McDavid extends assist streak as Oilers blank Islanders

ELMONT · Connor McDavid set up a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins power-play goal to extend his NHL-record season-opening assist streak to 14 games as the Edmonton Oilers beat the New York Islanders 4-0 on Saturday. The assist gave McDavid a league-best 29 helpers and 37 total points, putting him on pace for more than 200 this season. No other player in the league has as many combined goals and assists as McDavid has points. The victory opened a three-game road trip for the Oilers, who have now won 10 of their first 14 games under new coach Mike Babcock.

Tristan Jarry stopped all 18 shots he faced to record his second consecutive shutout. Jason Dickinson added an empty-net goal to seal the win. Leon Draisaitl contributed two assists for Edmonton, including a clever play where he kicked the puck from his skate to his stick before feeding Vasily Podkolzin for a tap-in into a wide open net. Nugent-Hopkins scored his second of the game 68 seconds before Podkolzin's marker, firing a shot from point-blank range off a pass from Kasperi Kapanen that gave Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin little chance. Sorokin finished with 20 saves but saw his team's two-game winning streak come to an end.

The Islanders played without defenceman Ryan Pulock, who was seeing a doctor after suffering an upper-body injury in Minnesota on Thursday. Top defenceman Matthew Schaefer was called for two of his team's five minor penalties. The game turned ugly early when New York forward Emil Heineman was ejected less than two and a half minutes in for a knee-on-knee hit. The hit injured Oilers forward Isaac Howard, who put no weight on his left leg as he was helped off the ice and did not return. Up next: The Oilers continue their road trip against the New York Rangers on Sunday. The Islanders host the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

With files from The Globe and Mail, Yahoo Sports and Castanet