GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Penguins 0

PITTSBURGH, PA – It's still a shutout to us.

Goaltender Calvin Pickard was perfect with 41 saves, while Connor McDavid, Darnell Nurse and Mattias Ekholm each had multi-point afternoons for the Oilers to complete the season sweep of the Penguins in a 4-0 combined shutout victory on Sunday at PPG Paints Arena.

Pickard had to settle for Edmonton's first combined team shutout since Jan. 8, 1985 in a 4-0 win over the Quebec Nordiques after the 31-year-old was forced into concussion protocol near the end of the second period, leading to Stuart Skinner appearing for only 1:16 and facing no shots before the intermission.

"I think we did a lot of good things," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "The goalscoring, especially early on in the game, we were able to get that lead. It's a lot easier game to play when we have that, but also, Picks played extremely well making some huge saves and he really earned that shutout.

"Unfortunately, it's not his shutout just because he got pulled for the spotter for two minutes, but in our minds, it's definitely his shutout."

McDavid managed a goal and two assists after having his 14-game point streak come to an end in Saturday's loss to Buffalo, scoring inside the game's opening two minutes with his 24th of the season.

Ekholm found the back of the net in the first period for his first goal in 40 games to go along with a helper in the first period, helping build the Blue & Orange a two-goal lead through 20 minutes that wouldn't be dented en route to wrapping up their four-game road trip with a record of 2-1-1.

"Obviously we don't love the two losses there, but we've played a lot of hockey lately," McDavid said. "That's no excuse, but six games in nine days with travel coast-to-coast, it's been a grind here. We'll take the two points here, we'll take five-of-eight points on the road trip, and we'll take a little rest at home and get ready to go next week."

Darnell Nurse delivered two goals in the third period to secure Edmonton the series sweep over Pittsburgh for the third straight season, raising their record over their last six meetings to a perfect 6-0-0 where they've outscored the Penguins 33-9 in those matchups.

The Oilers improve their overall record to 31-29-3 heading into a matchup with the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night at Rogers Place.

"It's a challenge the whole year when you lose to not let snowball," Nurse said. "I think for us, to come out and grab it and put together four wins over the last six games with a pretty condensed schedule, it's a good sign for a group that's got to continue."

FIRST PERIOD

For the second straight day, the Oilers jumped out to an early advantage and it was Connor McDavid this time making the most of a careless pass from Penguins defenceman Kris Letang just over one minute into regulation.

The Oilers captain had his 14-game point streak snapped in Saturday's shootout loss in Buffalo, but he was back picking up the points when he intercepted Letang's wayward cross-ice pass in the Penguins' zone before he walked in uncontested and scored his 24th goal of the season on a wrist shot past netminder Tristan Jarry at 18:52 of the opening period.

McDavid has been putting in the work on his shot during recent practices, and his first-period tally on Sunday marked his third goal in the last 17 games despite registering 30 assists in that time.

Defenceman Mattias Ekholm hadn't scored since Dec. 6 – a stretch of 40 games for the Swede dating back to a 6-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes – but he doubled the lead on a one-timer almost nine minutes into the opening period that went in off the leg of John Ludvig, who tried to make the block in front of Jarry.

McDavid added an assist along with Evan Bouchard, making it a multi-point game for McDavid and 103 points on the season by the time the game was over. The Oilers have now outscored the Penguins 33-9 over their last six meetings that includes Sunday afternoon's win

Edmonton nearly gave themselves a three-goal lead before the first intermission when McDavid ran a route through the slot before sending a pass across the crease to Hyman, but his linemate couldn't connect on the opportunity before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins nearly batted one out of mid-air before the buzzer.

SECOND PERIOD

Edmonton's penalty kill and their goals against on Sunday afternoon were perfect through 40 minutes thanks to the combined strength of their goaltender Calvin Pickard and their resilient short-handed contributors.

Pickard made 13 saves in the second period, while the Oilers penalty kill went 4-for-4 over the first two frames from plenty of sacrifice from defencemen and forwards laying out to take away passing lanes and getting in front of shots to make some crucial blocks against big names liek Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang.

"A lot of us in here grew up looking up to and watching them play in huge moments," Nurse said. "It was great for us to put together that team effort and Picks was huge for us."

Warren Foegele was forced into his first career fight after John Ludvig took exception to his accidental high stick on Erik Karlsson along the halfboards in Piuttsburgh's end, leading to the Penguins blueliner earning an instigator, a five-minor fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct to lessen the impact from Foegele's double-minor for high-sticking.

In the middle frame's final five minutes, the Penguins hit a post on their best sequence of the game before Vincent Desharnais and Adam Henrique delivered vital blocks on back-to-back follow-up chances from Lars Eller, keeping it 2-0 with 3:45 left in the period.

Pickard was taken out by Bryan Rust in the final three minutes on a hard rush to the net by the forward, who earned a deserved goaltender interference penalty that sent Pickard to the locker room for a brief spell in concussion protocol, but the netminder would be back after the intermission to continue his strong start with 25 saves through 40 minutes.

"They've got to do what they got to do up top I guess," Pickard said. "A pretty big collision, but yeah, I wasn't thrilled at the time coming out. But luckily, it was at the end of the period so it was only a minute-and-a-half and I got out there for the third."

THIRD PERIOD

Pickard came across the crease to make a terrific left-pad stop on Noel Acciari 2:39 into the final frame, charting the course for the netminder to pick up his sixth career shutout after saving 15 more shots in the third period.

"The guys really respect Calvin, just how hard he works and what he does, and he's a good hockey player," Knoblauch said of his team's netminder. "But when those guys who aren't front and centre with the team all the time have success – and you saw it similar to the shootout in LA when Derek Ryan got the shootout goal – same with Picks when he got the shutout.

When they have that success, guys get excited and they want to share that, and it's a good sign of a good team."

That wasn't before Darnell Nurse delivered two goals in the back half of the final frame, scoring his seventh of the season on a wicked release from the left circle before utilizing a screen set by Corey Perry five minutes later to notch his second goal of the contest and secure the Oilers the season sweep of the Penguins for the third year running.

"I think just find a way to get to those spots and guys making good plays, so we've got to capitalize on those," Nurse said. "It's good, but like I said, it's got to continue here. There are a lot of big hockey games coming up here over the stretch and we're getting ready for the end of this year."

The Oilers had a late three-on-one to try and get Nurse his hat trick, but after Connor Brown passed off the blueliner with seconds to spare, Jarry came across to deny him and the Oilers the first hat-trick from a blueliner since Marc-Andre Bergeron in 2006, but the win for Edmonton and the combined shutout for Pickard and Skinner was sealed in the 4-0 victory.

PARTING WORDS

Pickard on the shared shutout:

"Yeah, it was great. Skins got a piece of it too. He told me there was a two-on-one or something when he was in there, so that would have been devastating. But no, it was good. As a backup goalie, it's kind of a shock in that situation. But luckily, like I said, it was at the end of the period. It was only a minute and I did the test quickly after the second period and got back out there."

"I haven't done that before. I've been a part of a double goalie pull, but not injury-related. That wasn't a good night either, but no, it was definitely a first."

Pickard on being called "one of the most popular players in the NHL" by his teammates for how many people around the League know him:

"Well, I've played on a lot of teams – both NHL and American League – so I've definitely crossed paths with a lot of people. But I take pride in being a team-first guy and obviously, playing on a lot of teams helps. But this game's been good to me and there's a lot of good people I've met along the way."