EDMONTON, AB — Zach Hyman scored his 47th and 48th goals, the second in Edmonton’s five-goal third period, and the Oilers overcame a two-goal deficit to rout the Buffalo Sabres 8-3 on Thursday night.
Mattias Ekholm had two goals and an assist, Leon Draisaitl added a goal and two assists, Darnell Nurse, Ryan McLeod and Connor Brown also scored and Stuart Skinner made 26 saves. Connor McDavid had four assists, two on Hyman’s goals.
“It is nice that we are winning and producing wins, but I still think there is more there to be had, more urgency,” McDavid said. “Which is a good thing. It’s that time of year when we need to ramp up and get ready to go. We are still playing for positioning and all that, there is still lots to be playing for.”
The Oilers improved to 42-21-4 with their second straight victory. They are 9-1-2 in their last 12.
“What do we have, 15 games left? That’s where you really ramp up your game and you figure out how you’re going to win,” Hyman said. “And I think we have a really good sense of what our identity is and how we’re going to win.”
J.J. Peterka scored twice for Buffalo. Victor Olofsson added a goal and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 31 shots. The Sabres have lost three of four to fall to 33-33-5.
“I don’t really know what to say about that one, it’s obviously a frustrating loss,” Sabres forward Tage Thompson said. “I thought our first and second were good hockey, you go into the third a tie game, chance to win an important hockey game and they get a couple goals and we’re chasing from behind They get another one and then it feels out of reach, now it’s a lot of frustration I think we let creep into our game there at the end.”
Peterka opened the scoring with his 22nd just 1:38 into the game off an Edmonton turnover, and Olofsson made it 2-0 with 3:26 to play in the first period.
Draisaitl got Edmonton on the board on a power play with 1:05 to play in the period for his 35th. The Oilers pulled even 4:26 into the second period when Ekholm opted to shoot on a two-on-one.
Peterka restored Buffalo’s lead with 3:04 to play in the second, and Hyman tied it with 48 seconds left in the period.
The Oilers took the lead 4:38 into the third period. Nurse’s shot clipped a defender and got past Luukkonen. Troy Stecher got an assist for his first point as an Oiler since arriving from Arizona at the trade deadline.
Ekholm made it 5-3 just 1:02 later, and Hyman netted his second with 4:22 left. McDavid picked up his fourth assist with a pass from behind the goal line out front to Hyman.
The Oilers continued to pour it on with McLeod scoring with 3:02 remaining. Brown followed up with his second of the season, and in his last three games, after ending a 72-game drought that extended back almost two full years on March 13 against Washington.
“If you look at the first, I didn’t really love it,” Ekholm said. “We got in and had a nice chat about it and got out and showed the kind of team we are. Even though the second was a decently even period, I liked our intensity, I liked our checking better and then, obviously, in the third we took over.”
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Sabres: At Calgary on Sunday night to complete five-game trip.
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