McDavid extends points streak to 11, Oilers beat Sabres 3-2

Connor McDavid extended his points streak to 11 with ninth game-winning goal of the season as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Monday night.

👏 ROAD W 👏

The #Oilers beat the Sabres by a score of 3-2. #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/ou1F4kqfeB

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 7, 2023

McDavid scored twice, giving him an NHL-leading 54 goals this season, and the Oilers (35-22-8) moved into a tie with Seattle for third in the Pacific Division. Ninth-place Buffalo are locked in a four-way tie with teams with 68 points.

Oilers Connor McDavid is on the verge of setting the NHL's single-season points record in the Salary Cap Era pic.twitter.com/6lt8JY3pUi

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 7, 2023

The Oilers captain McDavid, aiming for his third Hart MVP Trophy in eight NHL seasons, upped his league-leading points total to a career-best 124 — one more than he finished with last year — and enjoyed his 12th multi-goal game of the season.

🤯 124 🤯

Connor McDavid (@cmcdavid97) has a shiny new career-high point total! pic.twitter.com/ARgwPCKV5n

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— NHL (@NHL) March 7, 2023

During his impressive points streak 11 games, McDavid scored 12 goals and added 15 assists.

Derek Ryan also hit the target for the Oilers, who improved to 5-4-3 in their past 12, and bounced back from a 7-5 loss at the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Stuart Skinner stopped 36 shots as his best stop came with 4:13 remaining when he reached out to stab Ilya Lyubushkin’s shot from the high slot.

Jeff Skinner and Dylan Cozens scored for the Sabres, who played without injured C Tyson Jost and Ds Mattias Samuelsson and Riley Stillman. Craig Anderson stopped 34 shots.

Buffalo (32-26-4), in the midst of an NHL-worst 11-season playoff drought, failed to gain ground in a tight Eastern Conference race.

The new Sabres forward Jordan Greenway made his debut after being acquired in a trade with Minnesota on Friday.

“I was pumped,” said the hard-hitting Greenway, who reunited by coach Don Granato, who coached him while with USA Hockey’s developmental program.

“The one thing about him was he always knew how to the players that he had play their best, I think. He knows how to make each guy individually go and what they need.”