NHL: Connor McDavid scored his goals 53 and 54; A new high of 124 pips

Connor McDavid scored another double, his sixth in eight games, as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Buffalo Sabers 3-2 on Monday.

With his 53rd and 54th goals on the season, the Alberta star has given himself a ten-goal lead over his closest pursuer, David Pasternak, of the Boston Bruins.

With this new crop of two goals, McDavid surpassed his best point production of his career, with 124 points after 65 games. He had scored 123 in 80 matches last year.

It was the No. 97 Oilers who opened the scoring when veteran Craig Anderson drove hard with a spin play on his backside.

In the power play, Jeff Skinner tied the score before halftime, firing a one-timer to beat Stuart Skinner. On the line, Tage Thompson caught his 41st assist.

After Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was ruled out for offside midway through the period, Edmonton ended the engagement aggressively and provided the fourth line with a timely goal, a Derek Ryan goal.

For the second time, the Sabers turned up the counters, this time thanks to Dylan Cousins, who scored his team’s second goal after 41 seconds of play in the third period.

Less than three minutes later, McDavid put it back in charge again. He accepted a throw-in from Warren Voegley at the entrance to the area, before easily escaping his cover and hitting Anderson between the leggings.

The Oilers next game is Thursday night in Boston.

Late turbulence sweeps the planes away

The San Jose Sharks saved best for last in a 3-2 overtime victory over the Winnipeg Jets.

San Jose was on course for a sixth straight loss before tying the game with ten seconds left in normal time.

Couture now has seven more career goals in overtime, the third-most in Sharks history. Brent Burns and Patrick Marlowe command ten goals each.

It was Logan Couture’s goal at 1:21 into overtime that made the difference. He got his 22nd of the season when he beat David Ritech while getting past him on his own after being well fed by defender Erik Carlsson.

Carlsson and Couture were behind a late equalizer in the third minute. After the puck deflected off a player, Thomas Hertel recovered the loose puck to put it on top to force overtime.

Carlson played his 25th multi-point game of the season, a new high for the Sharks. Thus doubling linebacker Brent Burns, who collected 24 in 2015-16.

Nate Schmidt broke the 1-1 tie at 14:53 of the third to put the Jets ahead by one timer on passes from Nikolai Eilers and Blake Wheeler.

Nino Niedereiter scored his first goal in a Jets uniform to put his new team ahead in the second half.

Niederreiter’s goal was his 200th career goal and he became the first Swiss to reach the milestone in NHL history. Roman Jose is closest to his compatriots, scoring 157 goals in 820 matches.

Josh Morrissey collected his 52nd assist against Niederretter. In the history of the Jets/Thashers franchise, there are only three other players who have done better than him. The leader is Blake Wheeler with 71 in 2018-19.

The Canucks are ahead of CH in 26th

Elias Peterson scored his 30th goal of the season, and the Vancouver Canucks got their fourth win in their last six games, 4-3 in a shootout against the Nashville Predators.

It was Peterson himself who made the difference during the shootout, as he was the only scorer of the tournament.

From the fifth minute of play, Peterson, well supported by Andriy Kuzmenko, set the tone for hostilities by slamming a powerful shot into the top corner to Juuse Saros.

Just 27 seconds later, Colton Sissons answered for Nashville, who ran into rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs, while Thatcher Dimko enjoyed a night’s rest.

Vasily Podkozlin and Dakota Joshua – the latter at 5:43 of the last period – thought they had a good grip on Vancouver with a 3-1 lead, but the guests didn’t give up.

He was the rookie that sounded the alarm for the Breeds (31-23-7) when forward Luke Evangelista scored his first NHL goal, in his fourth game with the big club.

At 16:55 of the third period, the same Evangelista deflected Tyson Barry’s powerful shot behind Silovs, and suddenly Nashville hopefuls can leave Rogers Arena with two points in the bank.

With that two-point harvest, the Canucks (36-32-5) are passing points ahead of the Canadiens, for 26th overall, with the same number of games played.

The Predators fired 31 shots at the Celoff nets, while Sarros was tested 27 times.

Copley is right about his former colleagues

Pheonix Copley stopped 20 pucks, and Mickey Anderson scored at 7:53 of the third period, leading the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals.

Copley, who achieved his 20th victory with the Kings since joining Palace at the turn of the new year, defeated the club he made 27 appearances for in 2018-19.

In the victory, Adrian Kempe scored two points, including the insurance goal into an empty net, with only seconds left in the duel.

Vladislav Gavrikov scored his first goal as a member of the Kings (37-20-8), who are on a four-game winning streak.

The other scorer for the California team was Quebecer Philippe Danault, who scored his 16th goal.

Team captain Alex Ovechkin took advantage of a double power exploit to let his talent speak for itself, and added the 36th goal to his tally, 2:31 into the final period. Then tied at 2-2.

Anderson, however, overtook Darcy Comber a few minutes later. On that winning goal, Quinton Byfield had an assist for his fourth straight game.

Washington (31-28-6), whose position is precarious in the playoff race, has won its previous two meetings.