GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Coyotes 3 (OT)

EDMONTON, AB - Connor McDavid saved his best for last, scoring his 60th goal of the season in sensational fashion to give the Edonton Oilers a 4-3 overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night.
"At the end of the day, they're all just a number," McDavid said about the goal. "But 60, a lot of great players in the past have done it and it feels good to join that list. Obviously, we've got a lot of work left this year and we're looking forward to putting ourselves in a good spot heading into the postseason."
"Yeah, it's pretty special," Leon Draisaitl said about the goal. "I mean, obviously he's going to downplay it as we all know, but it's pretty hard to score in this league and to score 60 in a season and still have 10 games to go is pretty remarkable. He's just a special player."
The milestone marker was part of a two-goal night that made McDavid the first Oiler to eclipse the 60-goal plateau since Wayne Gretzky accomplished the same feat during the 1986-87 season. Not to be outdone, Draisaitl assisted all four Oilers goals on the night to tie his career high of 110 points, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored twice in the win to reach 33 goals.
Clayton Keller extended his point streak to 10 games with a pair of goals on the night for Arizona, while defenceman J.J. Moser notched the other Coyotes goal.
Stuart Skinner was back between the pipes for the Oilers in a rather quiet evening for the goaltender. The 24-year-old needed to make just 14 saves on the night for his 23rd win of the season, while his counterpart in the Coyotes goal in Connor Ingram was excellent on the evening by turning away 27-of-31 shots in the loss.
The Oilers will now wrap up their homestand with a massive Saturday night matchup against the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.

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FIRST BLOOD

McDavid painted a masterpiece and called it a 'Bank-sy.'
The captain didn't make Oilers fans wait long to watch him add another notch to what has already been a sublime season. The Coyotes showed signs of road weariness after having played the night before in Winnipeg, taking a Travis Boyd tripping infraction and a Barrett Hayton delay of game call within the first 5:02 of the game.
Hayton's miscue proved costly, with McDavid sneaking his 59th goal of the season by Ingram for the game's first tally. McDavid caught the Arizona goaltender cheating off his post as he carried the play below the goal line, where he chipped the puck off Ingram's mask and into the net 5:47 into the game.
"That was where I was aiming. I've done that a couple of times. Everybody's so worried about Leo on the backside there that sometimes even the goalie can get caught kind of reaching trying to block that pass," McDavid said. "So it's just something that I've tried before, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. Tonight it did."

The cheeky attempt brought McDavid within a single goal of multiple career milestones, including his first 60-goal season and the 300th NHL goal.
The Coyotes battled back before the end of the period courtesy of a power play of their own. J.J. Moser was the recipient of a loose puck at Stuart Skinner's far post and was able to tap his fifth of the season into the open net to tie the game.

KILLER KELLER

The red-hot Clayton Keller was one Desert Dog who has been on the hunt.
The Coyotes sniper entered Wednesday night's contest with the second-most points in the NHL since the All-Star Break with 35, trailing only McDavid's 44 over the same stretch. Keller came to Rogers Place carrying the second-longest active point streak at nine games, recording 17 points over that stretch, and he would extend it in the game's the second period.
After a turnover behind the Oilers net, Keller was able to fight off the back check from Darnell Nurse and backhanded his 33rd goal of the season by Skinner at the 3:37 mark of the middle frame.
Keller wasn't done in the evening. The diminutive Coyotes forward gave the visitors a 3-2 lead with 11:06 remaining in the contest when he received the Barrett Hayton feed at the side of the net and roofed a shot from in tight over Skinner.
The 24-year-old has blossomed into a legitimate NHL scoring threat this season, already setting career highs in goals (34), assists (44) and points (78). His 1.08 points per game pace would be the third-best mark by a Coyotes players since the franchise moved to Arizona, trailing only Keith Tkachuk's 1.11 PPG in 2000-01 and Ladislav Nagy's 1.10 PPG in 2005-06.

