McDavid's OT winner sends Oilers past Capitals

EDMONTON — It was one that almost got away for the Edmonton Oilers.

Connor McDavid scored the overtime winner and added an assist as the Oilers emerged with a 4-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday after allowing their opponents to tie the game with less than two seconds remaining.

McDavid elected to shoot on a two-on-one and notched his 30th of the season 3:27 into overtime.

“It's obviously always disappointing giving up a tying goal late in the game, especially that late in the game. We need to find a way to close that out, but it didn't hurt us, which was good,” McDavid said. “These are big points, and they all are from here on out. We need to start piling them up."

Recent AHL call-up Brad Malone had a goal and an assist and Kailer Yamamoto and Cody Ceci also scored for the Oilers (31-23-4) who snapped a three-game losing skid.

Malone’s assist on the second goal was his first NHL point since Feb. 28, 2016 and it was his first goal since Dec. 3, 2015.

“It feels pretty awesome, to be honest,” said the 32-year-old, who last played in the NHL for Carolina. “I was just really happy that we got the two points at the end of the game there. It is tough to have an individual game like that and feel good about yourself when you don’t get the two points.”

T.J. Oshie had two goals and an assist and Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and a helper for the Capitals (31-18-10) who saw a three-game wining streak halted.

“It was a heck of an effort by the guys,” said Caps head coach Peter Laviolette. “That’s four games in a row where I think we’ve played some pretty good hockey and had to fight back in some of the games and show a little bit of resiliency inside of that.”

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