McDavid scores 500th NHL point in Oilers victory against Jets

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid scored his 500th NHL point, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

"It's a little milestone, I guess, a little thing along the way here, which is nice," McDavid said. "To see and feel some of the reaction from my teammates and friends and family and stuff like that, it's always special, so I really appreciate the support."
Leon Draisaitl scored two goals, and McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had two assists for Edmonton (10-8-0), which split the two-game set with its fourth win in five games. Coach Dave Tippett earned his 600th NHL win.
Mike Smith made 33 saves two days after allowing four goals on 11 shots and getting pulled in the second period when Edmonton lost to Winnipeg 6-5 on Monday.
Mark Scheifele scored to extend his point streak to eight games, Josh Morrissey had two assists, and Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves for Winnipeg (9-6-1).
"I like the way we came out to play and we went 60 minutes and gave up 14 even-strength shots," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "You walk off the bench in a bad mood every time you lose a game, but it wasn't a missed opportunity. We played hard, they played hard, their goalie was good, our goalie was good. The flow of the game was tough to get a handle on, but I thought we were trying to grind through it, so we won't spend too much emotional energy on that one."
Jesse Puljujarvi scored at 3:45 of the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.
Puljujarvi took a pass from McDavid just inside the Winnipeg blue line and scored from the slot. The assist gave McDavid 500 NHL points in 369 games, the same number of games it took Pittsburgh Penguins forward Sidney Crosby to reach the milestone.
McDavid, Crosby and Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (373 games) are the only active players to score 500 points in fewer than 400 games.
"It's awesome for him to do it in that amount of games, and doing it the same as Sid is pretty special, obviously, so definitely a big congrats to him," Scheifele said of McDavid. "I wish it would have come in a loss, but I'm sure it's a special moment, I'm sure something he's very happy about. It's a special player achieving something very special."
Draisaitl scored 21 seconds later to make it 2-0 on a shot from the slot.
"It was a little bit of a weird game, I think a lot of the guys really couldn't find a rhythm because of the [amount of] penalties [12 combined]," Draisaitl said. "I think it was a hard game for a lot of guys to get into on both sides. I thought we handled it OK. Obviously two points are two points and that's the most important thing."

Scheifele scored on the power play at 19:06 to make it 2-1. He has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in the streak.
Draisaitl extended the lead to 3-1 on the power play at 16:45, lifting a rebound into the roof of the net. McDavid had an assist to give him 501 points. The 24-year-old tied Crosby for eighth fastest to reach 500. Wayne Gretzky is the fastest, reaching 500 points in 234 games.
"There's been quite a few players to get to 500, but to do it as fast as he's done it, and in the company he's done it with, is pretty remarkable," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "It just shows you what a talent he is. I know he doesn't look at those milestones very much, but I think later in life he'll be very proud of some of those milestones he's put forth. He still wants the team milestones ahead of the individual milestone, so that's what he's striving for."

Neal Pionk made it 3-2 at 1:28 of the third period with a shot from the top of the right face-off circle playing 4-on-4.
Edmonton started the period on the power play with Winnipeg forward Paul Stastny serving a tripping penalty, but Nugent-Hopkins was assessed a slashing penalty 54 seconds into the period to negate the man-advantage.
Edmonton was 1-for-6 on the power play, Winnipeg was 1-for-5.
"We battled back but I think tonight it's more on us on the power play," Stastny said. "We buried it once, but we have to have more possession, more chances than we did. You look at their power play, they scored once, but they put a lot of pressure and tired guys out. Sometimes it's the little details that make the difference."
NOTES: Oilers forward Gaetan Haas blocked three shots playing 10:15 after missing five games with an undisclosed injury. … Tippett became the 21st coach in NHL history to win 600 games. He is 600-446-129 with 28 ties in 1,203 games in 16 seasons with the Oilers, Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes and Dallas Stars. … Morrissey has five assists in a four-game point streak.