McDavid has 2 goals, assist as Oilers beat Sharks 7-1

Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) is congratulated after scoring against the San Jose Sharks during the first period of an NHL hockey game in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

SAN JOSE -

Connor McDavid had two goals and an assist, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the San Jose Sharks 7-1 on Friday night.

Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had a goal and two assists, and Klim Kostin, Jesse Puljujarvi, and Ryan McLeod also scored for the Oilers. Jack Campbell made 25 saves in Edmonton's second-straight win.

“We certainly need to keep building on our game,” McDavid said. "Two good ones in a row, obviously, (and) we keep talking about consistency, so that’s a good sign.”

Oskar Lindblom scored for San Jose, and Kaapo Kahkonen finished with 34 saves. The Sharks have lost four of their last five games (1-3-1).

“We just stunk. We stunk on the powerplay. We stopped on the penalty kill. We stunk 5-on-5. Our forward’s stunk, (and) our defensemen stunk," Sharks coach David Quinn said. "The only guy that didn’t stink was our goalie. And that hasn’t happened all year, and over 82 games, something like this is going to happen. You can move past it pretty quickly.”

McDavid showed off his hands by streaking down the middle of the ice on the power play with a quick shot that beat Kahkonen over the far side to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead with 9:01 left in the first period.

Kostin doubled the lead with his eighth of the season with 1:46 remaining in the opening period.

“It was 2-0 after the first period. Both teams were competing hard," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We had some things go our way tonight, but they’re a well-coached proud team. We were fortunate on some things tonight, but we executed the way we wanted to and came away with two points with multiple contributions up and down our lineup.”

Draisaitl found McDavid on the power play with a sweet back door pass behind his back for his 37th to make it 3-0 at 8:22 of the second.

Mattias Janmark found Nugent-Hopkins from behind the net for a short-handed goal after Sharks defenseman Matt Benning couldn’t hold the puck in the offensive zone. It was Nugent-Hopkins' 21st goal of the season, making it 4-0.

McDavid stole the puck on a forecheck and found Draisaitl in the slot for his 24th goal with 2:05 left in the second.

Puljujarvi and McLeod scored 34 seconds apart in the third period to make it 7-0 with 7:14 to go.

Lindblom's tip-in on a shot by Matt Benning ended Campbell's shutout bid with just under 5 minutes left.

“That’s kind of their what they’re really good at actually, they look for that,” Campbell said. “The guy had his head up the whole way and made a nice tip.”

The Sharks finished the game 0 for 4 on the power play.

“I just think the game got away from us,” Sharks captain Logan Couture said. "I think too many shifts where it snowballed, and we made mistakes, and they ended up in the back of our net. When you get down three or four goals, you want to go out and make a difference in the game, and it’s human nature to try and do too much.”

Leon Draisaitl played in his 600th career game.

This story by The Associated Press was first published Saturday Jan. 14, 2023