Quinn Hughes scored, contributed an assist and made franchise history Saturday night as his Minnesota Wild thumped the hometown Edmonton Oilers 7-3.
The star defenceman, acquired from the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 12, extended his point streak to eight games (two goals, 11 assists) and now holds the record for the longest points and assist streak by a Wild defenceman.
Minnesota took its first lead of the night 35 seconds into the second period as Mats Zuccarello snapped in a shot off a Ryan Hartman faceoff win for a 3-2 advantage.
Hughes doubled the Wild’s lead at 12:29, batting home his own rebound off the end boards between the pads of Edmonton goalie Tristan Jarry, who gave up five goals on 20 shots before getting the hook midway through the second period. He was replaced by Connor Ingram, who made seven saves in relief.
“It’s tough. The chances we are giving up, some of the shots, they’re tough. It’s a lot of Grade A’s, a lot of breakdowns,” Jarry said. “So, I think it’s tough [for me] to really think about your game at this point. It’s a whole team game.”
Joel Eriksson Ek and Brock Faber also had a goal and an assist apiece for Minnesota (32-14-10).
Goals from Kirill Kaprizov, Vladimir Tarasenko and Tyler Pitlick rounded out the scoring for the Wild, while Jesper Wallstedt stopped 39 of the 42 shots he faced.
Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jack Roslovic scored for the Oilers (28-20-8), who had their three-game win streak halted.
Minnesota now has points in five straight games (4-0-1) and sits second in the Western Conference standings behind the Colorado Avalanche.
Penalty killing has been a problem for Edmonton recently and the Oilers gave up two power-play goals to Minnesota and have surrendered six goals on 14 penalties over the last four games.
Edmonton has given up an average of 3.18 goals per game this season, the 12th most in the league.
The Oilers simply need to play better defensively, said head coach Kris Knoblauch.
“The amount of chances isn’t that many. The quality of the chances is something that’s got to be addressed,” he said. “It has to get better, more perimeter shots, less breakaways or 2-on-1s, odd-man rushes, those kinds of things that are leading to goals. So, that’s what I see right now.”
