Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and Dallas’ Joe Pavelski made history in the NHL playoffs, even if they didn’t really celebrate it.
Draisaitl and Pavelski were only the second pair of players Each scores four goals in a playoff game on consecutive days and the first in 35 years. They are the first to do so, with their teams each losing.
“It’s pretty crazy to score four goals,” Ray Ferraro, the last player to score four goals in a playoff game his team lost, said by phone Thursday. “And then you lose and you’re like, ‘What the hell just happened?'”
asked the Oilers’ 6-4 loss in Vegas When he took pleasure in scoring four goals in the series opener on Wednesday night, Draisaitl replied: “No. nope.”
Stars coach Peter DeBoer after his team 5-4 overtime loss in Game 1 against Seattle called Pavelski’s performance epic, adding: “Too bad we squandered it.”
Upon learning of DeBoer’s comments, Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft focused on the rest of his team who were unable to keep up with Draisaitl.
“Leon put in a lot of effort,” Woodcroft said. “He was good in all the playoffs here. But our team can do a lot better.”
There’s none better than Draisaitl this postseason. The 27-year-old German leads all players with 11 goals and 15 points.
“He’s a great hockey player,” said Oilers teammate Mattias Ekholm. “He shows it night after night. He’s the one driving the bus for us right now and it’s great to watch him do it.”
The last players to score four goals on consecutive days were St. Louis’ Tony Hrkac and Buffalo’s John Tucker on April 9–10, 1988. The Blues and Sabers won.
Dallas and Edmonton are the first teams to lose by a player who scored four goals since Ferraro’s game for the New York Islanders in 1993, when he was 4-4 on shots in a 6-4 loss to the Washington Capitals scored Ferraro has scored OT goals in each of the previous two games in this series.
“For me it was the end of what was probably the greatest week I’ve ever had,” said Ferraro. “Every time I turned around, the puck would fall somewhere on the stick.”
Teams are 36-5 in league history if a player scores four goals. Prior to Ferraro’s Islanders, the only other losses were Chicago vs. Toronto in 1986, when Denis Savard had four, and Toronto vs. Philadelphia in 1977, when Lanny McDonald managed it.
Ferraro admits it’s an odd deal and knows how Draisaitl and Pavelski feel.
“Whether you say it at the time or not, looking back it’s a personal satisfaction,” he said. “Back then you wanted to win. You do everything to win. It happened to be your night and it doesn’t feel good because you still lost.”
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AP sports writers Stephen Hawkins in Dallas and Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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