Oilers crush Sabres for fourth consecutive victory

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers finally showed what they could look like playing a complete game.

Kailer Yamamoto, Connor McDavid and Tyson Barrie each had a goal and an assist as the Oilers won their fourth in a row, defeating the Buffalo Sabres 6-1 on Thursday.

"It was a full 60 minutes. It was maybe as good of a game as we have played all year," Barrie said. "After two periods we realized that we had played a pretty solid game up to that point and we made a point of coming out and drilling home that last 20 minutes to show us what it feels like to play the full game."

Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse and Devin Shore also scored for the Oilers (34-23-4) who have gone 4-0 on a key five-game homestand.

"I thought we got contributions from everybody," Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said. "All four lines, three D-pairs, Mike Smith was excellent, the penalty kill was good, we got a shorthanded goal and we scored a power play goal. All facets of the game seemed to be firing on all cylinders."

Victor Olofsson responded for the Sabres (20-33-8) who saw a modest two-game winning streak halted.

"We didn’t win any battles from the start, we made it really hard on ourselves," Olofsson said. "They’ve got some really skilled players. We had to get pucks deep and win our battles and obviously we didn’t do that and I think that kind of showed up."

The Oilers started the scoring 7:21 into the opening period as Yamamoto pounced on a loose puck in front and snapped a shot high to the glove side past Sabres starter Craig Anderson, giving him goals in four straight games and 15 on the season. Edmonton came into the game with a 19-0 record when scoring first this year.

Edmonton added to its lead with seven minutes left in the first period as