Leon Draisaitl became the first German-born player to reach 1,000 points by recording the first of his four assists Tuesday, lifting the visiting Edmonton Oilers to a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Edmonton captain Connor McDavid collected two goals and two assists and Zach Hyman and defenseman Evan Bouchard had one of each. Rookie Matt Savoie and Vasily Podkolzin also tallied as the Oilers improved to 5-1-1 in their last seven games.
Edmonton’s Tristan Jarry got the better of Pittsburgh’s Stuart Skinner in a battle of goaltenders that were traded for another on Friday. Jarry made 26 saves, while Skinner — who still was sporting his Oilers mask — yielded five goals on 22 shots.
Bryan Rust scored a goal in his fourth straight game and defenseman Erik Karlsson and Tommy Novak each had a goal and an assist for the reeling Penguins, who have lost six in a row (0-2-4).
Captain Sidney Crosby notched an assist for his 1,722nd point to move within one point of Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux for the franchise record.
Draisaitl sent a cross-slot feed to McDavid, who quickly feathered a pass in front that Hyman tapped home on a power play to open the scoring with 8:22 remaining in the first period. Hyman’s goal was his eighth of the season and sixth in his last four games.
McDavid doubled the advantage 14 seconds later after skating around Pittsburgh defenseman Parker Wotherspoon before tucking the puck past Skinner. McDavid added his 20th goal of the season by scoring into an empty net to give Edmonton a 6-3 lead.
Novak trimmed the Oilers’ advantage to 2-1 with 45 seconds left in the first period before Savoie regained the two-goal edge at 4:35 of the second with a sharp wrist shot from the left circle.
Karlsson trimmed the deficit to 3-2 under two minutes later before Bouchard’s wrist shot from the high slot beat Skinner at 9:36 of the second period.
Draisaitl picked up his third assist of the contest on that goal and his fourth on Podkolzin’s tally in the third period to increase his point total to 1,003 (416 goals, 587 assists) in 824 games since being selected by the Oilers with the third overall pick of the 2014 NHL Draft.
–Field Level Media
