McDavid, Draisaitl each extend point streaks, Oilers top Utah

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each extended their point streaks to 12 games for the Edmonton Oilers, who won 4-1 against the Utah Hockey Club at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

Mattias Ekholm had a goal and an assist, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Troy Stecher and Draisaitl scored, and Stuart Skinner made 26 saves for the Oilers (22-12-3), who had lost their previous two games (0-1-1). McDavid and Connor Brown each had a pair of assists.

"I feel good. I kind of feel back to where I was pre-injury,” said Brown, who was still recovering from knee surgery upon arriving in Edmonton ahead of last season. “From last year’s trade deadline on, I think I’ve taken a few steps forward offensively.

“I’m feeling good. I love playing in this city in front of these fans and on this team. As a group we are just trying to take steps forward.”

With his first assist of the game, McDavid moved past Mark Messier (1,034 points) for third on the Oilers all-time scoring list. With 1,036 points, he trails just Wayne Gretzky (1,669) and Jari Kurri (1,043) in franchise history. During his 12-game point streak, McDavid has 23 points (three goals, 20 assists), including nine assists in the past five games.

“You look at our record and where we are in the standings, and two big, big reasons are Connor and Leon. How well they’ve played at both ends of the rink and then also producing offensively every single night,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “Very rarely are they held off the scoresheet, and you have success when your best players are your best players. And those two are our best players.

“Very, very few times they’re not, so it helps everyone else. Especially me.”

Jack McBain scored, and Jaxson Stauber made 34 saves for Utah (16-15-6), which lost its fifth in a row (0-4-1).

“I liked our mindset in the game. I think we went to play the right way,” said Utah coach Andre Tourigny. “We defended with a lot of pride, we were resilient all night long.

“Obviously, I don’t think we had the energy and the wheels to generate a lot of offense, but I loved the fight in our guys a lot.”

Ekholm put Edmonton ahead 1-0 at 4:26 of the first period, as Vasily Podkolzin picked up the rebound on a shot by Evan Bouchard, and sent it back out to the top of the left circle for Ekholm, who wristed a shot high past Stauber’s blocker.

McBain tied it 1-1 at the six-minute mark, getting sent in on a partial breakaway on a pass from Dylan Guenther, flipping it to his forehand and shooting far side past Skinner’s right pad.

The Oilers went ahead 2-1 at 4:53 of the second period after a giveaway on a clearing attempt by Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev resulted in a tic-tac-toe initiated by Nugent-Hopkins at the blue line.

He knocked the puck down to McDavid, who passed over to Brown, who then found Nugent-Hopkins at the side of the net for the tap-in past Stauber’s outstreched glove.

Just 20 seconds later, Stecher sent a shot in from the top of the right circle that deflected off of Utah defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok and through Stauber’s legs for a 3-1 lead.

Draisaitl scored into an empty net at 18:58 for his league-leading 26th goal, giving him 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) during his 12-game point streak. With the goal, he tied Glenn Anderson for fifth on Edmonton's all-time scoring list with 906 points.

Out with an illness, Clayton Keller was a last-minute scratch by Utah.

“It started a little bit last night and even this morning he was pretty good. Then at game time, I thought we would dress an extra guy in the warmup and then when I saw him, I didn’t think he would play,” Tourigny said. “He looked banged up. It happens to every team and it happened to us tonight.”

Liam O'Brien played in Keller’s place.

“I think we pushed and I still think we have a lot more in that room and we would all feel and say the same thing about tonight’s game,” O’Brien said. “We had a push and hit a crossbar and had an empty net there on the one play.

“We kept it tight, but we have to find ways to win games.”

NOTES: McDavid (42 goals, 138 assists in 2024) became the third player in NHL history to record 180 points in a calendar year (regular season and playoffs). Gretzky did it nine times with a high of 252 in 1983 and Mario Lemieux did it three times with a high of 200 in 1988. ... McDavid also recorded his 39th multi-assist game in 2024 (regular season and playoffs) and joined Gretzky -- who did it 11 times with a high of 48 games in 1985 and 1988 -- as the only players to do so. ... Logan Cooley became the 10th different player in NHL history to record an 11-game road point streak at age 20 or younger (the 11th instance, as Gretzky achieved the feat twice). The only other players to do so in the past 30 years are Nathan MacKinnon (16 games in 2013-14), Auston Matthews (11 games in 2016-27) and Sidney Crosby (11 games in 2007-08). ... Brown pushed his point streak to four games (five assists) ... Skinner became the first goaltender in Oilers history to record 50 wins in a calendar year (regular season and playoffs). The only other active goaltenders to record as many in a year are Andrei Vasilevskiy (64 in 2021 and 52 in 2022), Jordan Binnington (59 in 2019), Marc-Andre Fleury (57 in 2018), Sergei Bobrovsky (52 in 2024) and Jake Oettinger (51 in 2024). ... Draisaitl scored his 10th goal of December – the eighth time in his career he’s posted as many in a single calendar month. The only Oilers players with as many are Gretzky (33 times), Kurri (17 times) and Anderson (11 times).