Anton Lander scores hat trick to lead Oilers to 4-0 win over Coyotes

EDMONTON - Anton Lander recorded a hat trick to take the team lead with six points in four games as the Edmonton Oilers remained perfect in pre-season play, defeating the Arizona Coyotes 4-0 on Tuesday.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers, who have gone 6-0 in exhibition action.

The Coyotes (0-4-1) have scored just four goals in five pre-season match-ups.

Edmonton outshot Arizona 11-6 in the scoreless first period.

Oilers forward Jordan Eberle left the game 13 minutes in favouring his right side. He did not return.

Ben Scrivens came in to replace Anders Nilsson in the Oilers net midway through the second. Nilsson made 11 saves in his half of the game.

The Oilers broke the deadlock with four minutes to play in the second as Anton Slepyshev sent a backhand pass in front to Lander and he scored his third goal of the pre-season on Coyotes starter Anders Lindback.

Edmonton made it 2-0 with 5.3 seconds left in the middle frame on the power play as Lander banked the rebound off a Nikita Nikitin point blast off of Lindback and into the net.

The Oilers got another power-play goal early in the third. Lander picked the top corner from the top of the circle for his hat trick goal with Slepyshev and Connor McDavid drawing assists.

Nugent-Hopkins made it 4-0 with five minutes left in the third, opting to shoot himself on a 2-on-1 opportunity.

The Oilers wrap up the home portion of their pre-season schedule on Thursday against Vancouver. The Coyotes return home to face the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

Notes: The Oilers are close to their NHL lineup, with only notables like Teddy Purcell, Leon Draisaitl, Oscar Klefbom and Andrew Ference not playing on Tuesday. The Coyotes lineup was much more inexperienced after playing the night before in Vancouver… Playing for Arizona was McDavid's Erie Otters teammate from last season, Dylan Strome. The pair combined for 249 points last season in the Ontario Hockey League… A special puck drop was done by Spider-Mabel, the six-year-old cancer patient who became an Internet sensation on Monday during her Children's Wish quest to rescue Oilers captain Ference.