know why. We got desperate a little too late. We weren’t able to capitalize and able to come back.”
The Oilers started the scoring 45 seconds into the first period when Aberg hooked a puck from behind the net past surprised Kings goalie Jonathan Quick for his sixth point in the last three games.
Edmonton made it 2-0 with 4:28 left in the period when McDavid had a strong second effort to bang his own rebound under Quick’s stick for his 37th goal of the season.
However, the Kings bounced back just 28 seconds later when Muzzin cleanly beat Oilers goalie Cam Talbot with a shot from the slot.
The Oilers regained their two-goal advantage four minutes into the second when McDavid sent a shot through Quick’s legs on a partial breakaway. The goal gave McDavid the NHL scoring lead with 96 points, moving him ahead of Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov.
The Kings got that goal back a couple of minutes later when Tobias Rieder made a long feed to Carter, who scored at the side of the net.
Talbot made a huge stop on a short-handed breakaway by Nate Thompson early in the third and withstood some late pressure to preserve the win.
NOTES: The teams split their four-game season series. … Out with injuries for the Oilers were Oscar Klefbom (shoulder surgery), Michael Cammalleri (undisclosed) and Zack Kassian (undisclosed).
UP NEXT
Kings: Return home to play Calgary on Monday.
Oilers: Stay home to face Anaheim on Sunday.
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