Leon Draisaitl scored his 52nd goal and had two assists and Mattias Janmark scored twice to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-2 victory over the visiting San Jose Sharks on Thursday in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Evan Bouchard and Evander Kane also scored for Edmonton (50-23-9, 109 points) which moved into a tie with Vegas (50-22-9, 109 points) for first place in the Pacific Division. The Golden Knights played at Seattle later Thursday.
The Oilers own the regulation-wins tiebreaker and would claim the division crown and the No. 1 playoff seed in the Western Conference if Vegas loses in regulation to the Kraken.
Stuart Skinner finished with 27 saves for his 29th win of the season, breaking Grant Fuhr’s team rookie wins mark of 28 set in 1981-82. It was the ninth straight win for the Oilers, who also extended their point streak to 15 games (14-0-1).
Connor McDavid had an assist, his league-leading 89th to go with an NHL-best 64 goals.
Steven Lorentz had a goal and an assist and Noah Gregor also scored for San Jose (22-44-16, 60 points). James Reimer made 31 saves.
Janmark gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at the 4:16 mark of the first period when Reimer pokechecked the puck off his leg and into the net.
Draisaitl made it 2-0 with a power-play goal, slapping in a crossing pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins into an open right side of the net at 6:56 of the first. It was his 32nd power play-goal of the season, tied with Dave Andreychuk (1992-93 Buffalo and Toronto) for the second most in a season in NHL history. Tim Kerr set the mark of 34 with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1985-86.
Gregor cut it to 2-1 midway through the opening period with his 10th goal. He roofed a rebound of a Thomas Bordeleau shot from the left side of the crease.
Bouchard extended Edmonton’s lead to 3-1 early in the second period when he snapped in a spinning backhand pass past Draisaitl from the low slot.
Janmark made it 4-1 at 14:04 of the second with the 10th short-handed goal of his career. He scooped up a loose puck in the neutral zone and then put a backhand shot five-hole on Reimer.
Lorentz cut it to 4-2 at 18:48 of the second period with his first career power-play goal, deflecting in a Tomas Hertl pass.
Kane then sealed the win with 4:05 remaining in the game when he roofed a Draisaitl pass from the slot for his 16th goal.
–Field Level Media
