NHL Recaps: Connor McDavid piling up points, Jets down Pens, and Devils blast Ducks
The Daily Goal Horn
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NHL Recaps: January 13, 2023
There were only three games on the docket for Friday nights across the National Hockey League.
The New Jersey Devils easily beat the Anaheim Ducks, while the Winnipeg Jets downed the Pittsburgh Penguins and moved into a first place tie with the Dallas Stars in the Central Division.
In San Jose, Connor McDavid added three more points to his totals to beat the Sharks. The Edmonton Oilers captain now has 82 points on the year and is on pace to finish with a career high 152 points. He has a 16 point lead in the Art Ross Trophy race.
NHL Recaps: Connor McDavid piling up points
Oilers7 vs Sharks 1
Connor McDavid celebrated his 26th birthday with two goals and an assist and Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each added a goal and two assists as the visiting Edmonton Oilers cruised to a 7-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.
It was the 23rd multi-point game of the season for McDavid, who became the first player in the league to hit the 80-point mark this season. McDavid improved his NHL-leading totals in goals to 37, assists to 45 and points to 82.
McDavid is the first player to reach 80 points in a season in 44 games or fewer since Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis all did so in 1995-96.
“I feel pretty good, but it’s about our group in here,” McDavid said. “We’re continuing to try to lay good games down one after another and take it one day at a time, kind of like our second half last year.”
Klim Kostin, Jesse Puljujarvi and Ryan McLeod also scored goals for the Oilers, who improved to 13-7-1 on the road this season with their second straight win. Edmonton’s Jack Campbell finished with 25 saves. Leon Draisaitl played in his 600th career game.
Oskar Lindblom scored a goal and Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 34 of 41 shots for San Jose, which lost for the fifth time in its past six home games (1-4-1). The Sharks took their most lopsided defeat of the season.
NHL Recaps: Jets, Devils win
Jets 4, vs Penguins 1
Mark Scheifele scored twice to help Winnipeg defeat host Pittsburgh for its seventh win in eight games.
“In the third period, we buckled down, we did the right thing,” Scheifele said via NHL.com. “We got the puck deep. We made it really, really hard on them to gain the blue line, gain any sustained [offensive zone] pressure. If we play like that, we’re hard to beat.”
Blake Wheeler added a goal and an assist, Nikolaj Ehlers also scored, Cole Perfetti had three assists and Dylan DeMelo contributed two assists for the Jets, who have won seven of their past eight games. David Rittich made 22 saves.
Drew O’Connor scored for the Penguins, who had won two straight. Goaltender Dustin Tokarski, making his second appearance and first start for Pittsburgh, stopped 36 shots. The Penguins played without their top three defensemen. Marcus Pettersson was ill. Kris Letang (lower-body injury/bereavement) and Jeff Petry (upper-body injury) already were out.
Devils 6 vs Ducks 2
Jesper Bratt scored twice and Jack Hughes had two goals with an assist as New Jersey rolled over Anaheim to open a four-game West Coast swing.
Dougie Hamilton and Jesper Boqvist added goals, while Vitek Vanecek made 31 saves as the Devils won three consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 25-28. Damon Severson had three assists as New Jersey improved its NHL-best road record to 16-2-1. Hughes has a career-best 28 goals and has 10 goals and 13 points over his past seven games.
Adam Henrique and Trevor Zegras scored for the Ducks, while goalie John Gibson made 33 saves but absorbed another scoring onslaught, giving up 19 goals over his past three starts. Anaheim ended its franchise-record 10-game homestand with a thud, going 3-6-1.
–Field Level Media
–The Daily Goal Horn contributed to this article