MacKinnon has 4 points, Avalanche score 9 to cruise past Oilers

EDMONTON -- Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists to push his point streak to eight games, and the Colorado Avalanche won 9-1 against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday.

MacKinnon has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in that span, and now has 12 goals on the season, which ties him for the League lead alongside Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield.

“It was a good win, obviously," MacKinnon said. "We scored opportunistic goals, guys were finishing tonight. I don’t think it wasn’t as dominant as the score looked. We scored when we had looks, so it was a good effort. I don’t want to jinx it, but we’ve been playing really well. We have one regulation loss in 15 games."

Parker Kelly had two goals and an assist, and Cale Makar and Jack Drury each scored twice for the Avalanche (9-1-5), who lead the NHL with 23 points. Devon Toews had three assists, and Scott Wedgewood made 23 saves.

“Obviously, two high-powered offensive teams, you probably would have thought nine goals total in the game, not just for one side,” Wedgewood said. “Credit to us, we kind of exposed them in a few spots and were able to capitalize.

“We did a good job defensively. At some points in the game, they could have had some chances of getting life and staying in it.”

Connor McDavid scored for the Oilers (6-6-4), who have lost three straight. Stuart Skinner made nine saves on 13 shots before being replaced by Calvin Pickard, who stopped 16 of 21 shots.

“Right from puck drop, I'd say we were kind of flat. There's mistakes kind of all over the ice,” Oilers forward Andrew Mangiapane said. “I don't know if we're just thinking that it's going to come easy to us. So, it just starts there. Everyone just buying in and just bringing that intensity, whatever that is for you. Each player is different.”

Makar put the Avalanche ahead 1-0 at 13:29 of the first period, sending a snap shot from the top of the right circle off the post and in, stick side past Skinner.

Makar then made it 2-0 at 14:35, sending another snap shot from just inside the right circle past Skinner’s blocker.

“After the first goal, there was a lot of deflation. Especially off the second one, off the face-off, and after that, it was a lot of guys beating themselves up and not playing very well,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “A lot of not looking like a cohesive team right now, just not playing very well right now and that’s on the coaching staff, mostly myself, to get that aligned.

“This team’s been in trying times several times over the years and they’ve always worked it out. Just because they’ve found a way to play better, step up and I think right now, the last couple weeks I’ve seen we’re just kind of waiting for that moment to happen. And I think tonight would be, I definitely hope this is, rock bottom for us. I hope this wakes up a lot of guys.”

Gabriel Landeskog appeared to put Colorado ahead 3-0 at 16:03 when Drury sent a cross-ice pass to Victor Olofsson, who dropped it back to Landeskog at the right dot for a shot that beat Skinner’s glove, but a coach’s challenge ruled Drury was offside on the play.

Brindley made it 3-0 at 2:38 of the second period, picking up the rebound off a wrist shot from the point by Sam Malinski and raising a backhand over Skinner’s right pad.

Drury extended the lead to 4-0 at 4:45, redirecting a pass from the point from Olofsson past Skinner’s blocker.

Pickard took over Edmonton’s net at 12:32 of the second period.

Kelly made it 5-0 with a short-handed goal at 9:34. After a centering pass from behind the net from Brindley came to him off the skate of Oilers defenseman Alec Regula, Kelly steered a backhand around the extended left pad of Pickard for the score.

McDavid cut the lead to 5-1 on the power play at 11:30, taking a cross-ice feed from Leon Draisaitl, skating in to the left dot and tucking a snap shot under Wedgewood’s blocker.

“We wanted to have a good start and I thought we did, but I feel like we deserved this tonight,” said Oilers defenseman Jake Walman. “We’re not really trending in the right direction there, for a while, and they kicked our (butt) tonight."

Kelly put Colorado ahead 6-1 short-handed at 14:38, intercepting a pass back to the point from Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and taking it down the ice for a breakaway before deking a backhand shot past Pickard’s left pad.

“I thought we were doing a really good job of making them come through five (guys),” Kelly said. “They’re going to have their moments, they’re a skilled team and I thought we did a really god job of keeping them to the outside.

“Things were going in for us and it makes the game a little bit easier when everyone is doing the right thing.”

MacKinnon pushed Colorado’s lead to 7-1 just 24 seconds into the third period, carrying the puck up the left boards and sending a snap shot short side past Pickard, before pushing it to 8-1 at 5:02.

Drury made it 9-1 at 14:28 with a snap shot in the slot off a back pass from Ross Colton.

NOTES: Twelve Avalanche players earned at least a point in the game. ... Colorado went 0-for-7 on the power play, while Edmonton went 1-for-5. ... The Oilers’ 9-1 loss is tied for their largest margin of defeat on home ice in franchise history (lost 10-2 at home to the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 27, 2009). ... The Oilers lost their first home game in regulation of the season. ... Mattias Ekholm played in his 900th career NHL game. ... McDavid pushed his personal point streak to four games (two goals, six assists for eight points).