McDavid's Streak Hits 19, the Sharks Needed Eight Shootout Rounds: Monday in the NHL

Three games on a Monday — McDavid's streak hits 19 in Edmonton, the Sharks needed eight shootout rounds in San Jose — and each one turned on a goaltender — one who gave a goal away, and two who spent the night taking them back. In Edmonton, the hottest start in the league got a gift and kept running. In San Jose, two goalies traded saves until the eighth round of a shootout finally produced a winner. And in Vancouver, a team that managed six shots in 40 minutes nearly stole a game in the last 10. Here is the night, game by game.

Oilers 3, Rangers 1 — McDavid at 19, and counting

Connor McDavid's 19th straight game with a point started with somebody else's mistake. Rangers goaltender Dylan Garand went behind his net to play the puck 6:42 into the first period, his attempted pass bounced off the back of the cage, and McDavid was standing at the right post to put it away. It was his 11th goal of the season and the easiest one he will score all year — and it moved him into rare company. McDavid is the fourth player in NHL history with a 19-game season-opening point streak, joining Wayne Gretzky (whose longest ran 51 games), Mats Sundin (30) and Dany Heatley (22). He has 48 points — 11 goals, 37 assists — in 19 games.

One streak inside the streak did end. McDavid went without an assist for the first time this season, closing his season-opening assist streak at 18 games, tied with Adam Oates for the second-longest assist streak in NHL history behind Gretzky's 23. Leon Draisaitl handled the rest of the scoring. He made it 2-0 at 2:59 of the second period, picking up a bouncing puck in the slot and putting a wrist shot through Garand's legs — a goal the Rangers challenged for goaltender interference and lost. Jaroslav Chmelar cut it to 2-1 at 5:05, stepping out of the penalty box onto a Mika Zibanejad stretch pass and scoring the first short-handed goal of his career. Draisaitl closed it at 18:47 of the third, scoring a short-handed empty-net goal from his own defensive zone for his league-leading 18th goal and his second two-goal game in a row.

The strange part is that New York played well enough to win. The Rangers outshot Edmonton 29-20, went 0-for-5 on the power play, and still had a 6-on-4 in the final 1:27 before Draisaitl's empty-netter ended it. Devon Levi was the difference: 28 saves, an 8-1-0 record, and the praise of the night's other star. “I think he's the main reason that we won the game,” Draisaitl said, via NHL.com. The Oilers (13-3-3) swept the two-game season series, having won 4-1 at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1. The Rangers (10-8-1) saw a three-game winning streak end and visit Calgary on Wednesday. Edmonton hosts Philadelphia the same night, with McDavid one game from tying his career-best 20-game point streak.

Sharks 3, Islanders 2 (SO) — eight rounds to find a winner

San Jose had to come back twice and then outlast the longest shootout in the NHL this season to end a five-game losing streak. Ben Hutton opened the scoring at 6:14 of the first period, his first goal as an Islander, finishing a Simon Holmstrom feed at the back post. Ivar Stenberg tied it 1-1 at 16:41, deflecting a Tyler Toffoli shot past Ilya Sorokin. Victor Eklund put New York back in front 1:11 into the second with a power-play goal — his sixth of the season and his third straight game with one — and Toffoli tied it 2-2 at 12:12, his shot deflecting in off Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech for his second point of the night.

Nobody scored again through regulation or overtime, because the goaltenders would not allow it. Sorokin made 37 saves, six of them on Macklin Celebrini. Yaroslav Askarov made 30, then denied all eight Islanders attempts in the shootout — the pad-stack stop on Bo Horvat's 2-on-1 chance in regulation was the save of the night. Sorokin stopped San Jose's first seven shooters before Stenberg, who had already scored in regulation, beat him with a wrist shot in the eighth round for the only goal of the shootout. San Jose improved to 8-11-1 and hosts Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The Islanders (7-6-4) have lost four straight (0-2-2) and continue their California trip Thursday against the Kings — still with a point to show for a night their captain, Horvat, said afterward they have to make easier on Sorokin, via NHL.com.

Flyers 3, Canucks 1 — a two-goal lead, held the hard way

Philadelphia controlled this game for 40 minutes and spent the last 10 holding on. Michael Bunting, back on the top line after five straight games as a healthy scratch, scored his first goal of the season 2:03 in, snapping a loose puck over Leevi Merilainen's glove. Travis Konecny made it 2-0 on the power play at 3:05 of the second, taking a Matvei Michkov pass from behind the net. Christian Dvorak assisted on both goals. Vancouver, meanwhile, put six shots on goal through two periods.

The third period flipped. A Flyers goal 25 seconds in was wiped out by a successful Vancouver offside challenge. Jonathan Lekkerimaki scored on the power play at 12:44 — his seventh of the season, off Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson — then hit the crossbar on the next power play. Joseph Woll, who made 12 of his 18 saves in the third, was penalized at 17:11 after a helmet strap came loose, and Vancouver pulled Merilainen for a 6-on-4. Travis Sanheim ended it at 19:01, scoring short-handed into the empty net for the 3-1 final. The Flyers (5-10-5) ended a three-game winless streak (0-2-1) on the second night of a back-to-back, having lost in overtime at Calgary on Sunday. The Canucks (3-16-1) have lost six straight, all in regulation, and hold the NHL's fewest points. Philadelphia visits Edmonton on Wednesday; Vancouver hosts the Rangers on Friday.

What Monday changed

Edmonton keeps the league's loudest storyline: McDavid at 48 points through 19 games is a pace only Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Joe Malone have matched before a 20th game, according to NHL.com's game notes, and his next point ties his own career-best streak. At the other end of the table, Vancouver's hole deepened to six straight regulation losses, and San Jose finally got a night where the goaltending and the finish arrived together. Vegas sat Monday out — the Golden Knights' next game, Wednesday at home against Utah, is a rematch of last spring's first-round series, and we have the full preview here. More hockey lives on the NHL hub, and the scoring race is tracked in the Stats Hub.