McDavid reaches 100 points, Oilers cruise past Kings

LOS ANGELES -- Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist to reach the 100-point mark for the ninth time in his NHL career, and the Edmonton Oilers ended a four-game losing streak with an 8-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.

McDavid, who reached the mark for the sixth straight season, ranks third in League history in 100-point seasons, behind Wayne Gretzky (15) and Mario Lemieux (10).

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists, and Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists for the Oilers (29-23-8), who responded after blowing multiple leads in a 6-5 loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. Connor Ingram made 21 saves.

“Some games you score, some games you don’t, but I think the one thing you can control is how well you defend, and I thought we did a better job of limiting chances in this game,” Hyman said.

Darcy Kuemper allowed four goals on 15 shots before being replaced midway through the second period for the Kings (23-21-14), who were coming off a 6-4 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday and are 0-4-1 in their past five games. Anton Forsberg made 18 saves in relief.

Los Angeles is three points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

“I mean, 24 (games remaining) seems a lot, but we've got to get on track here real, real quick,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “It’s obviously getting to a point where teams from the outside looking in, the chances are slimming down if you’re not on the inside. So, we've got to get there, obviously, and start winning games.”

Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said he was not concerned about his immediate job security after hearing multiple chants of “Fire Hiller” throughout the game.

“My focus is on trying to win on Saturday (against the Calgary Flames),” Hiller said. “We sign up for this job. I think you’re probably always concerned when you got a job in the coaching world, so that’s just something that’s always tucked away. But what overrides all of that is trying to get your team to win games.”

Ty Emberson put Edmonton up 1-0 at 7:25 of the first period, scoring on a 3-on-2 rush with a wrist shot from the right circle that went in off Kuemper’s left shoulder.

Vasily Podkolzin made it 2-0 at 8:19 with a wrist shot from the left circle that trickled under Kuemper’s glove arm.

Warren Foegele cut it to 2-1 at 12:15 when he redirected Joel Edmundson’s shot from along the left boards short side on Ingram, who didn't appear to see it.

The Oilers extended their lead to 3-1 at 2:59 of the second period after Andrew Mangiapane elected to keep the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and scored glove side on a wrist shot from the left circle.

“We scored off the rush a couple times just by defending well,” Hyman said.

McDavid made it 4-1 at 4:58. He pulled Kuemper out of position at the left post before skating around the net and out into the right circle, where he shot into an open net over a sprawling Drew Doughty.

Kuemper was pulled for Forsberg during the next television timeout.

“I mean, we've got to keep the pucks out of our net,” Kopitar said. “Whether it’s structure, individual effort, sacrifice, blocking shots, winning face-offs, you name it, all of the above.”

Hyman put Edmonton ahead 5-1 during a power play at 8:44. He chipped in a rebound with his backhand after Draisaitl’s slap shot caromed off the end boards.

Draisaitl scored his own power-play goal 31 seconds into the third period to make it 6-1. He skated into a drop pass from McDavid and beat Forsberg blocker side from above the left circle.

Jake Walman made it 7-1 at 5:24 on a slap shot from the point following a face-off win by Draisaitl. Walman then pushed it to 8-1 at 7:36 from the bottom of the right circle.

“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t good,” Los Angeles defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “Sometimes it’s just the way it goes. Obviously, it’s not a good time to have a game like this. I mean, I don’t know if we’ve had obviously one this bad this year, but for whatever reason, it came today.”

NOTES: Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said before the game that forward Mattias Janmark will be out for an extended period after aggravating an undisclosed chronic injury in the first period of their 6-5 loss at the Ducks on Wednesday. With Janmark unavailable, Edmonton played with 11 forwards and six defensemen. … Kings forward Joel Armia left in the first period with an upper-body injury, and Doughty left after the second period because of a lower-body injury.