There might not be a worse feeling for a goalie than seeing the duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl gliding down the ice on a 2-on-1 in overtime.
That was how Wednesday night’s game ended with McDavid scoring the game-winning goal as the Edmonton Oilers edged the Washington Capitals 4-3 in one of two games played in the NHL.
It looked as if goals by Kailer Yamamoto, Cody Ceci and Brad Malone would be enough to give Edmonton a much-needed win. However, T.J. Oshie scored with two seconds left in the third period to tie the game. It was Oshie’s second goal of the game and guaranteed that the game would go over the 6½-goal total established by the Las Vegas odds.
Malone had a goal and an assist for not only his first points this season but first at the NHL level since the 2015-16 season when he was with the Carolina Hurricanes.
McDavid took over the NHL scoring lead and also hit the 30-goal mark for the sixth season in a row.
McDavid is Captain Clutch for the @EdmontonOilers tonight 🔥 #NHLonTNT pic.twitter.com/uR6q78mgoT
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) March 10, 2022
Speaking of milestones, Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and assisted on Oshie’s first goal to record his 1,000th career point all coming with Washington.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak and pulled Edmonton within a point of Dallas for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference although the Oilers have played two more games than the Stars.
“Those are big points,” McDavid said. “They are all from here on out. We need to start piling them up.”
Edmonton (+1100) is tied for the fourth-best odds to win the Western Conference while Washington (+1300) is eighth in the odds to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup final. Vancouver (+5000) is just 12th in the Western Conference odds.
Washington now leads Columbus by 13 points in the race for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
In the only other game, J.T. Miller had a goal and three assists as the Vancouver Canucks topped the visiting Montreal Canadiens 5-3.
Miller became the first Vancouver player with points in 10 straight games since Henrik Sedin in 2013 as he has seven goals and 14 assists over that span and has scored at least two points seven times during that run. More importantly, Vancouver is 8-2 in those games as the Canucks are now just three points out of the final spot in the Western Conference.
“We have to do that every game,” Miller said. “It’s not going to be perfect all the time. We have to get two points. We have to be desperate every game.”
Since February 1, only Mitchell Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs averages more points per game than Miller’s 1.77 among players who have appeared in at least 10 games.
Miller’s big game had a payout of +135 since he topped 1½ points while the two-goal win had a Moneyline of +450.
Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson had power-play goals for Vancouver whose 30% success rate on power plays since February 1 is tops among Western Conference teams.
Something of note for those who bet online, this was the ninth Canucks’ game in a row to have at least seven combined goals.
Arturi Lehkonen had two goals and an assist giving him six goals and two assists over his last five games. Lehkonen assisted on Rem Pitlick’s goal with 4:25 left to pull Vancouver within a goal but Montreal did not get another shot on goal the rest of the way as Bo Horvat iced the game with an empty-net goal with 58 seconds left to play.
The game had an NHL betting lines total of six goals and Pitlick’s goal put the game over the total.
