Offence leads Oilers past Bruins
EDMONTON Connor McDavid knows that scoring goals isn’t his team’s concern.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists and McDavid added three assists as the Edmonton Oilers won their second game in a row, beating up on the Boston Bruins 7-4 on Thursday.
Combined with their 7-1 win over Dallas on Tuesday, the Oilers have 14 goals in their last two games. But the Edmonton captain says his team needs to tighten up in the defensive end. “We can’t expect to keep doing that,” McDavid said about the recent scoring. “It’s good that we are finding ways to create offence, but we also gave up a lot of chances tonight. Giving up four goals is not good enough.”
Patrick Maroon had a pair of goals and Benoit Pouliot, Anton Slepyshev, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Milan Lucic also scored for the Oilers (37-24-9), who moved one point ahead of Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division.
“You need to have scoring from all over,” Draisaitl said. “You can’t rely on one or two lines. You need all four lines going and the last couple of games we have really had that. It is definitely a nice feeling to put up some goals like this.”
David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Dominic Moore and David Krejci replied for the Bruins (38-27-6), who had a four-game winning streak snapped.
PREDATORS 2, CAPITALS 1, OT
WASHINGTON — Viktor Arvidsson scored 1:05 into overtime and the Nashville Predators bucked their season-long trend of OT struggles by beating the Washington Capitals.
Arvidsson’s goal improved the Predators to 4-7 in the 3-on-3 period this season and 7-19 over the past two years. Pekka Rinne made 22 saves but didn’t face a shot in overtime from the Capitals.
BLACKHAWKS 2, SENATORS 1
OTTAWA — Richard Panik scored the tiebreaking goal late in the third period, lifting Chicago over Ottawa.
Panik scored on the power play off a pass from Patrick Kane with 3:01 remaining. Duncan Keith also scored and Scott Darling made 33 saves to help the Blackhawks get their second straight win.
Kyle Turris scored for Ottawa, and Mike Condon finished with 26 saves as the Senators squandered a chance to move in to first place in the Atlantic Division.
BLUE JACKETS 2, PANTHERS 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Zach Werenski and Josh Anderson scored 3:26 apart in the second period to lead Columbus over Florida.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, LIGHTNING 0
TAMPA, Fla. — Morgan Rielly and Matt Martin scored 15 seconds apart during Toronto’s four-goal second period, Frederik Andersen made 33 saves and the Maple Leafs moved into the lead for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
HURRICANES 3, WILD 1
RALEIGH, N.C. — Victor Rask scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:24 to play and Carolina beat Minnesota.
JETS 4, ISLANDERS 2
NEW YORK — Bryan Little scored twice, Connor Hellebuyck made 27 saves and Winnipeg beat New York to snap a four-game skid.
DEVILS 6, FLYERS 2
NEWARK, N.J. — Adam Henrique and Taylor Hall scored two goals apiece and New Jersey snapped a 10-game winless streak.