- Evan Bouchard scored twice and added an assist in Edmonton’s 5-2 win over Anaheim
- The Oilers defenseman now sits alone atop the NHL goal race four games in
- Read below for video of both Bouchard goals and Connor McDavid’s finish
Evan Bouchard is leading the NHL in goals.
Edmonton’s top defenseman scored twice and set up another in Wednesday’s 5-2 win over the Ducks at Honda Center. That gives him six goals and 11 points through four games, and nobody in the league has more goals right now.
The Oilers needed every bit of it. Beckett Sennecke scored two power-play goals in the first period, and Anaheim carried a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
Bouchard took 11 seconds of the second period to start the comeback. He wound up from the right point and blew a slap shot past Lukas Dostal to make it 2-1:
Kasperi Kapanen tied it on the power play at 6:30 with his 100th career goal. Bouchard picked up the secondary assist on that one.
Then he did it again. Leon Draisaitl and McDavid set him up above the circles at 14:12, and another slapper gave Edmonton its first lead of the night. Check out goal No. 6:
From there it got ugly. Draisaitl hit Vasily Podkolzin with a stretch pass for a breakaway goal at 16:49, and McDavid walked in during 4-on-4 play and slipped one five-hole on Dostal with 52 seconds left in the period. That made it five unanswered, all in the second.
Take a look at McDavid’s goal:
McDavid finished with a goal and two assists and now has 12 points through four games. Draisaitl had four assists, and Devon Levi made 29 saves.
Bouchard’s hot start began with a hat trick in the season opener against Vancouver, and two nights later he broke a record that had stood since 1917 with eight points through two games. Seattle held him off the scoresheet on Saturday. He answered with three more points in Anaheim.
Ducks rookie Nikita Klepov played 10:03 in his NHL debut but didn’t register a shot. Anaheim pulled Lukas Dostal for Ville Husso after two periods.
That’s three straight wins for the Oilers, who sit at 3-0-1 with two stops left on their California trip. Six of Bouchard’s 16 shots have gone in.
