McDavid has 3 points, Oilers hold off Ducks to gain in Pacific race

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, and the Edmonton Oilers held on to win 4-2 against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Saturday.

“It was a good night,” Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “They’re going to have their pushes, they’re going to capitalize on opportunities. They’re a good team too.

“When we had to lock it down, we locked it down. (Connor Ingram) made some good saves, we locked it down defensively, our structure was good. It’s hockey, sometimes they’re going to score goals, too.”

Zach Hyman had a goal and an assist, and Matt Savoie scored in his third straight game for the Oilers (37-28-9), who won three games in a row for just the second time this season. Evan Bouchard had two assists, and Ingram made 29 saves.

Edmonton pulled within three points of Anaheim, which has a game in hand, for first place in the Pacific Division.

“We’re first in the Pacific right now, but not by much and those little details and stuff like that can get kind of overlooked and can cost you a game and a playoff series,” Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier said. “So, we’re doing our due diligence to tighten up all those things and be ready to go, firing on all cylinders going into the playoffs.”

Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke scored, and John Carlson had two assists for the Ducks (41-28-4), who had four straight wins during a six-game point streak (5-0-1). Lukas Dostal made 30 saves.

“The game opened up a little bit when we got behind,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. “There was a lot of meaning to today’s game, but now we’ll move forward and continue to watch what’s going on around us.”

McDavid put the Oilers ahead 1-0 at 7:36 of the second period after corralling a bouncing puck off a slap shot from the point by Bouchard that went wide. Carlson sent a clearing attempt off McDavid’s skates at the side of the net before both McDavid and Max Jones took a backhand stab at the puck, with Jones touching it first and McDavid tapping it past Dostal’s’ blocker midair.

McDavid pushed his goal streak to four games (five goals), and reclaimed sole possession of first place in NHL scoring this season with 124 points (42 goals, 82 assists) in 74 games.

“Obviously, he’s a great player,” Dostal said. “I think I’m probably the goalie that has played the most against him this year, with the Olympics as well. He’s obviously a great player.

“It was a tight game and I felt after we changed periods, in the second period they had a little bit of momentum and we had some momentum as well, so it was kind of a back-and-forth game and I liked our effort. We just hope we can get off to better starts, but I liked our effort tonight.”

Edmonton outshot Anaheim 11-3 in the second period.

Roslovic extended it to 2-0 at 4:59 of the third period with his 20th goal of the season. He took a pass from the slot by Hyman on an odd-man rush and scored five-hole as Dostal came across the crease.

Savoie pushed it to 3-0 at 6:10 after taking a cross-crease pass from Vasily Podkolzin and stuffing it glove side past Dostal from in tight.

“My confidence is definitely high right now,” said Savoie, who has been promoted to the top line in the shuffle to fill the void left by Leon Draisaitl’s regular-season-ending lower-body injury. “It helps seeing the puck go in, and I’m getting lots of opportunities right now with some pretty good players, obviously. A really good play by (McDavid) to get that to ‘Podz’, and Podz makes an unbelievable play to get me open net. So, I’m just trying to capitalize and get myself in good spots.

“I think we’re playing an intense style right now, closing quick in the D-zone, not giving them easy looks inside. I think it’s just the intensity that we’re playing with right now, and that’s playoff style.”

Sennecke cut it to 3-1 at 6:53, tipping a wrist shot from the point by Carlson through Ingram’s legs.

Gauthier made it 3-2 at 9:41, taking a pass from behind the net by Jeffrey Viel, following another point shot from Carlson, and snapping it into open space stick side behind Ingram.

“It definitely got a little tighter than it needed to; we were playing such a great game up until those two goals,” Oilers forward Jason Dickinson said. “I wear those on my shoulder, they’re going to bug me, but the fact that we were able to stick with it and just get back to defending hard and advancing pucks to keep them from sustaining the zone, that’s good.

“I think guys can feel that’s a recipe for success, sticking with the process and just keep pouring it on them. It creates a feeling of rhythm for the group that you can keep going instead of getting into a rush game where it’s back and forth with turnovers at each blue line and you’re not getting any flow to the game.”

Hyman scored into an empty net on a pass from McDavid with 17 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.

NOTES: McDavid pushed his point streak to four games (five goals, four assists) and leads the NHL with 31 goals since Dec. 1. McDavid (1,206 career points) is five points shy of tying Mario Lemieux (1,211) for the second-most career points before age 30, behind Wayne Gretzky (2,072). … Ducks forward Mikael Granlund’s four-game goal streak ended (seven goals). … Carlson pushed his assist streak to three games (seven assists). … Bouchard recorded his 65th assist of the season, marking a new single-season career high. Paul Coffey (four times) is the only other Oilers defenseman to record 65 or more assists in a single campaign. Bouchard also extended his point streak to four games (one goal, seven assists).