McDavid leads Oilers past Rangers for first win

NEW YORK -- Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist to give the Edmonton Oilers their first win of the season, 2-1 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

WATCH: [All Oilers vs. Rangers highlights]
McDavid, who scored the game-winning goal on the power play in the third period, has a point on all five Edmonton goals this season (two goals, three assists). The Oilers (1-2-0) lost their first two games by a combined score of 9-3.
"I would rather us have filled the net and me being on almost none of them then to only have scored five," McDavid said. "Offense will come. We know that. We've got to stick with it. These things happen. We'll find it."

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had his first two points of the season with a goal and an assist, and Cam Talbot made 23 saves for his first win. It was Talbot's first win against the Rangers, who traded him to the Oilers on June 27, 2015. Talbot was previously 0-4-0 against New York.
"These two games are always circled on the calendar for me," Talbot said, "so now I got this one out of the way, it can just go back to being another game."
Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves, and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers (1-4-0), who couldn't build on their come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.
"We improved a lot of things we wanted to improve; it came down to discipline," Lundqvist said. "We took too many penalties [four], and in the end, they won the game on that."
The Oilers felt better about the way they played defensively than they did in their first two games, when they allowed three against their penalty kill and were outshot 59-45 in losses to the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins.
They were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill Saturday and held the Rangers to 24 shots on goal.
"Our whole defensive game was just a lot better," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Just the way that we checked, we were more of a five-man unit. If there was a little breakdown, it wasn't a huge breakdown where they're getting a quality, quality chance."
McDavid's power-play goal gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 6:23 of the third period. His backhand looked like it was going to go through the crease until it went in off Lundqvist.
"He had a little time so he kind of froze me, and I tried to get my pad across and my stick there, but the puck found a way in, through my arm or something," Lundqvist said.
Zibanejad's first goal of the season gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 12:49 of the first period. Marc Staal's pass from the left circle deflected off Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson to Zibanejad, who scored from the bottom of the right circle.
Zibanejad had a shot hit the left post at 3:57 of the first period and another at 17:33 of the second period.
"We have to have more a tenacity in the offensive zone," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "Just because it appears someone might defend you, you have to earn your ice, you can't just concede he's going to defend you. We've got to shoot more."
Nugent-Hopkins made it 1-1 with his first point of the season at 14:17 of the first.

Darnell Nurse's shot hit Rangers forward Chris Kreider and went to Nugent-Hopkins at the right post. It hit Nugent-Hopkins' skate, went across to the left side, and he scored before Lundqvist could get his right pad over in time.
McDavid saved a goal for the Oilers at 15:05 of the second, when he pulled the puck away from the goal line.
"We knew it was a big game for us to get a win and we found a way to do it," McDavid said. "The power play gave us the one that we needed and then we were able to shut it down. We'll definitely take it."

They said it

"The process that I talked about in the two prior games is what's important. The power play got us a goal. The penalty kill did a pretty good job. We stayed patient. We checked well down the stretch, got some saves when we needed them. It was a complete team win and for us to be successful we have to bottle that up and play with that." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan
"We felt good going into today, liked that start of our game. We were right there. We have to find a way as team to be confident in those situations and learn how to close out a game." -- Rangers defenseman Marc Staal

Need to know

McDavid has seven points (three goals, four assists) in five games against the Rangers. … Nurse, who had an assist on Nugent-Hopkins' goal, played his 200th NHL game.

What's next

Oilers: At the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, SNOL, NHL.TV)
Rangers:Host the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, ALT, NHL.TV)