Connor McDavid eyes a new title?
EDMONTON — Connor McDavid is playing like he has his sights set on a second straight scoring title. McDavid scored a pair of goals and added an assist as the Edmonton Oilers emerged with a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Saturday. The Oilers captain has six goals and seven assists for 13 points in his last seven games and 84 points on the season, putting him four points back of league-leading Nikita Kucherov (88) and one behind Evgeni Malkin (85) in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, an honour McDavid took home last season for the first time in his career. “I’m just looking to finish out the season strong with the team and individually as well,” McDavid said. “He’s the captain, he has all the talent in the world and I think he’s a little bit sour and a little bit bitter with how the year has gone,” said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. “He’s not going to go away whimpering and when your leader does that, it forces everybody else to play their game.” Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers (30-34-4), who have won three straight. “It feels really good, especially against a team like that,” said Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot, who stopped 32 of 33 shots. “They’re playing some really good hockey right now and extremely well offensively. “To hold a team like that to one goal took the whole group. We played a heck of a game. Everyone is playing pretty well right now.” Charlie Coyle replied for the Wild (39-23-7), who had a threegame winning streak of their own snapped. “That wasn’t our game in the second period tonight,” Coyle said. “We were turning pucks over and we weren’t skating and playing simple, which is our recipe for success. “We kind of stopped doing that and fed right into their game.” There was no scoring in the first period, with Minnesota getting the bulk of the chances with 12 shots on Talbot, while Edmonton only put five shots on Devan Dubnyk in the Wild net.