Connor McDavid scored his 15th career hat trick and finished with five points on Wednesday night, leading the Edmonton Oilers to a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks that moved them into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division.
McDavid controlled the game almost from the start, scoring on a power play in the first half and then twice in the second to make it 5-2. He also assisted on powerplay goals by Vasily Podkolzin and Jack Roslovic to increase his NHL point total to 133. The star center needs three goals in his last three games for his second career 50-goal season.
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Connor Ingram made eight saves on 10 shots over two periods for Edmonton. Tristan Jarry stopped all four shots he faced in the third.
The win gave the Oilers 90 points, two more than Vegas in the division race. The Golden Knights have a game in hand.
Macklin Celebrini scored his 42nd goal for San Jose to give him 108 points this season, third most by a teenager behind Wayne Gretzky’s 137 and Sidney Crosby’s 120.
Kiefer Sherwood also scored for the Sharks, whose playoff hopes took a big hit with the regulation loss. San Jose remains three points behind Nashville and two behind Los Angeles in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Sharks have four games remaining with one game in hand over the Predators.
Alex Nedeljkovic made 21 saves for San Jose.
The Oilers scored on all three power-play chances in the best performance for that unit since Leon Draisaitl went down with a lower-body injury on March 15 after scoring on the man advantage early in that game. Edmonton had been 3 for 27 on the power play in the 10-plus games since Draisaitl’s injury.
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