Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist, both in the third period, as the Edmonton Oilers rallied for a 4-1 victory against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.
Kyle Brodziak, Zack Kassian and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who had lost three of their previous four games. Goaltender Mikko Koskinen, who was pulled Tuesday in a 7-2 loss in St. Louis, made 18 saves, and Leon Draisaitl assisted on all three Edmonton goals in the final period as the Oilers broke a 1-1 tie.
David Savard scored the lone goal for the Blue Jackets, who have lost three straight (0-2-1) and dropped behind Montreal, a 4-0 winner at home against the New York Islanders, for the Eastern Conference's second and final wild-card playoff berth. Columbus trails the Canadiens by a point with eight games remaining in the regular season.
The Blue Jackets' Joonas Korpisalo, starting in net because Sergei Bobrovsky was scratched with an undisclosed injury, stopped 18 of 22 shots.
McDavid's two points gave him 107 this season (37 goals, 70 assists), one shy of his career high set last season.
Savard opened the scoring at 11:35 of the second period, tipping a pass from Markus Nutivaara past Koskinen.
The Oilers tied it less than two minutes later as rookie Joseph Gambardella pried the puck off the side boards and backhanded a pass to Brodziak, who beat Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. That gave Gambardella his first NHL point in his eighth career game.
The Oilers wasted little time taking over in the third period. Kassian took a pass from McDavid on a three-on-one rush and converted from the left faceoff circle just 45 seconds into the final period to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead.
McDavid scored at 14:02 off a pass from Draisaitl on a two-on-one break to make it 3-1, and Nugent-Hopkins tallied on the power play at 16:15 to cap the scoring. Draisaitl's assist on McDavid's goal gave him 300 career points.
--Field Level Media
Columbus | Edmonton | |
David Savard 1 | Points | Leon Draisaitl 3 |
David Savard 1 | Goals | Connor McDavid 1 |
Ryan Dzingel 1 | Assists | Leon Draisaitl 3 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Joonas Korpisalo .818 | Save Percentage | Mikko Koskinen .950 |
Joonas Korpisalo 18 | Saves | Mikko Koskinen 19 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Columbus | 20 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2 | 25 |
Edmonton | 22 | 4 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 30 |