Draisaitl Scores Twice, McDavid Extends His Streak as Oilers Beat Rangers

Edmonton got outshot 31–20 at home on Monday and won anyway, 3–1, because the game kept bending toward its two best players and its goaltender. Connor McDavid scored in the first period to stretch his season-opening point streak to 19 games. Leon Draisaitl scored the winner in the second and a short-handed empty-netter from his own end in the third. And Devon Levi stopped 30 of 31 shots to bury a Rangers team that had more of the puck and almost nothing to show for it, in front of 17,047 at Rogers Place.

McDavid's goal came gift-wrapped at 6:42 of the first. Dylan Garand misplayed the puck behind his own net, and the loose puck found the worst possible set of hands: McDavid put it away unassisted for his 11th of the season. The point streak now stands at 19 games and 48 points — 11 goals, 37 assists — even if the night cost him a smaller streak inside it: his 18-game run of games with an assist ended here.

Draisaitl's winner arrived at 2:59 of the second, a wrist shot from Vasily Podkolzin and Mattias Ekholm that survived a Rangers goaltender-interference challenge — New York asked for the goal back and did not get it. His second was the exclamation point: with Garand pulled and the Rangers pressing six-on-four in the final minutes, Draisaitl scored short-handed into the empty net at 18:47 of the third, from Edmonton's defensive zone. That is 18 goals now, a league-leading total, a second straight two-goal game, and six goals across a four-game goal streak — plus 16 wins in 25 faceoffs on a night he did everything.

The Rangers' one answer came short-handed, too, and it was a good story buried in a loss: Jaroslav Chmelar stepped out of the penalty box at 5:05 of the second, took Mika Zibanejad's stretch pass and scored his first career short-handed goal to cut it to 2–1. New York had five power plays to build on it and converted none of them. Both teams, oddly, scored their hockey short-handed; only one team scored at even strength, and it scored twice.

Levi is why the shot count lies. The Rangers won the faceoff dot (54.4 percent), owned long stretches of zone time, and still ran into a goaltender having the night of his season: 30 saves, a .968 save percentage, and the game's First Star award ahead of both superstars. Garand finished with 17 saves at the other end — the third Edmonton goal was the empty-netter — and his first-period error behind the net is the moment his night will be remembered for.

There was edge in it late, too — Mattias Ekholm and Tye Kartye grappled in the third — but the game had already declared itself. Edmonton improves to 13-3-3 with its stars streaking in opposite directions of the same box score: McDavid collecting a point a night for 19 straight, Draisaitl collecting goals in bunches. The Rangers fall to 10-8-1, left to explain how a 31-shot night with five power plays produced one goal, scored by a man just out of the box.

Some nights the better team by the shot clock loses to the better team, full stop. Rogers Place watched that exact trade on Monday. Follow every shift in the Game Center.