After reaching 100 points this season just 10 days ago, Connor McDavid showed once once more that he was in a class of his own Monday night once morest the Boston Bruins. This time, the No.97 hit the 50-goal mark for the first time in his career, in his 61st game of the campaign. McDavid’s prowess wasn’t enough, however, as the Oilers suffered a 3-2 loss.
McDavid, who started the game with 48 goals and 113 points, hit the target twice. He thus became the NHL player to score 50 goals in a season the fastest since Mario Lemieux (50 games), Jaromir Jagr (59 games) and Alexander Mogilny (60 games) during the 1995-1996 season.
This is the fourth game in a row in which McDavid has scored twice. He also scored twice once morest the Blue Jackets, Penguins and Flyers last week. It’s the 10th time this season that McDavid has scored at least twice in a game.
McDavid wasted no time approaching that plateau. Just over two minutes into the game, he took advantage of a long pass from Leon Draisaitl to hit the target with a good wrist shot and scored his 49th goal of the season.
Boston, however, ensured the reply very quickly. Barely 13 seconds following McDavid’s goal, Tomas Nosek took advantage of a poor Oilers zone exit to tie the game. Bruins newcomers Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway took the opportunity to rack up their first assists in their new uniforms.
Then later late in the first period, Nick Foligno completed a superb passing game with Charlie Coyle to put the Bruins in control with a breakaway goal.
Midway through the second period, McDavid served a succulent fake in front of Jeremy Swayman to reach the prestigious plateau for the first time, in his eighth campaign on the Bettman circuit.
However, the tie did not hold until the end of the second period. With 30 seconds left in the middle period, Pavel Zacha dived on a loose puck in the crease and pushed the puck into the back of the net to restore Boston’s lead.
In front of the Bruins goal, Swayman stopped 22 of 24 shots aimed at him to get his 15e win of the season. At the other end of the rink, Stuart Skinner allowed three goals on 26 shots in the loss.
The Bruins thus record a seventh victory in a row. They will try to continue their streak on Tuesday once morest the Flames. Edmonton will try to end their two-game losing streak on Wednesday once morest the Maple Leafs.
