EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Zach Hyman scored two goals and Leon Draisaitl had three assists as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-1 on Sunday.
Ryan McLeod and Connor McDavid each had a goal and an assist, and Corey Perry and Cody Ceci also scored for the Oilers, who have won four in a row and are 31-8-1 in their last 40 games. Calvin Pickard stopped 22 shots.
“I thought we came to play. Four lines, 60 (minutes), (Pickard) was outstanding when we needed him. It was a really good effort by us,” Draisaitl said. “You need those games every once in a while.”
Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins in their third straight loss. Alex Nedeljkovic finished with 31 saves.
READ MORE
“It’s tough right now, it really stinks right now,” Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “It’s a really gut-wrenching feeling in here, but we’ve talked about it enough that we can’t really feel sorry for ourselves. We’re still in the hunt somehow and we have to look at it that way.”
Penguins veteran Sidney Crosby felt some of the blame came from allowing the Calgary Flames to come back from three goals down in a 4-3 loss on Saturday night.
“I think we had a tough loss (in Calgary), and I don’t know if we did a good enough job of just moving by it,” he said. “I think that you’ve got to find a way even when it’s one like that, to move by it. We probably didn’t do a good enough job.”
Edmonton started the scoring with 5:53 left in the opening period as McDavid elected to shoot on a 2-on-1, but Nedeljkovic kicked the rebound straight to Hyman, who shoveled it in. Hyman has now scored in nine straight home games.
With the assist, McDavid stretched his overall points streak to 11 games and extended his home point streak to 25 games, his personal-best.
The Oilers made it 2-0 at 2:57 of the second as they broke out on a 3-on-1 shortly after a big save by Pickard in their own net, with McLeod making a nice pass through to Perry, who directed in his eighth of the season and fourth with the Oilers.
Edmonton struck again about three minutes later as a puck caromed right onto Hyman’s stick in front and he scored his team-leading 42nd goal. It was his 12th goal in his last nine games at home and 10th goal in his last eight overall.
Pittsburgh had a chance to get back in the game with three minutes to play in the second when Jansen Harkins was awarded a penalty shot after being hooked on a breakaway by Edmonton defender Brett Kulak. However, Harkins shot the puck wide of the net.
Edmonton kept pouring it on with 1:13 remaining in the second as McLeod scored from a bad angle, chipping a shot off of Nedeljkovic’s mask and in from near the goal line for his 10th.
Then, just 23 seconds later, Ceci was able to get his second of the season with a wrist shot to the far corner from the right faceoff dot. Warren Foegele picked up his second assist of the game to give him a career high for points at 31.
The Oilers made it 6-0 at 6:03 of the third as a huge rebound from Draisaitl’s shot came over to McDavid and he wired home his 23rd.
The Penguins ended Pickard’s shutout bid with 7:37 to play as a puck hit Ceci behind the net and bounced in front to Malkin at the side of the net to give him his 17th of the year.
The Oilers moved three points ahead of Vegas for second place in the Pacific Division — nine points behind first-place Vancouver. Edmonton has played four fewer games.
“I thought our execution was really noticeable tonight. Making clean passes and making the right decisions at the right time. Everyone was contributing and hopefully we can build off of that,” Oilers forward Warren Foegele said. “We are looking at the standings and we want to finish first in our division and as well for the West. Efforts like that will help us get there.”
Pittsburgh was without the services of Matthew Nieto, Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, while Edmonton was missing Derek Ryan.
Leon Draisaitl played in his 697th career game with the Oilers, passing Gretzky for 10th place in franchise history.
UP NEXT
Penguins: Host Columbus on Tuesday night to open a two-game homestand.
Oilers: At Boston on Tuesday night to open a four-game trip.
___
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
