SEATTLE — Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Seattle Kraken 7-2 on Friday night.
Zach Hyman and Klim Kostin each scored twice as Edmonton won for the third time in four games. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had four assists, and Darnell Nurse finished with a goal and an assist.
McDavid extended his point streak to 17 games, matching his career best. He has 16 goals and 21 assists during the stretch.
“He’s the best player in the world for a reason,” said Seattle’s Adam Larsson, a former teammate with McDavid in Edmonton. “He’s hard to stop. We can do a lot better job stopping him, but when you give him time and space, he’s going to make you look stupid most of the time.”
Brandon Tanev and Daniel Sprong scored for Seattle in its third consecutive loss.
Edmonton grabbed control with four goals in the first half of the first period.
Hyman put the Oilers ahead to stay with a power-play goal at 2:44. It was his 16th of the season.
Kostin scored at 3:16, and Nurse slipped another shot past Phillipp Grubauer at 3:55. It was the second-fastest trio of goals to begin a game in the NHL this season, behind only Buffalo at 2:13.
Grubauer was replaced by Martin Jones, but Edmonton made it 4-0 when Jesse Puljujarvi scored his third goal of the season at 9:58.
McDavid collected three assists in the first period, and Edmonton’s four goals were the most allowed by the Kraken in the first in franchise history.
Sprong got Seattle on the board 1:50 into the second. It was Sprong’s 11th of the season.
But Kostin and Hyman scored again for the Oilers in the middle period. McDavid got his 40th assist of the season on Hyman’s 17th goal.
McDavid closed it out when he scored his NHL-leading 32nd goal 10:43 into the third.
“I’m always working on my game,” McDavid said. “I’m just trying to get better and some nights it goes well and some nights it doesn’t. That’s the nature of this league, and I’m just trying to help the team win. That’s what I’m paid to do.”
Earlier this season, McDavid became just the fifth NHL player in the past 25 years to score 30 goals in 35 or fewer games.
“What he is doing, I think we should all realize, is quite special,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “It’s the best league in the world, and he is off to a career year. He is doing something that the league hasn’t seen for a very long time. So that is special.”
Each of Seattle’s past three losses have come against Pacific Division rivals.
“The competitiveness, and that element, and that willingness to check and push and push through hard situations is really important. We weren’t very good there tonight,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “So that’s where, you know, we have to take a close hard look at ourselves. All of us. We’re all in this thing together.”
WORTH NOTING
Edmonton played without center Leon Draisaitl, who was scratched with an unspecified injury. Draisaitl has 21 goals and 36 assists in 36 games this season. … Larsson picked up an assist on Tanev’s goal 7:33 into the second. It was Larsson’s career-best fifth straight game with an assist.
UP NEXT
Oilers: Host Winnipeg on Saturday night.
Kraken: Host the New York Islanders on Sunday.
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