McDavid's point streak ends at 15, Oilers lose to Canadiens

MONTREAL --Connor McDavid's point streak ended at 15 games, and the Edmonton Oilers' point streak ended at 11 in a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Sunday.

The Oilers captain, who leads the NHL with 97 points (42 goals, 55 assists) in 54 games, was minus-3. He had 25 points (10 goals, 15 assists) during the run.
McDavid also had an NHL career-high 17-game point streak on the road end.
"Obviously, he's dangerous every single time he touches the puck," Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. "And just the way he's been playing as of late, he's been really impressive with the point totals that he's been putting up, so to have a good game against him is a boost to the whole team."

Alex Belzile (31 years, 165 days) became the oldest player to score his first NHL goal for Montreal since 1926, Jordan Harris scored twice for the first time in the NHL, and Jake Allen made 29 saves for the Canadiens (22-27-4), who were coming off a 4-3 overtime win against the New York Islanders on Saturday.
"They play so fast and dangerous offensively, and it's really apparent right off the start that they like to get going in transition," Harris said. "That was our main focus coming into the game, to limit their chances and limit our turnovers to allow them to go the other way, so kudos to the whole back end, and all of our forwards played great defensively, blocking shots, and 'Jakey' was outstanding."
Leon Draisaitl scored, and Stuart Skinner made 24 saves for Edmonton (30-19-5), which was 9-0-2 during its point streak.
"I thought both teams got what they deserved tonight," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "Montreal played a very good game, credit to them. And I didn't think we were very sharp at all, so we got what we deserved."

Rafael Harvey-Pinard put the Canadiens ahead 4-2 with a power-play goal at 18:41 of the second period. He got to the front of the net and deflected Mike Matheson's slap shot from the point.
Harris pushed it to 5-2 at 2:58 of the third, and Christian Dvorak scored short-handed at 9:12 for the 6-2 final.
Belzile, who was playing in his 20th NHL game, gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 8:14 of the first period. He is the seventh-oldest player to score his first NHL goal for the Canadiens, and the oldest since Hockey Hall of Famer Herb Gardiner (35 years, 35 days) on Dec. 7, 1926.
"If we would have lost, the moment would be bittersweet," Belzile said. "But we faced a really good challenge tonight, and even yesterday with the comeback, that shows character. In the NHL, if you play as a unit of 18 plus the goalie, there is no easy game, and teams win over sometimes an individual, so we had a really good game."

Harris' first goal gave Montreal a 2-0 lead at 3:54 of the second.
Josh Anderson then made it 3-0 during a power play at 8:23 before Draisaitl cut it to 3-1 at 12:22 with his own power-play goal. It was also Draisaitl's 30th goal of the season.
Evander Kane pulled Edmonton to within 3-2 at 14:59.
"We don't have any excuses, we've just got to be ready," Oilers defenseman Vincent Desharnais said. "They were ready. They were in our faces, they blocked shots, we didn't. They just played better. "
NOTES:Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj left with an upper-body injury following a fight with Desharnais at 9:57 of the second. … Belzile has five points (one goal, four assists) in seven games this season. He had 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists) in 31 games for Laval of the American Hockey League. … Draisaitl has scored at least 30 goals in five straight seasons.