Tuesday's hockey: McDavid's Oilers head to Detroit after eighth straight win
Chicago — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl scored goals as the Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to eight games with a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night.
The Oilers also won eight straight from Nov. 24 to Dec. 12. The current streak started Dec. 21 with a 6-3 victory at New Jersey. Edmonton will be in Detroit on Thursday to face the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena.
“You get into a rhythm,” McDavid said of the run. “You find a way to win. Tonight’s not our best, but we found a way.”
McDavid scored the winner by beating ex-Red Wings goalie Petr Mrazek on a breakaway 1:32 into the second period. McDavid took Mattias Eckholm’s stretch pass at the Chicago blue line, raced past defenseman Jarred Tinordi and shoveled the puck past the outstretched Mrazek’s right foot for a 2-1 lead. He also extended his point streak to eight games and has 14 points during that stretch.
Chicago’s Jason Dickinson picked up a loose puck and sent a wrist shot past the blocker of Stuart Skinner at 5:52 of the first period to open the scoring. It was his team-leading 14th goal of the season. Skinner stopped the Blackhawks’ other 25 shots.
“I liked our work ethic,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “Other than the start of the second period, we did a good job of countering whatever they threw at us tonight. We were frustrating them, and that’s good for us. We just couldn’t get that second goal.”
Chicago’s lead lasted just over two minutes. Draisaitl scored his 19th goal of the season to square the score, flipping the puck by Mrazek’s blocker at 8:05 of the first.
“It was a weird one, for sure,” Edmonton defenseman Brett Kulak said. “There’s positives and things we knew we could do better. It felt like a tight game all along. It’s a good test of patience. We stayed the course.”
Two Edmonton goals were disallowed. McDavid’s was negated by goaltender interference shortly after his second-period score. Zach Hyman’s goal in the third period was disallowed after a five-minute review determined Draisaitl was offside carrying the puck into the zone.
“If it takes you 15 minutes to determine if it’s offside or not, it probably doesn’t matter,” McDavid joked.
More Tuesday games
(At) Arizona 4, Boston 3: Nick Schmaltz scored a goal with less than a minute remaining in overtime for the Coyotes.
Schmaltz's goal was his 13th of the season and snapped a rough stretch for the Coyotes, who had been blown out in three straight games. He flicked a wrister past Boston's Jeremy Swayman, who entered the game midway through overtime after Linus Ullmark left with an injury.
Jake DeBrusk responded with Boston's second power play goal of the night, making it 3-all with 14:56 remaining, which held until the end of regulation. The Bruins have lost three of their last four.
(At) Calgary 6, Ottawa 3: Yegor Sharangovich and Blake Coleman each scored twice and the Flames scored four unanswered goals.
Noah Hanifin had a goal and two assists for Calgary and Connor Zary also scored. Nazem Kadri had two assists to give him 600 career points in the NHL. Jacob Markstrom had 30 saves for the Flames to improve to 11-11-2.
Jacob Bernard-Docker, Dominik Kubalik and Brady Tkachuk provided the offense for Ottawa, which has dropped the first four of its five-game road trip. The Senators have lost nine of their last 10 away from home.
Florida 5, (at) St. Louis 1: Matthew Tkachuk scored his fifth career hat trick to help the Panthers for their eighth straight victory.
Sam Reinhart and Kevin Stenlund also scored for the Panthers, who have 36 goals during their winning streak. Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves.
“I don't think any of it was easy for us,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “We had no legs, so we had to make a whole bunch of mental adjustments as the game went. Part of it was just what it's going to look like. I'm really happy with this win as much as any win we've had on this trip, for sure."
Brayden Schenn scored and Joel Hofer made 26 saves for St. Louis.
Anaheim 5, (at) Nashville 3: Troy Terry scored a goal and assisted on another and Lukas Dostal made 39 saves for the Ducks.
Ryan Strome, Frank Vatrano, Mason McTavish and Radko Gudas also scored for the Ducks, who snapped a five-game losing streak. Alex Killorn and Jackson LaCombe each had two assists.
Alexandre Carrier, Philip Tomasino and Denis Gurianov scored and Juuse Saros made 28 saves for Nashville, losers of two of three.
(At) Winnipeg 5, Columbus 0: Cole Perfetti scored twice and Connor Hellebuyck (Commerce Township) made 29 saves to help the Jets deliver a 5-0 victory over the Blue Jackets that extended their winning streak to a franchise-tying seven games and kept the team alone atop the NHL standings.
Brenden Dillon, Josh Morrissey and Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets, who ran up their franchise-record point streak to 13 games. Adam Lowry contributed a pair of helpers.
Hellebuyck recorded his second shutout of the season and 34th of his career. He is 11-0-2 in his past 13 games, the longest unbeaten streak for a goaltender in franchise history.
(At) Tampa Bay 3, L.A. Kings 2 (OT): Nick Perbix scored 2:02 into overtime and the Lightning rallied from two goals down in the third period to beat the slumping Kings, who are in Detroit Saturday night.
