COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Edmonton Oilers have been trying to find themselves after a disappointing first two months of the season and their game might be starting to come around.
The Oilers capped a 2-1 road trip with a convincing 7-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Nationwide Arena.
Mark Letestu scored a short-handed goal and had an assist, and Connor McDavid energized the Oilers with a goal and three assists to lead the assault against the Blue Jackets, who are tied for first place the Metropolitan Division.
The Oilers (13-16-2) started their trip with a similar performance -- a 6-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens -- and then lost 1-0 to the Maple Leafs in Toronto despite unleashing 41 shots.
"You hope it confirms they're turning the corner and putting some things together," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "We're stringing good games together. It's been a goal of ours for a while and I think we did that on the trip.
"I was concerned today because we didn't get the reward in Toronto. Sometimes a team that hasn't won enough can sag, but we responded emotionally and were prepared to play."
Edmonton wasn't expected to be mired near the bottom of the Pacific Division standings after finishing last season as one of the best teams in the Western Conference. But they're starting to see positive signs, particularly from McDavid.
After battling illness during the early part of the season, McDavid is looking more like his superstar self. He assisted on two second-period goals and capped the evening with another assist and then the final goal of the game.
"Three solid games in a row now," said McDavid, whose has a team-leading 39 points. "We can definitely feel good about that."
But McDavid wants to see more consistency from the Oilers, who are 6-5 in their last 11 games. Their recent pattern has been to follow a win with a loss.
"We've had streaks where we've been alright," McDavid said. "We need to see it more. We need to see three, four, five, six (good games). We don't have many games to give away anymore."
The Oilers pounced on the Blue Jackets and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. They jumped ahead in the first period with a goal from Zack Kassian and the lead ballooned to 5-0 in the second with a four-goal onslaught.
"We knew we had to get that goalie early," Letestu said. "When (Bobrovsky) feels the puck early and settles in, he's really tough to beat. It was good to get up a good start."
Two of the second-period goals came from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Milan Lucic on power plays. Matt Benning scored at even strength, and Letestu's second short-handed goal of the season beat Bobrovsky with 0.3 of a second left in the period on a breakaway.
"We were sloppy with the puck," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said. "It was just a lack of focus we had tonight that we normally have. It's disappointing. We haven't been beat like that all year. We obviously played into their hands big time and we didn't do much to generate anything."
Jesse Puljujarvi and McDavid capped the Oilers' explosive offensive night with third-period goals.
Oliver Bjorkstrand ended Laurent Brossoit's shutout bid at 6:28 of the third period, and Jack Johnson added the other goal for the Blue Jackets (19-11-1).
"It started to unravel for us real quick," Johnson said. "You're in a deep hole. We tried to push it in the third period and you open yourself up."
Brossoit finished with 28 saves to post just his third victory of the season while starting his seventh straight game in place of injured goaltender Cam Talbot.
"Maybe it's our time right now," McLellan said. "You go through dry spells and sometimes you score a lot. Right now, we're finding the net."
The Blue Jackets left Bobrovsky out to dry with defensive breakdowns and turnovers. He was pulled after two periods, having stopped just 21 of 26 shots. Backup goalie Joonas Korpisalo gave up two goals and made 10 saves in the third period for the Blue Jackets, whose two-game winning streak ended.
Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella respectfully refused to be interviewed after the blowout loss.
"There's no sense in me evening trying to answer questions about this evening," he said. "So sorry about that. Have a good night."
NOTES: Oilers C Connor McDavid has 16 points in his last 11 games. ... Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky leads the NHL in shutouts with four after he blanked the Arizona Coyotes 1-0 on Saturday night. ... Blue Jackets D Ryan Murray missed his seventh consecutive game with an upper-body injury. ... Oilers LW Anton Slepyshev returned to the lineup after being scratched for four games. He replaced LW Drake Caggiula. ... Blue Jackets LW Cam Atkinson was back in the lineup after sitting out the Saturday night game as a healthy scratch. The team's leading scorer the past two seasons had no points in the previous six games. ... Oilers C Mark Letestu, who reached 200 career points with an assist on Saturday against Montreal, has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past seven games.
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