Oilers Can Be First Team in 27 Years With Three 100-Point Scorers

One danger of facing the Edmonton Oilers offense is sometimes you get beat by the afterthought.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl cast a large shadow that hides the fact that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is having a superstar-caliber season. Nugent-Hopkins posted a goal and four assists for five points to lead the Oilers to a critical 7-4 win against the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday Night.

With seven games remaining, Nugent-Hopkins boasts a career-high 96 points. McDavid shows 143 points and Draisaitl is at 116. The Oilers have a shot to become the first team with three players with 100 or more points since the Pittsburgh Penguins (Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux and Ron Francis) did it in 1995-96.

This was not Nugent-Hopkins’ first five-point outing. In his rookie season of 2011-12, Nugent-Hopkins had a five-assist game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

If Nugent-Hopkins does reach 100, the Oilers would be the 14th team to have three or more players with 100 or more points.

This is Nugent-Hopkins' 12th season. He can become the sixth player in NHL history to join the 100-point club for the first time in his 12th season or later. He would join Gordie Howe (23rd season, 1968-69), Johnny Bucyk (16th season, 1970-71), Steven Stamkos (14th season, 2021-22), Jean Ratelle (12th season, 1971-72) and Bobby Hull (12th season, 1968-69).

The win was important for the Oilers because they are now one point behind the Los Angeles Kings for second place in the Pacific Division. They are three points behind the Golden Knights.

The Oilers are peaking at the right time: they are 7-0-1 in their last eight games. Draisaitl has 20 points in a 10-game points streak and McDavid has 19 points in a nine-game streak.

📈 Cody Glass scores & Juuse Saros makes 35 saves as the Predators defeat the Bruins 2-1, gain in wild card race. Cody Glass corralled his blocked tip to snipe Ullmark's blocker side late in the second period to give the Preds the 1-0 lead, before assisting on Cole Smith's empty netter with just 79 seconds remaining in regulation. Juuse Saros played incredible and was two seconds away from earning his 2nd shutout of the season but David Pastrnak's 52nd of the year ruined those efforts. With the win the Predators sit three points back from the Winnipeg Jets for the final Western Conference wild card spot with two games in hand.

🔥 Jacob Markstrom makes 33 saves as the Flames end the Kings' 12-game point streak with 2-1 win. The 33-year-old netminder collected a .970 save percentage only allowing one goal off the stick of Kings' Sean Durzi midway through the first period, improving to 21-20-10 on the season. Andrew Mangiapane scored on the power play just 1:54 into the game for his 15th of the season and Flames' rookie Walker Duehr scored his 6th of year with 2:01 left in the first which proved to be the first game-winning-goal of his NHL career. The win pulls the Calgary within two points of the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.

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