Jon Cooper became the third-fastest NHL coach to win 500 games. Scotty Bowman (825) and Bruce Boudreau (837) were the only ones to get there faster than Cooper’s 839 games. Cooper is the fastest to do it with one franchise, and 29th overall to reach the milestone.
Perbix ended a 40-game goal drought with his game-winner.
Tyler Motte and Brandon Hagel also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 shots and is 10-9-0 since returning from back surgery.
Phillip Danault and Matt Roy had the Los Angeles goals. Cam Talbot made 26 saves for the Kings, who have lost six in a row (0-3-3).
Seattle 5, (at) Buffalo 2: Alex Wennberg, Jaden Schwartz and Matty Beniers (Michigan) scored in the second period as Seattle pulled away from Buffalo for its seventh consecutive win.
Yanni Gourde and Vince Dunn also scored for the Kraken, and Joey Daccord made 36 saves.
Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch scored for the Sabres. Devon Levi stopped 21 shots.
(At) Toronto 7, San Jose 1: Mitchell Marner had two goals and two assists as Toronto won its fourth straight and handed San Jose its 12th consecutive defeat.
Morgan Rielly, Auston Matthews, Pontus Holmberg, Jake McCabe and Nicholas Robertson also scored for the Maple Leafs, who snapped a three-game skid at home. Martin Jones made 22 saves.
William Nylander had three assists, and McCabe added two.
Henry Thrun had the lone goal for San Jose.
Vancouver 5, (at) N.Y. Islanders 2: Ex-Red Wing Filip Hronek and Quinn Hughes (Michigan) scored first-period goals and Casey DeSmith made 17 saves as Vancouver defeated the Islanders to complete a three-game sweep in the New York area.
Elias Pettersson, Tyler Myers and Dakota Joshua also scored for the first-place Canucks, who are on a seven-game trip – their longest of the season. Conor Garland added two assists for Vancouver, which has won four of five overall. The Canucks are 11-2-2 since Dec. 5.
Brock Nelson scored both goals for the Islanders.
Vancouver was coming off a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night at Madison Square Garden. The Canucks won 6-4 at New Jersey on Saturday.
Young Griffins producing
The Grand Rapids Griffins have climbed above .500 and into third place in the Central Division by winning a season-best five games in a row and earning points in seven (6-1-1-0) of the last eight games.
Heading into Wednesday's home game against the Milwaukee Admirals at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, the Griffins are getting contributions from young draft picks in the lineup.
▶ Jonatan Berggren, 3 goals, 5 assists in last six games
▶ Simon Edvinsson, three assists in last three games
▶ Albert Johansson, two goals, three assists in last seven games
▶ Marco Kasper, one goal, five assists in five games
▶ Amadeus Lombardi, three assists in last six games
▶ Carter Mazur, six goals, one assist in last eight games
▶ Elmer Soderblom, one goal, four assists in last six games
▶ Antti Tuomisto, two goals, one assist in last five games
▶ Sebastian Cossa, 3-1-1 record in last five games
Michigan officials selected
Two hockey officials from Michigan were selected to work in Monday's All-American Game at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth (4 p.m., The Hockey Network).
Referee Chazz Knoche of Detroit and linesman Patrick Giles of Clinton Township will be joined by Chicago referee Anthony Vikhter and linesman Reilly Hickey of Hackensack, N.J.
Knoche, who has been officiating since age 12, is in his second season in the ECHL and USHL. Knoche and Giles are part of the USA Hockey Officiating Development Program.
Michigan-area hockey this week
Wednesday
▶ Milwaukee at Grand Rapids, 7 (AHL/106.9/1300)
Thursday
▶ Edmonton at Red Wings, 7 (BSD/97.1)
▶ NTDP U18s at Sioux Falls, 8
▶ Michigan Tech at St. Thomas, 8
Friday
▶ Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7 (AHL/106.9/1300)
▶ Stonehill at University of Michigan, 7
▶ Michigan State at Penn State, 7 (Big Ten+/1240)
▶ NTDP U18s at Sioux Falls, 8
▶ Dubuque at NTDP U17s, 7
▶ Western Michigan at Miami (Ohio), 7
▶ Northern Michigan at Lake Superior State, 7
▶ Ferris State at Minnesota State, 8
Saturday
▶ L.A. Kings at Red Wings, 7 (BSD/97.1)
▶ Rockford at Grand Rapids, 7 (AHL/106.9/1300)
▶ Stonehill at University of Michigan, 7
▶ Michigan State at Penn State, 4:30 (Big Ten/1240)
▶ Dubuque at NTDP U17s, 7
▶ Western Michigan at Miami (Ohio), 7
▶ Michigan Tech at St. Thomas, 6
▶ Northern Michigan at Lake Superior State, 6
▶ Ferris State at Minnesota State, 7
Sunday
▶ Red Wings at Toronto, 7 (BSD/97.1)