Draisaitl scores twice, Oilers end Predators winning streak at four

EDMONTON -- Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist for the Edmonton Oilers in a 5-2 win against the Nashville Predators at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

Connor McDavid had two assists to extend his season-opening point streak to nine games (seven goals, 12 assists). Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two assists and Mikko Koskinen made 31 saves for Edmonton (8-1-0), which has won three in a row.
"It's obviously a great start for us, I think that's something that we really keyed on; to come out of the gates and be pretty strong," Draisaitl said. "We did that, but we haven't accomplished anything yet, we have to make sure we keep going, we keep getting better. I think there's a lot of things that we can do better, but you don't go 8-1 if you play terrible and just get lucky. We've done a lot of great things, but we can certainly do things better."

Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen scored for Nashville (5-5-0), which lost for the first time in five games. The Predators were playing the second game of a back-to-back after a 3-2 overtime win against the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
Roman Josi had two assists and Connor Ingram made 25 saves in his second NHL start.
"I thought when they got the good looks they had, they wound up scoring and we had some good looks too, but the puck didn't get in the net for us," Predators coach John Hynes said. "I thought we competed hard. We made some clear improvements to our game that we didn't like last night in Calgary. We didn't find a way to win the game, but you have to respect the effort from the players coming in on the second game of a back-to-back."
Draisaitl scored on the power play at 6:43 of the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead, one timing in a pass from Nugent-Hopkins at the right face-off circle. Duchene tied it 11 seconds later, electing to shoot on a two-on-one rush.
"I thought we fought hard, we had a lot of good looks," Josi said. "I thought we had a lot of good shots and good tips by our forwards. We obviously didn't score. They're just such a dangerous team and they're so dynamic off the rush and they capitalized on a couple of mistakes we made."
Kailer Yamamoto made it 2-1 at 1:27 of the second period, getting to a loose puck at the side of the net.
"We're doing some things fine, but there are some things I still think we can clean up," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "We weren't coming out clean, we were jamming stuff up the wall and the D-to-D stuff we were flipping it around. We bring trouble on ourselves sometimes. It's an area we have to clean up."

Draisaitl scored at 3:41 of the third to make it 3-1. He took a drop pass from McDavid and snapped in a shot from the high slot.
"They're two world class players, probably two of the top five players in the world offensively, and they're dangerous, they're hungry players," Hynes said of McDavid and Draisaitl. "They're highly competitive, so when you put that together it adds a different dynamic to the line they're on together. It's always a challenge whether they're separated or together, they're tough guys to play against. As a duo, there is obviously the duo threat at all times on that line."
Devin Shore made it 4-1 at 4:59, one-timing a pass from Warren Foegele.
Johansen scored on the power play at 15:59 to make it 4-2 and Jesse Puljujarvi scored into an empty net with Ingram pulled for an extra skater at 16:50 for the 5-2 final.
Draisaitl leads the NHL with 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) and shares the League lead in goals with Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
He had an opportunity to shoot at the open net himself for the hat trick but elected to pass to Puljujarvi.
"I'm more than fine giving the puck to someone else to score," Draisaitl said. "I love watching other guys score, it's my favorite thing. I love scoring myself too, obviously, but I just thought he had a better angle."
NOTES: Draisaitl is the seventh NHL player in the past 30 seasons to score 20 points in fewer than 10 games. Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins was the last to do it (nine games, 2002-03). … Nugent-Hopkins has no goals but leads the NHL with 13 assists. ... Predators forward Filip Forsberg is week to week with an upper-body injury sustained against the Flames.