Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl help Oilers surge into break

EDMONTON, Alberta — Connor McDavid had five assists, Leon Draisaitl scored three goals and the Edmonton Oilers kept rolling into the holiday hiatus with a 5-1 victory over the rival Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.

Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists, Evan Bouchard added two assists and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored for the Oilers (19-13-6), who have won four of five and are 8-2-1 in their past 11 games.

“This is as good as it’s been,” McDavid said. “It was pretty solid overall, special teams were great. … There were a lot of things to like.”

MacKenzie Weegar scored for the Flames (15-18-4), who won their previous two. Dustin Wolf made 34 saves in the loss for Calgary.

Connor Ingram, making a second consecutive NHL start for the first time since early February with Utah, stopped 18 shots to improve to 2-0-0 with the Oilers.

McDavid extended his point streak to 11 games, with 12 goals and 19 assists during that stretch. It was the 45th time he has had at least four points in a game, tying Jari Kurri for second in Oilers history.

“You look at the way the team is rolling right now, winning a lot more games, and it starts with those two,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said of McDavid and Draisaitl. “And they’re playing extremely well, and that’s an understatement.”

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Draisaitl has points in 10 of his past 11 games, with five goals and 19 assists. His three goals moved him past Glenn Anderson (417) for third in Oilers history behind Wayne Gretzky and Kurri.

“I know that he wants to play good hockey. That’s all,” McDavid said of Draisaitl. “That’s all that he really cares about. And he’s been doing that.”

Edmonton took a 5-1 lead on a power play with 14:22 left as Draisaitl netted his third goal of the game and 20th of the season. It was his ninth career regular-season hat trick.

Draisaitl entered with an eight-game goal drought, his longest regular-season stretch without a goal since February into March of 2021.

Edmonton came in with the NHL’s best power play (33.3%) and had scored on 42.4% of its opportunities over the past 10 games, with 14 goals on 33 chances. The Oilers were 3-for-6 with the man advantage Tuesday.

Edmonton is 16-1-3 when scoring first this season and 4-0 in its new alternate jerseys, outscoring opponents by a 26-10 margin.

Flames forward Mikael Backlund has six points in his past three games after totaling just three in his previous 10.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.