Connor McDavid regains NHL scoring lead as Oilers beat Flyers

Leon Draisaitl scored his 22nd goal of the season in the Edmonton Oilers win over the Philadelphia Flyers.

EDMONTON — It has only taken the Edmonton Oilers 58 games to equal their point total from all of last season.

Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists to regain the NHL scoring lead as Edmonton came away with a 6-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

Matt Hendricks, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Oscar Klefbom also scored for the Oilers (31-19-8), who have won two straight games and three of their last four. With the win, Edmonton moved into a tie with Anaheim for second place in the Pacific Division with 70 points.

"It’s a good two points for us," McDavid said. "It was a big game for both teams and we found a way to get the win."

Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby took over the scoring lead for a brief moment earlier in the night with his own three-point performance. McDavid now has 66 points while Crosby has 64.

Edmonton has now scored 11 goals in its last two games after only tallying four goals in its previous five games.

"We didn’t get too down on ourselves and we felt it coming," Nugent-Hopkins said. "We stuck with it and good things have ended up happening."

Radko Gudas, Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn responded for the Flyers (27-23-7), who have lost two in a row and four of their last five games.

"It’s not easy to see, but they took some penalties and I thought we could have scored some goals on those and it could have been a different game," Gudas said.

"Unfortunately we didn’t."

Edmonton struck quickly, just 2:14 into the first period when Hendricks elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 opportunity, scoring his second goal in as many games on Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth.

The Oilers made it 2-0 with five minutes left in the opening frame when Matt Benning made a beautiful feed in front to allow Draisaitl to direct in his 22nd goal of the season.

The Flyers cut into the lead just 31 seconds into the second period as a Sean Couturier pass hit Gudas in front and trickled past Oilers goalie Cam Talbot.

Edmonton regained its cushion seven minutes into the second when Eberle cashed in on the rebound from a McDavid backhand for his first goal in nine games.

It was 4-1 just over a minute later as an Eric Gryba shot struck Nugent-Hopkins in front and got past Neuvirth.

Midway through the second period, Oiler Patrick Maroon took it to Flyer Brandon Manning in a spirited bout. Manning had been embroiled in a war of words with McDavid since injuring the Oilers captain during his rookie season last year.

"He did a really good job and it’s something we’re going to drop now," Maroon said. "We’re going to move forward here, and we’re not going to hear about it anymore."

Edmonton took a four-goal lead with just over three minutes left in the middle period when Klefbom unleashed a cannon of a shot for the Oilers’ fifth goal on 17 shots. McDavid picked up another assist to move him back into the scoring lead.

Philadelphia got one back with 45 seconds left in the second as Simmonds was left alone in front to score his 24th.

The Flyers made it 5-3 seven minutes into the third on a Schenn power-play goal, but McDavid put the game away for good with his 19th goal of the season with five minutes to play.

The Oilers start a six-game road trip in Chicago on Saturday. The Flyers conclude a three-game road swing in Vancouver on Sunday.

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