Devils top Oilers, end seven-game losing streak

EDMONTON --Connor McDavid got his 100th point on the season, but the New Jersey Devils ended their seven-game losing streak with a 6-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Wednesday.

McDavid, who reached 100 points for the third straight season, had two assists for Edmonton (31-32-7), which remains six points behind the Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. Mikko Koskinen allowed four goals on 18 shots before being pulled in the second period. He was replaced by Anthony Stolarz, who made 15 saves.
"We took them lightly, took the game for granted. I don't think we came to work," McDavid said. "They are a good team, they work hard. They don't have the veterans in the lineup, but whatever they lacked in experience, they made up for in effort."
WATCH: [All Devils vs. Oilers highlights]
Kenny Agostino, Damon Severson, and Kevin Rooney each had a goal and an assist for New Jersey (26-36-9), which was 0-6-1 during the streak. Cory Schneider made 36 saves for the Devils, who were coming off a 9-4 loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday.
"I've think it's been well documented how we've struggled on the road this year (9-24-3) and in back-to-backs (4-6-3), so to get a win both on the road and back-to-back, it was good for us." Schneider said. "We felt pretty bad about the game last night. Every one of us knew that third period was unacceptable (six goals allowed). We heard about it today, rightly so, so we went over some things, corrected some things, and I thought our third period tonight was really good."
Agostino gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 7:34 of the first period when his shot on a 2-on-1 deflected up off Koskinen's blocker and down behind him into the net.

Sam Gagner tied it 1-1 at 9:37 after Matt Benning's initial shot deflected off Jujhar Khaira and him past Schneider.
Alex Chiasson gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 14:22 with a redirection of a McDavid pass on the power play, but Travis Zajac tied it 2-2 with backhand in front on the power play with 19 seconds remaining in the period.
"We came out flat," Chiasson said. "At this point of the year, and the situation we are in, that just wasn't our best and everyone knows it. It's frustrating because we have done such a good job in the last eight or 10 games in our play. A game like tonight, they were two points that could have been in our favor and we just didn't get it done."
Severson scored a power-play goal on a shot from the right point at 6:23 of the second period to put the Devils ahead 3-2.
John Quenneville scored his first goal of the season on a slap shot from along the left boards at 12:49 to make it 4-2.

"It says a lot about our group," Quenneville said. "We traveled last night and were playing a back-to-back game. We came out and played hard and we played a full 60-minute game. I think everybody really played well, contributed, and it just feels great to win."
Rooney made it 5-2 at 16:32, but Benning cut it to 5-3 on a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from McDavid at 19:19.
"This is the red-flag game," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "When you're trying to climb the mountain and you've had so many days with such a high level of intensity because you're trying to catch up, the minute you take your foot off the gas, or the minute you take a breath, you get burned, and we got burned."
Blake Coleman scored shorthanded on a breakaway at 12:06 of the third period to make it 6-3.
"We had a lot better structure [in the third], we didn't give up odd-man rushes," Devils coach John Hynes said. "Last night, we got out of sorts and didn't play well when we didn't have the puck."

They said it

"That late goal shorthanded was a backbreaker, it seemed to really take the wind out of their sails. Even with a two-goal lead, if they were able to get one then it's a free for all at the end. So to avoid that scenario and kill a couple of penalties at the end was huge." -- Devils goalie Cory Schneider
"There are only a handful of games left and this was right there. We are looking to get points every night and I think tonight was disappointing. I don't know if we took them lightly or just weren't ready, but they beat us to a lot of pucks." -- Oilers defenseman Matt Benning

Need to know

McDavid (66) joined Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (62) as the second player to reach 100 points in fewer than 70 games this season. The last time that occurred was in 2005-06 (Jaromir Jagr, 67; Joe Thornton, 66). … New Jersey is the only team McDavid has not scored a goal against (12 assists in seven games). … Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl's point streak ended at 14 games (10 goals, 13 assists).

What's next

Devils: At the Vancouver Canucks on Friday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Oilers:At the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN1, CITY, FS-A, NHL.TV)