EDMONTON — Connor McDavid has once again put the rest of the players in the league in his rear view mirror.
McDavid had a pair of goals to take over the NHL scoring lead as the Edmonton Oilers won their third straight game, defeating the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Saturday.
The Oilers captain and last year’s scoring champ has been on fire of late with 23 goals in his last 26 games and 12 points in his last six.
"I’m just going to put repeat on," said McDavid, who added he would be lying if he said he hasn’t kept on eye where he sat in the race for the Art Ross Trophy.
"We pay attention to it. Guys that are in the race, I’m sure they are paying attention to it. We are so far along in the year and everyone has come so far that you might as well put your best foot forward and go for it."
Pontus Aberg also scored for the Oilers (34-36-5), who have gone 4-1-1 in their last six games, a span during which they were officially eliminated from the playoffs.
"Lately we have been stringing some games together, something we didn’t do as well at the start of the season," said Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. "It was obviously not the way we wanted it to go in the first half, but we can take some confidence and play the game the right way to at least go into the summer with at least a good feeling."
Jake Muzzin and Jeff Carter replied for the Kings (41-28-7), who have lost two of their last three in the midst of a tight battle for third place in the Pacific Division with Anaheim.
"Chasing games on the road is tough," Muzzin said. "We had some chances and didn’t score. I don’t think we were as prepared as we should have emotionally in this game and I don’t know why. We got desperate a little too late, we weren’t able to capitalize and able to come back."
The Oilers started the scoring just 45 seconds into the first period when Aberg hooked a puck from behind then net past surprised Kings goalie Jonathan Quick for his sixth point in the last three games.
Edmonton made it 2-0 with 4:28 left in the opening frame when McDavid had a strong second effort to bang his own rebound under Quick’s stick for his 37th of the season.
However, the Kings bounced back just 28 seconds later when Muzzin cleanly beat Oilers goalie Cam Talbot with a shot from the slot.
The Oilers regained the two-goal edge four minutes into the second period when McDavid sent a shot through Quick’s legs on a partial breakaway. The goal officially put McDavid into the NHL scoring lead with 96 points, moving him ahead of Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov.
The Kings got that goal back a couple minutes later when Tobias Rieder made a long feed to Carter, who scored at the side of the net.
Talbot made a huge stop on a shorthanded breakaway by Nate Thompson early in the third and survived some late pressure to preserve the win.
The Oilers remain home to face the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. The Kings return to L.A. to play the Calgary Flames on Monday.
Notes: It was the fourth and final match of the season between the two teams, with the Kings winning the first two encounters and the Oilers taking the third and fourth.
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