Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist and Connor McDavid added a goal and three assists as the Edmonton Oilers continued their resurgence under coach Ken Hitchcock with a 7-2 victory Friday night against the visiting Minnesota Wild.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zack Kassian, Alex Chiasson and Darnell Nurse also scored for the Oilers, who have won five of their past six games and are 6-2-1 since Hitchcock was hired Nov. 20 to replace Todd McLellan. Goaltender Cam Talbot made 31 saves.
Marcus Foligno and Nino Niederreiter scored for the Wild, who wrapped up a three-game Western Canada trip. Minnesota has lost five of its past six games, the only win in that span coming Tuesday in Vancouver.
Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk allowed three goals on six shots in the opening 8:42 before being replaced by Alex Stalock, who made 22 saves.
Draisaitl opened the scoring at 4:14 of the first, taking a pass from McDavid on a three-on-two break and wristing a shot over Dubnyk's shoulder from the bottom of the left faceoff circle.
A mistake by Dubnyk led to the second Edmonton goal at 7:44. The Oilers chipped the puck into the offensive zone, right on net. Dubnyk failed to handle the puck cleanly and Nugent-Hopkins jumped on the rebound and poked it into the net.
McDavid made it 3-0 at 8:42, taking the puck off the sideboards, faking a shot to get past a defender and then unleashing a shot from between the top of the faceoff circles that found the upper corner of the net.
Foligno got the Wild on the board at 10:38.
After a scoreless second period, Kassian made it 4-1 at 1:51 of the third.
Niederreiter closed the gap to two by redirecting a shot by Zach Parise past Talbot at 7:32.
But Draisaitl, Chiasson and Nurse added goals in the final 9:26 for the final margin.
Minnesota played without forward Mikko Koivu, who sustained a knee injury Thursday in a 2-0 loss at Calgary.
--Field Level Media
Minnesota | Edmonton | |
Marcus Foligno 1 | Points | Connor McDavid 4 |
Marcus Foligno 1 | Goals | Leon Draisaitl 2 |
J.T. Brown 1 | Assists | Connor McDavid 3 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Alex Stalock .846 | Save Percentage | Cam Talbot .939 |
Alex Stalock 22 | Saves | Cam Talbot 31 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Minnesota | 33 | 2 | 0-2 | 1-1 | 2 | 24 |
Edmonton | 32 | 7 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 4 | 33 |