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The final Battle of Alberta of 2018-19 started in the best way the Oilers could have hoped, with Draisaitl opening the scoring to the tune of his 50th goal on the season in the first period, a mark not reached by an Edmonton Oiler since Jari Kurri and Wayne Gretzky both accomplished the feat in 1986-87. With the tally, the German forward becomes just the sixth unique player to hit the 50-goal plateau in the last decade, joining the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Corey Perry, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. It also makes him just the fifth to do it in an Oilers uniform after the aforementioned duo of Gretzky and Kurri, along with Glenn Anderson and Mark Messier.
Before things got going at the Saddledome, the Washington Capitals had completed their final game of the regular season where the League's leading goal scorer in Alexander Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet. Ovechkin finished with 51 and with 40 minutes to play in Calgary, Draisaitl was just one goal back of matching him.
A pass from d-man Andrej Sekera off the right wing boards found Draisaitl camped just below the hashmarks where he sniped a quick wrister past Mike Smith for his 50th.
The Rocket Richard watch was officially on.
And he was in it right to the end, coming close to his second of the night on several occasions including a loft at the empty net in the dying seconds of the third that was swatted out of the air by a Calgary defender. He ultimately couldn't find number 51 but was nonetheless happy he could cap his career-best season by reaching the half-century mark.
"The guys kept trying to set me up and luckily one squeaked through," said Draisaitl. "I've been trying to improve my game every day since I was a little kid and I do that every day. I've been happy with the pucks going in for me (this season)."
Oilers Head Coach Ken Hitchcock also had high praise for the Oilers forward given his outstanding body of work this season after finishing it on such a high note.
"His scoring went up when his overall game went up. He started to see how much offence he could create off of checking and hunting pucks and his whole game changed," said Hitchcock. Everybody talks in terms of a 200-hundred foot player and Leon became a 200-foot player at 22 and if he continues down this path, he's going to be an awesome player for a long time."