EDMONTON – Zach Hyman and Leon Draisaitl each had a goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1 on Wednesday night despite the absence of star forward Connor McDavid.
Cody Ceci, Mattias Ekholm and Dylan Holloway also scored while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan McLeod each had two assists for Edmonton, which won its third straight. Stuart Skinner stopped 17 shots.
“When you’re missing the best player in the world you don’t try to replace him,” Hyman said. “Everyone as a group has to step up and play better, and collectively I thought it was one of our better games of the season. Everyone on the same page.
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“You want to play your best going into the playoffs. Three wins and two of the three were really good outings for us.”
The Oilers hit 100 points in the standings in a third consecutive season for the second time in franchise history. They hit the century mark six times in a row from 1981-87.
Edmonton is 10-0-1 in its last 11 games at home, outscoring opponents 54-20 in that span.
“You have to take care of your home ice, that is first and foremost,” said Oilers forward Corey Perry. “On the road it is a different game, but at home we have put some solid games together lately and we are going to have to continue to do that.”
McDavid missed the game with a lower-body injury but is considered day-to-day. The Oilers’ captain is stuck at 99 assists on the season, needing only one to become just the fourth player in NHL history to hit 100.
Keegan Kolesar scored for the Golden Knights, who lost a third straight. Adin Hill finished with 20 saves.
“Right now, our game’s nowhere where we need to be, and even if we were to get in it might be a quick bounce for us out of there,” Kolesar said.
The frustration level is high for the defending Stanley Cup champs.
“We’ve got to take care of business, we’re not in the playoffs yet,” Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “We’ve got to start playing like we want to be in it and we need more than just a couple guys every night. We need everybody and right now we don’t have that.”
The Oilers started the scoring midway through the opening period. Ceci hustled in from the point and sent a shot from a bad angle that hit the skate of Vegas defenseman Alec Martinez and deflected cleanly past Hill for his fourth goal of the season.
