McDavid gets two goals in Oilers win against Panthers

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist and scored in the shootout for the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers at Rogers Place on Thursday.

McDavid tied the game 3-3 with eight seconds remaining in the third period, converting a centering pass from Leon Draisaitl with goalie Cam Talbot on the bench for an extra skater.
"I stuck with it and Leon did a good job finding me and I got the tap-in," McDavid said. "I think it was just some good timing on both our parts. Leon waited for me to get open and found me behind three guys. It was a great pass by Leon and we maybe caught them sleeping for a second."
WATCH: [All Panthers vs. Oilers highlights]
Darnell Nurse had a goal and an assist, and Draisaitl had two assists for Edmonton (21-20-3). Talbot made 27 saves.
"It was definitely not the prettiest, but any time you can grind out a win like that in the way we were able to do it, we persevered after their third goal where we had another unfortunate bounce against us," Talbot said. "We could have folded, but we went down and battled back and found a way in the shootout."

Frank Vatrano, Denis Malgin and Henrik Borgstrom scored, and Bogdan Kiselevich had two assists for Florida (17-17-8), which has lost four in a row (0-3-1). James Reimer made 21 saves.
"When the opposing team scores eight seconds before the end of the third it's a pretty bad feeling because you think you've already won the game, kind of," Borgstrom said. "You're on the bench and hoping to get the W, but they were able to score the game-tying goal."
Vatrano scored at 9:06 of the first period on a shot from the right face-off circle to put the Panthers up 1-0.
Nurse tied it 1-1 26 seconds later when he took a drop pass from Alex Chiasson in the slot and shot through Reimer's pads.
"It was unfortunate the way it ended, eight seconds to go to get two points," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "I thought we played a heck of a road game. I think we gave up 18 shots in regulation. We produced some chances, we scored a big goal at the end, we did a lot of good things."
Malgin put the Panthers up 2-1 at 4:28 of the second period, collecting a clearing attempt from Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson in the slot and shooting it past Talbot.

McDavid tied it 2-2 at 19:38 after a point shot from Nurse took a deflection in front and bounced to McDavid at the side of the net.
"We were exhausted," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "I thought our players really gutted it up in the third period. Everybody knew halfway through the first period we had nothing, they just helped each other the whole time.
"They stayed vocal on the bench. Any good thing that went on, guys were cheerleading each other, trying to help. It's a really good sign for having absolutely zero in the tank. To come up with two points is, for me, really, really impressive."
Borgstrom put the Panthers up 3-2 at 14:02 of the third period when his centering pass from behind the net bounced off Oilers defenseman Caleb Jones and then Larsson.

McDavid tied the game after being left alone in front of the Panthers' net.
"We had him covered and we jumped in the corner and Draisaitl made the play," Boughner said. "They made two seam passes that went through three of our sticks even to get there, and then we had a little bit of duplication of Draisaitl coming out of the corner."

They said it

"He's a good player. He's obviously one of the best. I thought he was a difference-maker tonight. I thought we did a good job for most of the night, shadowing him and whatnot, but obviously he doesn't need much." -- Panthers goalie James Reimer on Oilers center Connor McDavid
"Things haven't been going great for us, so this is a big game for us. It was the first game in a homestand, and to be able to come back late in the game after a tough bounce against, we could have sagged and rolled over and died, but we kept pushing and fighting and there was no let-up in our game."-- Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Need to know

Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov did not have a point for only the second time in his past nine games. Panthers forward Mike Hoffman has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past nine games. … McDavid has 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) in his past nine games, and has points in 17 of 19 (13-20-33). … McDavid has five two-goal games this season but does not have a hat trick. Since entering the league in 2015-16, he leads the NHL with 37 games with at least three points. Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane is next with 31.

What's next

Panthers: At the Calgary Flames on Friday (9 p.m. ET; SNW, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; SN, FS-A, NHL.TV)