McDavid pushes season-opening point streak to 15 in Oilers' win against Rangers

NEW YORK -- Connor McDavid had a record-setting night, and the Edmonton Oilers won their third straight game, 4-1 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

McDavid extended his NHL-record season-opening assist streak to 15 games and became the fastest player in League history to 30 assists, breaking Wayne Gretzky's record of 16 games in 1984-85.

He also set an Oilers' record with his eighth opening-minute goal of his career, passing Mark Messier. 

It was his 418th goal, moving him past Glenn Anderson and into sole possession of fourth place on the Oilers' all-time goal scoring list behind Gretzky (583), Jari Kurri (474) and Leon Draisaitl (446).

"You know what, it's actually been really fun to have things so new here in Edmonton," McDavid said when asked if he has time to appreciate what he's doing this season. "It's been really fun to just dive in and just have to kind of sink your teeth into a new system, a new way of playing, and it's kind of left my own game secondary. 

"Just trying to take care of the things that I need to do within the system. Those things have been happening and it's kind of been a by-product of everyone playing well. When the team is winning games, individual stuff happens like that and I've definitely been the benefactor of some great team play."

Evan Bouchard scored and had two assists to give him 26 points. He is the fourth defenseman in NHL history to have at least 25 points through the first 15 games of a season, joining Bobby Orr (30 in 1974-75, 25 in 1969-70), Al MacInnis (27 in 1990-91) and Denis Potvin (25 in 1975-76).

Oilers goalie Matt Tomkins made 27 saves in his first NHL game since April 17, 2024, and the seventh of his career. Colton Dach had his first multigoal game in the NHL and Leon Draisaitl added two assists.

The Oilers (11-2-2) improved to 7-0-0 on the road, including a 4-0 win against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Saturday.

"There's nothing better than winning on the road," McDavid said. "Honestly, our team loves it. Coming into a tough building on a back-to-back against a rested team, these are the wins that you thrive in and you want to dig in and find a way to get. Tonight was a big one."

Pavel Dorofeyev scored and Dylan Garand made 21 saves, but the Rangers (7-7-1) lost their fourth straight game. 

New York has allowed the first goal in each of its four straight losses, including going down by multiple goals in the first period of the past three.

"The first goal is a tough one," Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. "McDavid is a unique player. He ramps up speed like that, it's hard to stop. But other than that, I thought for the most part, I don't feel like the start was the reason. The start was scoreboard-wise, but I don't necessarily agree that it was a lack of being ready when the puck drops. I don't feel like that was the case tonight."

McDavid gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead 50 seconds into the game when he took a short pass from Bouchard in the defensive zone, banked it off the wall to himself in the neutral zone, blew right past Rangers defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in the offensive zone and scored on Garand.

"That's your job as a leader to get us started on time," Oilers coach Mike Babcock said. "He started on time and obviously set us up for success."

Dach extended the lead to 2-0 at 6:19. Bouchard slipped a high to low pass to Dach in between the hash marks, and he then moved into the left face-off circle and scored with a low wrist shot under Garand's right pad.

"I thought that second goal was awful," Garand said. "Disappointing. It's a tough start to the game. You can't spot those guys two goals. Disappointing. I feel like I let the team down a little bit with my start tonight."

Bouchard had a would-be goal taken away for goaltender interference at 8:53.

He then scored a power-play goal at 9:49 of the second period, blasting a shot from the point past Garand to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead. 

McDavid had the secondary assist on Bouchard's goal. He is the eighth different player in NHL history with an assist streak of at least 15 games at any point during a season.

Dorofeyev scored at 13:22 to cut it to 3-1. He collected the rebound from Scott Morrow's shot, slid the puck under Oilers defenseman Connor Murphy in the slot and scored on his forehand.

New York killed an Oilers' 5-on-3 for 1:28 midway through the third period to keep it at 3-1, but Dach scored into the empty net at 19:20 for the 4-1 final.

Tomkins stopped the last 10 shots he faced after giving up the goal to Dorofeyev, including all eight in the third period for his fourth career NHL win.

The Edmonton native played full time in the American Hockey League the past two seasons, for Syracuse in 2024-25 and Bakersfield last season. Since 2017-18, Tomkins has bounced around in the ECHL, AHL, Swedish Hockey League and NHL.

"It's been a long road for sure," Tomkins said. "It's taken me a lot of different places. To start there in Indy (ECHL) and end up here today, it's been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed every step. It's tough getting into this League and getting into games and having the opportunity to play. It's nice to reflect back at all the steps along the way and just how fun it's been."

NOTES: McDavid is the second player in NHL history to have multiple point streaks of at least 15 games to start a season. He had a 17-game streak to start the 2021-22 season. Gretzky did it four times, with his longest being his NHL record 51-game point streak to start the 1983-84 season. … McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard have combined for 93 points this season, the most by three teammates through 15 games in the past 30 years (since 1996-97). … Scott Morrow had an assist in his season debut. He was playing for defenseman Sean Durzi, who missed his first game of the season with an undisclosed injury. ... Dorofeyev's goal ended a scoreless streak of 159:39 for the Oilers going back to the third period of Monday's 4-3 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings. In between, the Oilers posted consecutive 4-0 shutouts of the Calgary Flames and Islanders with Tristan Jarry in goal for both games.