McDavid gets hat trick, Oilers score 9 in win against Kraken

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid scored a hat trick and also had an assist for the Edmonton Oilers in a 9-4 win against the Seattle Kraken at Rogers Place on Thursday.

It was McDavid's first hat trick of the season and 13th in the NHL. It was also his first three-goal game since Oct. 27, 2022.

“It feels good to get a couple as a group, and hopefully guys are feeling good about themselves and can build on it,” McDavid said. “I feel like we’re playing better. It’s nice to score some goals and feel good about ourselves.

“It’s been a little bit of a grind here finding wins. It’s nice to put a good one together.”

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists, Matt Savoie scored two goals, and Evan Bouchard and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had three assists for the Oilers (12-11-5), who opened a five-game homestand with a 1-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.

“I thought I passed a couple away the other night and it ultimately cost us, losing a 1-0 game,” McDavid said. “Who knows if I score on one of those. I definitely thought about shooting a little bit more.”

Calvin Pickard made 28 saves for his third win of the season and first since Oct. 23. He was 0-2-2 in his previous four starts.

“I don’t think this is quite our team yet. We still have things to work on,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “But I'm starting to see a lot more things from our team that I like, and it all starts with a compete and attention to detail in the defensive zone.

“If you don't compete and if you don't defend well, you can't win regularly. You can win once in a while. You can catch a team off guard, win a shootout game. But unless you can consistently play good defensive hockey, you won't have much success.”

Jared McCann, Eeli Tolvanen, Frederick Gaudreau and Jani Nyman scored for the Kraken (11-8-6), who have lost four straight (0-3-1).

“It just feels like we go either one way or the other. We’re either really dialed in defensively and not scoring goals, or we’re giving up six or seven goals and getting our own as well,” McCann said. “It’s frustrating, we have to dial it in here and be better leaders for our team and I think it starts with me, Matty (Beniers), and ‘Ebs’ (Jordan Eberle)."

Joey Daccord allowed five goals on 14 shots before he was replaced in the second period. Philipp Grubauer allowed four goals on 18 shot in relief.

The Oilers were 4-for-5 on the power play. The Kraken finished the game 1-for-3 and are 1-for-17 in their past five games.

“Their power play scored four and we gave up a short-handed goal when the score was 3-2, and we had our own opportunity to get back into the game, because we’re not aware of somebody behind us and it ends up in a breakaway,” Seattle coach Lane Lambert said. “Mistakes, and I didn’t think our goaltending was great tonight.

“If you add it all up, it equals nine (goals).”

McDavid gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 7:17 of the first period. He took a short pass while in the slot from Nugent-Hopkins, skated into the left face-off circle and beat Daccord blocker side.

Vasily Podkolzin extended the lead to 2-0 just 17 seconds later at 7:34. He received a pass from Draisaitl along the goal line and one-timed a sharp-angled shot that ended up trickling through Daccord’s pads.

Draisaitl pushed it to 3-0 on a power play at 11:27. McDavid sent a cross-crease, backdoor pass to Draisaitl, who buried it past Daccord's glove.

Tolvanen cut the deficit to 3-1 with a power-play goal at 16:07. Brandon Montour's point shot deflected off the skate of Podkolzin to Tolvanen in the right circle, where he beat a lunging Pickard with a slap shot.

Gaudreau closed the gap to 3-2 at 19:33. He skated into the offensive zone, stripped Draisaitl of the puck in the slot and lifted a backhand over Pickard's stick. It was Gaudreau's first goal of the season and his first as a member of the Kraken.

“They’re that type of team that will capitalize on their chances and if you give them too many, they will find a way,” Gaudreau said. “And I think we did exactly that. We gave them too many and they have high skill obviously. We all know that.”

Savoie made it 4-2 on a short-handed breakaway at 2:28 of the second period, lifting a backhand over Daccord’s right pad.

McDavid extended the lead to 5-2 on a power play at 6:14. Bouchard fed a cross-ice pass to McDavid in the left circle, where he sent a wrist shot through the legs of Daccord.

Zach Hyman made it 6-2 at 8:53. He picked up a lead pass along the right boards from Mattias Ekholm and cut in on goal before raising a backhand over Grubauer’s glove.

McCann cut it to 6-3 at 9:30. After Eberle took the puck from McDavid at the Oilers' blue line and sent an initial shot on goal, McCann pounced on the rebound and beat Pickard stick side from in tight.

Mattias Janmark increased the score to 7-3 at 2:03 of the third period, cleaning up a rebound at the top of the crease off a shot by Andrew Mangiapane. It was Janmark's first regular-season goal since Jan. 27, 2025.

McDavid completed the hat trick to make it 8-3 on a power play at 6:59. A shot from Nugent-Hopkins missed wide and caromed off the glass behind the net to McDavid at the left wall. McDavid then settled the puck and put a snap shot into an open net from a tough angle.

“You might think I’m crazy, but the only one I can remember like that would be my first hat trick goal in Dallas (on Nov. 19, 2016),” McDavid said. “It was similar a little bit, definitely a unique one.”

Savoie scored his second goal on a power play to put Edmonton up 9-3 at 8:58. Adam Henrique tapped a rebound to Savoie at the bottom of the left circle, where he lifted it over a prone Grubauer.

“I think as the season has progressed, I’ve just gotten more confident and more comfortable with the puck on my stick in all situations,” Savoie said. “I definitely feel good out there right now and I’m just looking to build off of that.”

Nyman scored on a rebound from in tight at 19:55 for the 9-4 final.

NOTES: Kraken forward Mason Marchment sustained an undisclosed injury in a 4-0 loss against the Oilers on Saturday and did not travel with the team. ... McDavid is now tied with Mark Messier for the fourth-most hat tricks in Oilers history, behind Wayne Gretzky (43), Glenn Anderson (20) and Jari Kurri (20). ... Edmonton forward Connor Clattenburg left the game at 6:11 of the third period after taking a high stick along the boards from Montour, who received a double-minor penalty on the play. "He took a couple of stitches above his eye,” Knoblauch said. “I think everything is good.”