Tavares, Maple Leafs end Oilers winning streak at four

EDMONTON -- John Tavares had a goal and two assists for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 3-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin scored for Toronto (42-21-5), which went 2-0-1 on its Western Canada road trip and is four points behind the Boston Bruins for second place in the Atlantic Division. Frederik Andersen made 31 saves.
"Probably, other than the last couple of minutes, we played a really good road game," Tavares said. "We didn't get rewarded as much as I think we could have. Everyone was doing a lot of good things out there and making it hard for them to establish any offense or any momentum, and we generated some chances and did a good job getting a three-goal lead that proved to be enough."
WATCH: [All Maple Leafs vs. Oilers highlights]
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oscar Klefbom scored late in the third period, and Anthony Stolarz made 37 saves in his first start for the Oilers since being acquired in a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 15.
Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl had two assists to extend his point streak to 13 games (nine goals, 11 assists). Connor McDavid had two assists to extend his personal point streak to eight games (two goals, 12 assists).
"They are a good hockey team, they are solid all over," McDavid said. "They are obviously skilled, and they just come at you in waves. Our goalie was good and held us in and gave us a little bit of a chance."

It was the first loss in five games for the Oilers (30-31-7), who are seven points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"They are a good team and they made us pay when they had their opportunities," Oilers defenseman Oscar Klefbom said. "Obviously, we came up short. You can't give a team like that as many opportunities as we gave them."
Rielly gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 19:46 of the first period when he one-timed a loose puck from the left point.
Tavares scored at 12:28 of the second period to make it 2-0. He took a pass from Zach Hyman with speed at the Edmonton blue line, skated around defenseman Kris Russell, and lifted a shot over Stolarz. It was Tavares' 38th goal, matching his NHL career high, set in 2014-15 with the New York Islanders.
Muzzin converted a pass from William Nylander on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 3-0 at 3:00 of the third period.
"I thought we played well, I thought we had lots of guys going, and we controlled the puck," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "I would like to have the last two minutes back, we couldn't figure out where to stand at the end, but it'll give us good tape to go back and look at it and fix that. You can't give up that, but I thought [Andersen] was real strong, and it's a good win, and obviously, five of six points on the road is pretty good."
Nugent-Hopkins scored at 18:21 to make it 3-1 with Stolarz pulled for the extra skater. Klefbom scored off a pass from McDavid to make it 3-2 with 53 seconds left.
"It was a rich game. It's a great game to evaluate on," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It tells you what you've got now and what you've got moving forward, and when you've got a team that can play at that tempo, especially through the middle of the ice, any mistakes get exposed."
Zack Kassian had a chance to tie the game with 30 seconds remaining, but Andersen made the save on his shot from the right hash marks on the rush.
"[Andersen] was outstanding, I thought he made a lot of really impressive saves," Rielly said. "But more than that, he plays the puck, he's a leader for us, and we've become used to it a little bit, just of how consistent he's really been, and tonight was another example of that."

They said it

"I just want to keep trying to improve my game in all parts of the ice. I believe in myself, and I think playing with some pretty good players throughout our lineup and most of the year with [Mitchell Marner] and [Zach Hyman], you're going to get great opportunities, and I'm just trying to be as prepared as I can for them." -- Maple Leafs center John Tavares on tying his NHL career high in goals
"I woke up to a text this morning, and I was like, 'Here we go.' I am no stranger to being thrown in there. We had some situations in Philly which top this one." -- Oilers goalie Anthony Stolarz on starting in place of Mikko Koskinen, who was ill

Need to know

Nylander is one assist from 100 in the NHL. … Marner had a five-game point streak end (three goals, eight assists) … Andersen is 11-0-1 against the Oilers. … McDavid has 29 multipoint games this season, and Draisaitl has 27.

What's next

Maple Leafs: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TVAS, SNO, SUN, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Host the New York Rangers on Monday (9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNW, MSG, NHL.TV)