Sports · NEWS EXPLAINER
Oilers beat Mammoth 6–2 as McDavid scores five points and Edmonton flips the rematch
Connor McDavid scored twice and added three assists as Edmonton answered Thursday’s loss by building a 5–0 lead and extending its perfect road start.
Edmonton beat Utah 6–2 on October 17 to split a two-game home-and-home series. Connor McDavid produced two goals and three assists, the Oilers scored three times in the first period, and Tristan Jarry made 26 saves.
Edmonton changed the game in the first 14 minutes
McDavid opened the scoring on a breakaway 40 seconds after the opening faceoff. Zach Hyman then scored on the power play at 13:21, and Mathieu Joseph made it 3–0 only 32 seconds later.
That start separated Saturday’s game from Thursday’s 4–2 Utah win in Edmonton. The same opponents met again, but this time the Oilers carried the first-period margin.
The lead reached 5–0 before Utah scored
Kasperi Kapanen scored in the second period, and Leon Draisaitl added another goal less than three minutes later. Utah replaced Karel Vejmelka after he allowed five goals on 17 shots.
John Marino and Mikhail Sergachev scored for Utah in the third period, but McDavid added Edmonton’s sixth goal on another breakaway for the 6–2 final.
McDavid’s five points came with an eight-game streak
McDavid finished with two goals and three assists, extending his season-opening point streak to eight games. NHL.com listed him with 23 points through those eight games: six goals and 17 assists.
The 17 assists tied Mario Lemieux in 1995–96 and Wayne Gretzky in 1986–87 for the most assists through a player’s first eight games of a season, according to NHL.com.
Jarry protected the fast start
Jarry made 26 saves. Edmonton allowed two third-period goals after creating a five-goal cushion, so the final score should not be described as a shutout bid that lasted to the end.
Vejmelka stopped 12 shots before Utah turned to Sebastian Cossa, who made three saves. The goalie change followed Edmonton’s fifth goal rather than creating the original deficit.
What the completed result establishes
Edmonton moved to 6–1–1 and improved to 5–0–0 on the road, which NHL.com described as the best season-opening road streak in franchise history. Utah fell to 6–3–0 and had its three-game winning streak end.
The 6–2 result completed a split of the home-and-home series. McDavid’s current pace and Edmonton’s road start are facts through eight games, not forecasts for the rest of the season.
