Oilers surge past Avalanche, clinch playoff berth

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid and Evander Kane each scored twice, helping the Edmonton Oilers clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Place on Friday.

Mattias Ekholm had a goal and an assist, and Stuart Skinner made 21 saves for the Oilers (46-24-5), who scored the final five goals of the game and clinched a berth for a fifth straight season. They moved five points behind the Vancouver Canucks for first place in the Pacific Division and extended their lead to five points on the Vegas Golden Knights for second. Vegas lost 7-4 at the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.

“We really buckled down after a really poor start,” Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl said of the Oilers going 2-9-1 to begin the season. “There's a lot of resiliency and character in this group. It's only one step, of course, [but] it's a step that you need to do to give yourself a chance to win.”

Jonathan Drouin and Ross Colton scored, and Alexandar Georgiev made 40 saves for the Avalanche (48-23-6), who have already clinched a berth and were coming off a 5-2 win at the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. They remained three points behind the Dallas Stars for second in the Central Division.

“We weren’t good enough,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s a tough game to start coming into, getting in late playing the back-to-back end of the road trip. My No. 1 concern was our energy, it looked like we lacked it. And with the lack of energy comes the lack of execution.

“We weren’t smart enough and they outplayed us. They’re a hungry team, they got beat up the other night in Dallas (5-0 loss on Wednesday), we knew we were going to see the best version of them. We may have, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance.”

Corey Perry gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 1:52 of the first period, deflecting a wrist shot from the point by Darnell Nurse that took a bounce over Georgiev’s pad.

Drouin tied it 1-1 at 11:58, taking a pass in the high slot from Nathan MacKinnon and snapping a shot past Skinner’s glove.

Colton put Colorado ahead 2-1 at 15:59, beating Ekholm into the zone along the boards and deking past Oilers forward Adam Henrique in front of the net before beating Skinner to the stick side.

McDavid tied it 2-2 at 17:18 with his 30th goal of the season. He got the puck behind Colorado’s net and banked it in off the skate of Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews on a wraparound.

Ekholm put Edmonton in front 3-2 at 8:55 of the second period, driving to the net with Artturi Lehkonen hanging onto him before the puck bounced off the Avalanche forward’s skate and through the legs of Georgiev.

The Avalanche unsuccessfully challenged for goaltender interference.

“For the last two seconds of that play, I am trying to get my stick toward the puck and I just can’t do it because I have somebody climbing on my back,” Ekholm said. “I am trying to move and make a shot but I can’t get a shot off, so in my opinion I am getting pushed in there.

“I’m not going right at him, I guess I am going on the side, but there was no chance for me to avoid contact at that point. I think the rule stands that way, where you get pushed in or helped in there, it is supposed to stand and it is nice to see that.”

Kane made it 4-2 with two seconds left in the period. He skated to the net and had the rebound of a Ryan McLeod slap shot go in off his leg for his first goal in 22 games dating to Feb. 21.

“It was nice to end the streak tonight. It seemed like that was the only way it was going to go in,” Kane said. “Any time you’re going double digits without scoring it’s never fun, so however it goes in you’ll take it.”

Edmonton outshot Colorado 30-15 through two periods.

McDavid made it 5-2 from in front at 4:05 of the third period on a give-and-go with Evan Bouchard.

Kane scored from a sharp angle at 11:59, banking the puck in off Georgiev for the 6-2 final.

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen left the game with an upper-body injury after taking a hit from Ekholm next to the boards 3:51 into the second.

“Obviously, you guys saw what happened, right? He takes a hit and was unable to continue, so he’ll be under evaluation for a while,” Bednar said. “All I saw was one quick replay.

“He clearly catches him high, he catches his head. My first look at the replay didn’t look like it was intentional, it just kind of caught him wrong.”

NOTES: McDavid became the fourth player in Oilers history to have eight straight 30-goal seasons, joining Jari Kurri (10 from 1980-81 to 1989-90), Wayne Gretzky (nine from 1979-80 to 1987-88) and Glenn Anderson (eight from 1980-81 to 1987-88). … McLeod, Draisaitl, Bouchard and Cody Ceci each had two assists for Edmonton. … The Oilers have a 10-game home point streak (9-0-1) dating to Feb. 26. … MacKinnon (assist) has 46 points (16 goals, 30 assists) in his past 24 games and is second in the NHL with 131 points (48 goals, 83 assists), three ahead of McDavid (128 points; 31 goals, 97 assists). Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov is first with 133 points (43 goals, 90 assists).