McDavid scores two goals, Oilers defeat Jets

EDMONTON --Connor McDavid scored two goals, including his 20th of the season, and the Edmonton Oilers won 2-1 against the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Place on Thursday.

McDavid has scored 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) during an eight-game point streak since he was held without one in three consecutive losses against the Toronto Maple Leafs from Feb. 27 to March 3.
Mikko Koskinen made 24 saves for the Oilers (20-13-0), and Tyson Barrie had two assists.
"Connor's game has been really solid all year," Edmonton coach Dave Tippett said. "Even the Toronto games where he didn't get on the score sheet, if you look at the chances he was creating, there was still lots to like about his game. When he capitalizes, people notice that more and he capitalizes a lot, so he has an impact on the game."
Mathieu Perreault scored for the Jets (18-10-2). Laurent Brossoit made 19 saves.
It was the first of a two-game set; the teams will play here again Saturday.
"I think both teams beat the [heck] out of the puck tonight," Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice said. "[We] were pretty good systematically, they battled hard, everybody worked real hard."
McDavid gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 3:53 of the second period when he got the puck off the boards and scored from the right face-off circle shortly after coming off the bench.
"It's pretty obvious you don't want to give him any time and space," Brossoit said. "When he does have it, he's a pure goal scorer. He picked a good shot, a good spot.
"He's got a deceptive release. I mean, you can complement him all you want, [but] it's almost unnecessary. We all know it."

Perreault redirected a pass from Nate Thompson to tie it 1-1 at 12:43 of the second.
"We know how skilled they are, so our game plan was to take the middle away and keep them on the outside and block some shots and play hard defensively, so usually this is kind of what happens," Perreault said. "You don't give up too many shots and they play a similar kind of game, so this is why you see a low-scoring game tonight."

McDavid restored the Oilers lead 38 seconds later on a 2-on-1 with Ryan-Nugent Hopkins for his 20th goal at 13:21.
McDavid also scored the game-winning goal in Edmonton's 7-3 win at the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.
"I thought it was a great period," McDavid said. "I would have liked to have maybe played in the offensive zone a little bit more; it's tough to defend for 20 minutes like that. I thought we had our chances catching them coming the other way. You need to bear down when you have a team on the ropes like that and that third one can really hurt them.
"But I loved the way our team played. We were solid all over and I thought we really did a good job of clogging up the middle and our defense
in 1986-87 (22 games). … It was Perreault's seventh goal in his 30th game; he scored seven in 49 games last season.