Hyman scores hat trick for Oilers in win against Red Wings

EDMONTON -- Zach Hyman scored a hat trick, and Connor McDavid had four assists for the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Rogers Place on Thursday.

McDavid has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) during a four-game multipoint streak.

“Of late, he’s attacking. He just takes over games. He creates for himself, he creates for others. He’s the best player. Unanimously, I think, the best player in the world for a reason,” Hyman said of McDavid. “Just because when he’s on and he’s driving like he is, he is very, very hard to stop.

“He’s been playing phenomenally the last couple weeks.”

Mattias Ekholm also scored, Leon Draisaitl had two assists, and Stuart Skinner made 27 saves for the Oilers (14-11-6), who finished a five-game homestand (3-1-1).

“It’s massive. It’s an insanely competitive league, every team is finding ways to win and climbing up the ladder in the standings,” Skinner said. “For us to get a few wins here was really important. Especially on a homestand, you want to bank as many as you can.”

Simon Edvinsson scored, and Cam Talbot made 25 saves for the Red Wings (17-12-3), who came in with points in their previous six games (4-0-2), including a 4-3 win at the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.

“I thought we came to play. I actually think – this is going to sound strange – I think this is one of our better played games on the trip,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “We didn’t scramble around quite as much, yet when you look at it from an offensive perspective, probably not enough in and around the net, the net intensity.

“But we missed the net and had so many blocked that there wasn’t a lot of reward for going to the net. So, that was disappointing.”

Hyman put Edmonton ahead 1-0 on the power play at 14:25 of the first period. It was a tic-tac-toe play where McDavid took one cross-crease pass from Draisaitl and sent another right back across to Hyman for an easy tap-in into an open net behind Talbot.

“Those are special players, Connor willed his team to a win tonight,” said Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin. “That’s going to happen coming off a back-to-back into this building if you’re not on your toes, you’re not ready, you don’t know where he is on the ice, he’s going to make you pay.

“And he made us pay tonight.”

Ekholm made it 2-0 at 2:46 of the second period, sending a point shot in off the glove of Talbot.

Edvinsson closed it to 2-1 at 5:41 as the trailer on an odd-man rush, taking a pass into the slot from Nate Danielson and beating Skinner high glove side.

Edvinsson was questionable to play Thursday after having blocked a shot and left after the second period Wednesday against the Flames.

“I just got a pass from Marco Kasper in the mid-zone and I was trying to get it out to ‘Dani’, and he found Simon for a goal. So, that was nice,” said Elmer Soderblom, who also assisted on Edvinsson's goal. “It felt like we started off hot, had good chances in the beginning. If we score on some of those it’s a different game.

“So, I felt we were solid at the start of the game. We took some penalties, they’re a good team, too. It was a tough loss.”

Hyman extended the lead to 3-1 at 17:48. McDavid reached up to haul down a deflected puck before sending a no-look, through-the-legs back pass from the right side of the net out front to a waiting Hyman, who put it past Talbot’s blocker.

“He’s playing well, obviously, it was a big night for him, playing well, scoring three. It’s great for his confidence, for him to start feeling good, it’s important,” McDavid said. “It’s my job to be an impact player in the game and to help move the needle for us and to generate chances.

“It was a good homestand for our line. It was nice to play with those two, a line that we’re really comfortable with, all three guys are comfortable playing together and it was nice to be back with those two.”

Hyman scored his third of the night into an empty net at 18:43 of the third period for his sixth career hat trick.

“Zach got off to a slow start last year where he wasn't putting the puck in, I think it was 11 games before he got a goal,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “This year, it was kind of a similar start, not that he ever played badly. But coming back from the injury, it's maybe feeling the puck.

“He's a guy we rely on to score goals. Connor set him up pretty nicely tonight but obviously scoring goals is a tough thing to do. But he's done it pretty regularly.”

NOTES: Draisaitl extended his point streak to four games (two goals, seven assists). He is four points shy of 1,000 for his career. ... Hyman's six career hat tricks have all come with the Oilers. ... Ekholm is on a four-game point streak (one goal, four assists) and has nine points in his past eight games (two goals, seven assists). ... Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pushed his point streak to four games (one goal, five assists).