McDavid breaks tie in 3rd, Oilers top Lightning for 5th straight victory

EDMONTON -- Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to five games with a 5-3 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Rogers Place on Thursday.

McDavid scored at 2:10 of the third period to give the Oilers a 4-3 lead. He skated past Lightning defenseman Ian Cole on a rush, cut to the net and stuffed the puck in.
The goal was his NHL-leading 39th of the season and extended his point streak to nine games (seven goals, seven assists). He has at least one point in 26 of his past 27 games …
"He's pretty good, that's a nice move," Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. "The puck had eyes. I thought [Andrei Vasilevskiy] stopped the puck, but it got through somehow. But he's a world-class player, the best in the League. He had 84 points going into the game and has 39 goals, and that says a lot about him as a player."

Zach Hyman scored twice, Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, and Jack Campbell made 28 saves for Edmonton (26-18-3).
"The confidence has grown in the group, you can feel it on the ice, you can feel it around the room," McDavid said. "The confidence is a big thing. You have to earn confidence and it goes back to taking it one day at a time, and I think we have done a good job of doing that since the second half started here."
Brayden Point had a goal and an assist, Hedman had two assists, and Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for Tampa Bay (29-14-1), which had a five-game win streak end.
"I really liked our second period, but we made a mistake on McDavid's goal on the end, we were just a little tentative in the play and he finds a way," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Most guys don't score that, but he finds a way to do those things and that's why he's a special player. We lacked a little push down the stretch there, we had the one power play that didn't work out for us. We fought until the end. It was a good game, but it's disappointing we didn't get any points out of this."

Ryan McLeod scored at 6:13 of the first period to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead when he tipped a point shot from defenseman Vincent Desharnais.
Draisaitl scored on the power play at 16:43 to make it 2-0, one-timing a centering pass from McDavid.
Brandon Hagel cut it to 2-1 at 1:30 of the second period when he scored on the rebound after Alex Killorn's shot hit the goal post.
"It was just two really good, competitive teams. Both were coming in on win streaks and wanted to keep them going," Hyman said. "They came out flat, I guess, but they have guys who wanted to create a spark, and they did. They came back in that game and tied it up. We pushed back too, which was good."
Hyman made it 3-1 at 3:08 following a turnover by defenseman Haydn Fleury deep in the Lightning end. Warren Foegele centered the puck to Hyman, whose first shot went wide, but he scored on the rebound off the end boards.

Steven Stamkos brought Tampa Bay within 3-2 at 7:51, one-timing a pass from Point and scoring on the short side. It was his fourth goal in two games and extended his point streak to seven games (five goals, six assists).
Point tied it 3-3 at 12:03, re-directing a cross-ice pass from Hedman.
Hyman scored into an empty net at 17:48 for the 5-3 final.
"We knew it was going to be a tight game coming in," Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. "This is one of the League's elite teams, and that's how we approached the third period. We wanted that to be our best period."
NOTES: Draisaitl, Vasilevskiy and Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner were
among the 12 players
chosen in the 2023 NHL All-Star Fan Vote presented by Guaranteed Rate to participate in the Honda NHL All-Star Weekend. ... Edmonton forward Mattias Janmark was a late scratch with an illness and replaced by Jesse Puljujarvi.