McDavid hits 50 points for Oilers in win against Senators

EDMONTON-- Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, becoming the first player to reach 50 points this season, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-2 at Rogers Place on Friday.

McDavid leads the NHL with 51 points (17 goals, 34 assists) in 29 games. Five players in the past 25 years -- Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, Peter Forsberg and Ron Francis -- have reached 50 points in fewer games.
Leon Draisaitl, Tyson Barrie and Tyler Ennis each had a goal and an assist, and Mike Smith made 23 saves for Edmonton (18-11-0), which swept the three-game series and has won seven games against Ottawa this season.
"It doesn't matter who you're playing, it's not easy to beat them three times, so credit to our group," McDavid said. "I think it's good for everyone to get involved offensively."

Thomas Chabot and Brady Tkachuk scored, and Joey Daccord made 31 saves for Ottawa (9-20-1), which lost 7-1 on Tuesday.
"I don't see a 6-2 game tonight, I thought some guys really played hard," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "We can't take that many penalties [four] against this power play, and they got some timely, lucky goals. But there were some guys that really worked hard I thought for being short-staffed up front with the last minute scratch of (Artem Anisimov). I thought some guys played hard, we just didn't manage the puck the way we have to, but our effort was there."
McDavid scored 10 seconds into the game on a shot from a sharp angle to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. It tied the third-fastest goal in Edmonton history.
"I have no idea where it went [in], I still don't know where it went," McDavid said. "I just tried to put a puck on net and I'm fortunate it went in."
McDavid is on pace to score 98 points in this 56-game season.
Chabot tied it 1-1 at 3:06 when his centering pass hit Barrie's skate and bounced in. Barrie scored from the slot at 13:45 to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
Tkachuk tied it 2-2 on the power play at 9:19 of the second period off a pass from Tim Stutzle.
"I thought we played, for the most part, a pretty good game," Tkachuk said. "There were stretches where the momentum shifts and stuff like that, but it definitely wasn't a 6-2 game, and for us, we have to focus more on our discipline here."

Darnell Nurse scored on a shot from the point through traffic at 13:55 to make it 3-2, and Draisaitl scored on the power play at 18:50 off a pass from McDavid for a 4-2 lead.
"We talked a lot of how we want to play as a group and try to be consistent with it," Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. "I thought tonight's game got a little scrambly at times, but I like the way we hung in there and found a way to win. We have to keep building our group, our players are really committed to getting better every day and every game is new challenge for us, and when you have a set of three games there are challenges within that, that you have to overcome, and I thought our guys did a good job of that."
Ennis scored at 5:05 of the third period to make it 5-2, capitalizing on a turnover in front by Stutzle.
Gaetan Haas scored at 15:48 for the 6-2 final.
Edmonton has outscored Ottawa 34-15 in the seven games, and McDavid has scored 16 points (three goals, 13 assists).
"We didn't underestimate them, we wanted to play a solid game, and I think those were three pretty good games against them," Haas said. "We had solid [defense] in the [defensive] zone and tried to get the puck up as fast as possible to the offensive zone, and that's how we won."
NOTES: Draisaitl is second in the NHL to McDavid with 44 points (15 goals, 29 assists). ... Dominik Kahun scored eight seconds into an 8-5 win against the Senators on Jan. 31, and Wayne Gretzky scored eight seconds into a 9-4 win against the New York Rangers on Dec. 14, 1983, for the fastest Oilers goal to start a game. ... Two Oilers have reached 50 points in fewer games than McDavid. Gretzky did it seven times (18 games, 1983-84; 19, 1984-85; 20, 1987-88; 22, 1986-87; 23, 1985-86; 23, 1982-83; 23, 1981-82) and Jari Kurri did it twice (25, 1984-85; 25, 1983-84).