Leon Draisaitl scored twice for the second consecutive game, leading the host Edmonton Oilers to a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
Connor McDavid had a goal to extend his season-opening points streak to 19 games. However, his 18-game assist streak — tied for the second longest in NHL history behind only Wayne Gretzky’s 23-game run in 1990-91 — ended.
McDavid leads the league in assists (37) and points (48).
Devon Levi made 28 saves as he made up for the Oilers’ sometimes sloppy play. He ran his record to 8-1-0, and Edmonton improved to 5-1-1 in the past seven games.
Jaroslav Chmelar got the goal for the Rangers, who had their three-game winning streak snapped. Dylan Garand stopped 17 shots.
McDavid capitalized on Garand’s giveaway to hand the Oilers a 1-0 lead 6:42 into the game. The New York goalie had the puck behind the net, but his pass went off the side of the net and right to McDavid, who was standing on the goal line in the right corner. McDavid then took the puck to the crease and stuffed it into the empty net before Garand could get back into position.
Draisaitl doubled the lead 2:59 into the second period. He snapped a shot past Garand from the high slot area.
New York coach Mike Sullivan challenged that there was goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld, which resulted in the Rangers receiving a delay-of-game penalty. Before that penalty was over, New York defenseman Braden Schneider cleared the puck over the glass for another delay-of-game penalty and a 21-second Edmonton two-man advantage.
The Rangers killed the two-man deficit and just as Chmelar, who was serving the first penalty, was exiting the penalty box, he took a pass from Mika Zibanejad in the neutral zone for a breakaway and scored his first career short-handed goal to make it 2-1. It was also his second goal in two games.
Draisaitl added an empty-net, short-handed goal at 18:47 of the third period, increasing his NHL-leading goal total to 18.
–Field Level Media
