McDavid put the Oilers up 1-0 at 6:42 of the first period. New York goalie Dylan Garand went to play the puck behind his net, but his attempted pass bounced off the back of the cage, and McDavid pounced on it for an easy goal at the right post.
“It was an interesting game where we did a ton of good things, then I'd go, 'What just happened there?'" Edmonton coach Mike Babcock said. “What I like the best is this: we have to find a way to win every night. That's our job. We scored enough goals, then we checked. I liked how we did that. They've got good players and they came at us. They didn't play their fourth line much and neither did we.
"I thought our guys had good crowbars, they won the 50-50s in the third period and (Leon) Draisaitl was a big part of that."
Draisaitl scored twice for the second straight game for the Oilers (13-3-3), who have won two of their past three games. Devon Levi made 28 saves.
“I think he’s the main reason that we won the game,” Draisaitl said of Levi, who improved to 8-1-0 this season. “I don’t think we were terrible, probably not our best, but he made the right saves at the right time. A couple of really, really big ones. He’s been incredible for us.”
Jaroslav Chmelar scored the lone goal for the Rangers (10-8-1), who had won three in a row. Garand made 17 saves.
“I loved our game, I thought we played hard, I thought we competed, I thought we controlled a lot of play, there was so much to like. We generated a lot of scoring chances, we had four or five 2-on-1 opportunities,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “For whatever reason, it was a struggle to put the puck in the net tonight. Give their goalie credit, he made some big saves.
“It was physical, they defend hard, we were playing hard. From that standpoint, you had to fight for your ice. I thought we did a pretty good job limiting their opportunities. McDavid and Draisaitl are two of the very best players in the game and they’re hard to contain. I thought our guys did a really good job competing against that line in particular. And it was one of those nights where you had to fight for every inch out there.”
Draisaitl made it 2-0 at 2:59 of the second period. After Vasily Podkolzin mishandled a slap-pass to the slot from Mattias Ekholm, Draisaitl picked up the bouncing puck and put a wrist shot through the legs of Garand. The Rangers challenged for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld after a video review.
“I thought the goals that they scored were kind of fluky goals,” New York captain J.T. Miller said. “We outplayed them today and we deserved a better fate. Their goalie played outstanding. I thought everybody, to a man, played hard. We were blocking shots, defending hard. I thought we did a good job against their star players, it just wasn’t our night, unfortunately.
“We played to our identity. It’s a hard building to come in and play in, especially with the year they’re having. The penalty kill did a good job, we need to bear down and score some goals.”
