McDavid gets 5 points, Oilers cruise past slumping Ducks

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists for the Edmonton Oilers in an 8-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Sunday.

McDavid, who had four assists in a 5-0 win at the Washington Capitals on Friday, has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) during a four-game point streak.

"Obviously it's big, but all it is is two wins, and we need another one on Tuesday (against the Vegas Golden Knights)," McDavid said. "We just have to keep rolling our game over, and that's all there is to it.

"The team game has definitely been simpler. (It's) something that we talked about, and you know I thought guys have done a great job of buying into that. We're a good forechecking team, we really are. And when we use that to our strength, we can make it a half ice game pretty quick. That's something that we need to keep doing."

Zach Hyman had two goals and an assist, Leon Draisaitl and Evander Kane each had a goal and an assist, and Darnell Nurse had three assists for Edmonton (7-12-1), which has won two straight after losing its previous three. Stuart Skinner made 21 saves.

"[McDavid is] the leader of this team,” Nurse said. "We’ve played some really good hockey over the last two games and over stretches before that. We’ve been playing a little more simple and finding ways to get leads and in the last two games. ... Some good signs, a couple of good wins in a row, but we have to keep it going.”

Max Jones scored two goals for Anaheim (9-12-0), which has lost six straight (outscored 30-11). Lukas Dostal allowed six goals on 16 shots before being replaced in the second period by John Gibson, who made eight saves.

“We started good and that was one of our priorities, we just blew coverages,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said. “They’ve got, obviously, a fast team and we let them get behind us, and you can’t do that against the Edmonton Oilers.

“It’s terrible to be on the losing side of an 8-2 game, but talking to (general manager) Pat Verbeek afterwards, a lot of our guys are not used to seeing McDavid or Draisaitl, and the team’s fast, so we’ll learn from it. We’re on a bit of a losing streak. We’ve got to figure out a way to get out of it.”

Jones gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead at 3:32 of the first period, scoring blocker side near the left post off a cross-ice pass from Brett Leason on a rush.

Kane tied it 1-1 at 4:36, burying a one-timer from the right face-off dot following a turnover by the Ducks in the neutral zone. Connor Brown had the primary assist on the play, his first point in 14 games with the Oilers.

Jones put Anaheim back in front 2-1 at 6:10 when he won a battle with Oilers defenseman Vincent Desharnais in the slot, turned and scored past Skinner's left pad.

“It’s just funny the way the game works sometimes. There were a lot of goals right off the bat there, momentum switching both ways, and I think that’s something you’ve kind of got to stay on top of when you get in games like that and be resilient,” Jones said. “Obviously, when you lose a game like that it’s definitely frustrating, but you’ve just got to move on and try to figure it out.”

McDavid tied it 2-2 at 9:29 with a shot blocker side from the right circle on a 3-on-1.

“They go up 2-1 again and we find a way to get back into the game. That is something we have kind of been missing throughout the year, so it was good to see a little bit of resilience there,” McDavid said. “Confidence is obviously a big part of it. I think our whole team is playing better and I think that is why you are starting to see guys have success.

“It is not just a light switch that one or two guys can just turn on, it takes a whole group and I thought our group has been playing better of late and you are starting to see guys have a little bit of success. And a little bit too is it just going in. Guys are making plays and it is just going in.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave Edmonton a 3-2 lead at 12:37, receiving a stretch pass from Nurse and scoring blocker side on a breakaway.

"I thought we stuck with it well early and just kept rolling," Nugent-Hopkins said. "They scored, we scored, they scored, we scored, and I mean, that's what you have to do sometimes. You're not going to start the way you want to, but you have to be able to stay in it, and we just kind of got rolling from that."

Hyman made it 4-2 at 17:50 of the first with a one-timer from below the left circle off a pass from McDavid.

James Hamblin pushed it to 5-2 at 5:01 of the second period. His initial shot was blocked by Ilya Lyubushkin, but the rebound deflected back to Hamblin, who quickly scored from the left circle.

Hyman scored his second of the game with a backhand on a breakaway to make it 6-2 at 7:20.

Draisaitl extended the lead to 7-2 at 7:11 of the third period, scoring with a one-timer from the right circle on a power play.

Mattias Ekholm then scored his own power-play goal with a one-timer from the top of the right circle at 15:50 for the 8-2 final.

"I thought they played a lot more responsible, a lot more direct hockey," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. "The first five or probably 10 or 15 minutes for sure was a little sloppy, I thought we were happy with just exchanging chances. Most often we can win a lot of games by doing that because you exchange chances and your skill is probably going to finish more chances than the opposition's chances. I think in the long run when you’re playing good teams that don’t exchange chances you are running into trouble, and something we don’t want to get into is playing that type of hockey. I thought they did a heck of a job the last 50 minutes. We gave up 11 shot in the last 50 minutes of hockey, so I think they were playing pretty responsible from then."

NOTES: It was McDavid's ninth career five-point game, passing Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the most among active players. ... Hyman has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a three-game multipoint streak. ... Draisaitl has seven points (three goals, four assists) during a four-game point streak. ... Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler was minus-5 in 24:06 of ice time.