Kane's four points help Oilers defeat Avalanche, clinch playoff berth

EDMONTON -- Evander Kane scored a hat trick and had an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 6-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Rogers Place on Friday.

Connor McDavid had three assists, Kailer Yamamoto and Kris Russell each had a goal and assist, and Mike Smith made 34 saves for the Oilers (46-26-6), who have won four straight.
Edmonton is four points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for second in the Pacific Division.
"It was a good team win, it's great to clinch the playoffs here at home," Kane said. "I thought in the first period we came in a little flat, we didn't do what we talked about heading into the game, but we got off to a strong start in the second and carried the momentum all the way through."
Valeri Nichushkin scored two goals and Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves for the Avalanche (55-17-6), who have lost three straight. The Central Division champions have clinched first in the Western Conference and are two points behind the Florida Panthers for No. 1 in the NHL.
"Yeah, it's definitely concerning, we're shooting ourselves in the foot a lot of the time," Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. "I feel like a lot of those goals are preventable -- most of them -- I can think of three. It doesn't matter who's in the lineup, we can be good with the puck, all of us are NHL-caliber players, we can make smart decisions. Regardless of the guys we're missing and regardless of the standings, we're trying to get better, and we need to definitely improve."

Nichushkin gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 8:29 of the first period. He scored on a one-timer off a pass from Bowen Byram on a 3-on-1.
Kane tied it 1-1 at 2:41 of the second period on a wraparound.
Evan Bouchard put the Oilers in front 2-1 at 4:03. He knocked in his own rebound out of the air after his initial attempt redirected back toward the crease off the end boards and the top of the net.
"We obviously didn't get off to the start that we wanted and came out in the second and did a lot of good things," McDavid said. "Kane had some real nice goals, some big goals for our group. He was great."
Nichushkin scored 15 seconds later to tie it 2-2 on a shot from the right face-off circle, but Kane made it 3-2 at 8:19 when he converted a cross-ice pass from Duncan Keith.
"It was a great heads up play by [Keith]," Kane said. "I kind of wheeled around the back of the net, and he could have taken a shot, he could have done a lot of different things there, but he made a real cerebral play and was able to find me on the back side."

Kane scored his third goal at 14:20 to make it 4-2. He took a pass from McDavid, stepped around Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson and managed to squeeze a shot in past Kuemper.
It was Kane's fourth NHL hat trick and first with the Oilers. He signed with Edmonton Jan. 27 after being released by the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 9.
"I'm so happy for Evander, it's been an interesting year for him," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "I'm glad that he wanted to come to Edmonton and be part of the Oilers organization and he's a big reason why we're where we're at right now. To see him have a game like that when we clinch a playoff spot, he's driven to show that type of play in a playoff series."
Yamamoto scored on a backhand at 10:45 of the third period to make it 5-2. McDavid, whose assist was his third of the game, leads the NHL with 116 points (43 goals, 73 assists).
MacKinnon scored at 18:20 with Kuemper on the bench for an extra attacker to cut it to 5-3.
Russell shot into an empty net at 18:47 for the 6-3 final.
"I thought we competed real hard, it was a physical game," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "I didn't love our first few minutes of that game and then I thought we really started to play. And a couple of turnovers and I'd say a handful or just over a handful of execution problems cost us that game."
NOTES: Avalanche backup goalie Pavel Francouz was hit by a puck while sitting on the bench a few seconds into the game and had to go to the locker room. It prompted the emergency backup goalie Matt Berlin of the University of Alberta to dress for the Avalanche. "[Francouz] seems to be doing OK right now but we'll just see what he feels like in the morning," Bednar said. "He took a puck right to the face, right by his eye. So right now everything looks OK but we'll see what tomorrow brings." … Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse left the game at 11:55 of the second period with a lower-body injury after getting tied up in front of the Oilers net with Avalanche forward J.T. Compher. Woodcroft did not have an update on Nurse's status … Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen missed his second game with an illness. … Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi also sat out with an illness.