HOP TO IT

With the Oilers in dire need of a goal, it was the longest serving member of the club that provided it.
Nugent-Hopkins sniped his 32nd of the season in the final 10 seconds of the second period to tie the game 2-2 going into the final 20 minutes. The tally was the Oilers second power-play goal of the game, with Jusso Valimaki serving time in the sin bin for a high stick on Draisaitl.
The goal was Nugent-Hopkins 13th on the man advantage and 45th power-play point of the year in what has been a career season for the 29-year-old.

The Oilers had carried the play for the majority of the game's first 40 minutes, outshooting the Coyotes 23-12 in the process. Ingram's stellar play in goal helped keep an Arizona squad, who has been out shot in 63-of-72 games this season, just one step ahead of the Oilers up until that point.
After the Coyotes had regained the lead, Nugent-Hopkins answered the bell again for Edmonton. Draisaitl hit the forward in stride with a long stretch pass, and Nugent-Hopkins fired the wrister at his trademark spot low blocker on Ingram to deadlock the game at 3-3 with 7:53 remaining.

TOP PERFORMER

The same day that Leon Draisaitl was
voted the NHL's best passer by his peers in the annual NHLPA players poll
, the man with the 'burger flipper' showed off why he deserved that honour.
The 27-year-old assisted on all the Oilers goals on the night, including a beautiful stretch pass on Nugent-Hopkins' second of the game from deep in the Oilers zone. The trio of apples brought the German superstar's point total to 110 on the season, tying his career-high set in both 2019-20 and 2021-22.

PARTING WORDS

Leon Draisaitl on McDavid scoring 60 goals this season:
"I mean, I think everyone was always talking about it. If you shoot more, you can score more. He's obviously doing it, and he's worked extremely hard at it. I think what a lot of people don't really see, he put so much work into every little detail of his game and at some point it was going to happen that way regardless."
Draisaitl on if McDavid owes him anything for the assist:
No, it's all right. He's got me back so many times. It's what we do. It's all good."
Draisaitl on how McDavid's 60th played out:
"He obviously missed the first one, and he was just telling me that he slammed his stick against the boards after, and I just saw their guy bobble it. I tried to strip him and obviously saw Connor again. So crazy to try that same move again and score on it the second time, but that's just what he does."

Connor McDavid on getting the win on Wednesday night:
"Yeah, big game for us. Two opponents this week that don't have much to lose and are playing really well. Arizona at least is playing really well, and I thought we did a good job of just hanging in there and finding a way to get two points. That's what this time of year is all about, and keeping ourselves in the thick of the race."
Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on the Oilers game tonight:
You know what? I think when you look at that game tonight, we gave up 16 shots on net versus a team that's lost one time in regulation in their last 10. I think it is now. So I think that's important to realize. Andre Tourigny and his staff do a heck of a job. Their team plays very hard. They've lost one time in ten games, and they played hard tonight. And though we didn't give up a lot, I thought there were some situations we could handle a little bit better. They ended up in the back of our net. There were three chances that ended up in the back of our net. Again, we gave up 16 shots on net. We found a way, and I think that's important. I don't think that can be underscored how when you find yourself in a sticky circumstance in maybe a frustrating type game, the ability to find that tying goal and then the ability to find the winning goal, I think it's important. I think winning is a skill, and we're continuing to sharpen that."
Jay Woodcroft on the game-winning goal:
"I've not seen him score an overtime goal like that or anybody because it came off of an all world pass out of nowhere from Leon. He went down on a breakaway, which normally is money in the bank for him. The goal, it didn't go in. He kind of turned one way, was upset that it didn't go in and then sure enough Leon found him again right down Main Street, and he made no mistake on it. He's got 60 goals in that short time span is amazing, but I keep going back, you guys have heard me say this a million times, but I keep going back to the fact that what drives him is team success. So he'd be most happy, not with his two points, he would be happy with the team's two points tonight on a non-perfect evening."