McDavid extends point streak to 11, Oilers cruise past Penguins

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 11 games, and the Edmonton Oilers cruised to a 6-1 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Rogers Place on Sunday.

McDavid has 26 points (two goals, 24 assists) during his streak. He also extended his home point streak to 25 games (14 goals, 45 assists).

Zach Hyman scored two goals, Ryan McLeod had a goal and an assist, and Leon Draisaitl had three assists for the Oilers (37-20-2), who were coming off a 2-1 win at the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. Calvin Pickard made 22 saves.

“I thought we played well considering the back-to-back with some travel,” said Edmonton defenseman Brett Kulak, who had two assists. “We had the benefit of getting in at a decent time yesterday, but still, they’re hard. You get tired, especially at this point in the season, but it was nice to see the start we had.

“And again, goaltending was really good, and that’s always a big part of the team. So, it was a good night for us."

Evgeni Malkin scored, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 31 saves for the Penguins (27-24-8), who have lost three in a row, including 4-3 at the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

“I think we had a tough loss (in Calgary), and I don't know if we did a good enough job of just moving by it,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “I think that you got to find a way even when it's one like that, to move by it.

“We probably didn't do a good enough job.”

Hyman put Edmonton ahead 1-0 at 14:07 of the first period, scoring with his backhand on the rebound of McDavid's shot on a 2-on-1.

“I think we took advantage of a team that had been travelling, played late last night. Yeah, we had a little travel, too, but they’re coming at the end of a road trip, and I thought we took advantage of it,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We were up one after the first period, but we really built our game.

“I thought we were strong from the start. We didn’t take any steps back and were able to capitalize on those chances in the second period.”

Corey Perry made it 2-0 at 2:57 of the second period, tapping in a backdoor pass from McLeod on a 3-on-1.

Hyman pushed it to 3-0 at 5:55 off a set face-off play. Draisaitl won the puck back to Evan Bouchard and skated to the right hash marks, where he took a return pass and quickly fed Hyman, who chipped the puck over Nedeljkovic's right pad.

Hyman has scored 10 goals in his past eight games and has 42 on the season, which is tied with Sam Reinhart of the Florida Panthers for second in the NHL.

Penguins forward Jansen Harkins had a chance to cut into the lead at 17:05, but he couldn't convert on his penalty shot.

“It was a good game,” Pickard said. “We defended really well all night. Right from the puck drop we had a good kill early in the game and really took control.

“We scored in the first and didn’t look back.”

McLeod then made it 4-0 at 18:47 of the second, banking in a shot off Nedeljkovic’s mask from below the left circle.

Cody Ceci scored 23 seconds later to make it 5-0. He received a pass from Warren Foegele from behind the net and shot far side from the right face-off dot.

“I thought our execution was really noticeable tonight,” Foegele said. “Making clean passes and making the right decisions at the right time. Everyone was contributing, and hopefully we can build off of that.”

McDavid extended it to 6-0 at 6:03 of the third period, burying the rebound of Draisaitl's shot into an open net.

“I thought we came to play. Four lines, 60 (minutes), [Pickard] was outstanding when we needed him,” Draisaitl said. “It was a really good effort by us. You need those games every once in a while, but we put a lot of work into creating a game like that. It doesn’t just happen. We put a lot of work into it and did the little things right. Every once in a while a game like that is nice.”

Malkin made it 6-1 at 12:23, scoring from near the right post after the puck jumped over the net.

“It was a tough one today, and not making excuses, we had some travel issues and we didn't get in until 3:30, 4 a.m. here,” Nedeljkovic said. “We played a late game last night, so it was tough and they’re a really tough team as well. They play really fast and they played like a team that had some energy and some jump, and we didn’t.”

NOTES: Draisaitl has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in his past six games. … McLeod's goal was his first since Jan. 20 (17 games). ... Foegele has 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists) this season, an NHL career high.