Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Kirill Kaprizov of the visiting Minnesota Wild will look to continue their goal-scoring streaks when their teams meet on Friday.
McDavid scored for the sixth straight game when he had two goals and two assists in an 8-2 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
Kaprizov set Wild records when he scored for the seventh straight game and extended his point streak to 13 in a 5-3 loss to the host Calgary Flames on Wednesday.
McDavid, who has 17 points (eight goals, nine assists) during a seven-game point streak, tops the NHL with 52 points (24 goals, 28 assists) in 27 games this season, putting him in elite company.
He’s just the sixth player in the past 30 years to reach 50 points in 27 games or fewer, joining Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Wayne Gretzky, Pat LaFontaine and Kevin Stevens. Lemieux is the lone player to have done it more than once, as he needed just 18 games in 1992-93 and 1995-96 and 26 games in 2002-03 to reach 50 points.
Kaprizov has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in the past 13 games, boosting his season totals to 17 goals — which are seventh-most in the league — and 16 assists.
“To be honest, I don’t really think about that. I don’t pay attention to that,” Kaprizov said. “It’s a credit to my teammates that I play with. If it wasn’t for them, none of this would be possible, so thank you to them. Ultimately at the end of the day, we want to win as a team. This is a team game, and the win is more important than a personal record.”
While the Wild ended their four-game winning streak with a loss to the Flames, the Oilers are coming off their fifth win in the past seven contests.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two goals and an assist, while Leon Draisaitl, Derek Ryan and Klim Kostin each had a goal and an assist in Wednesday’s win over the Coyotes. Brett Kulak also scored and Kailer Yamamoto and Tyson Barrie each had two assists for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner (8-6-0, 2.86 GAA) finished with 16 saves.
“Everybody was involved offensively, and I thought we were pretty solid defensively for the most part,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who has 13 goals in 27 games after scoring 11 in 63 games last season. “I think our mentality coming in was that it was going to be work-based. We wanted to work early and go from there.”
In the Wild’s latest effort, after Minnesota took a 2-0 on first-period goals by Kaprizov and Mason Shaw, the Flames scored three goals in the first 3:11 of the second period to take a 3-2 lead entering the second intermission.
Jon Merrill tied the game at the 15:45 mark of the third period, but Rasmus Andersson gave the Flames the lead for good just 12 seconds later when he scored on Marc-Andre Fleury (9-6-1, 3.10 GAA). Tyler Toffoli added an empty-net goal with 1:10 left to secure the win.
“I think we’ve got to find a way when we’re ahead to stay calm but still play with the pace, still be aggressive out there,” Fleury said. “Got to make a few saves, too, and help the guys out.”
–Field Level Media
