Edmonton Oilers put Brandon Manning incident, Philadelphia Flyers to rest

EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Edmonton Oilers won their second game in a row, and were able to put the team's feud with Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Brandon Manning to rest.

A balanced Edmonton Oilers attack overwhelmed Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Twelve Oilers hit the scoresheet as Edmonton beat Philadelphia 6-3. Connor McDavid reclaimed the NHL scoring lead with a three-point night -- a goal and two assists. He has 66 points on the season.

Last season, when McDavid faced the Flyers in Edmonton, he broke his clavicle after he and Manning got tangled up. But, their war of words erupted when the Oilers lost in Philadelphia on Dec. 8.

McDavid claimed that, in December, Manning bragged on the ice about intentionally injuring the Oilers star. Manning denied the claim, and chided McDavid for breaking the unwritten rule that says players don't tell the media about what is said on the ice.

The Rogers Place crowd booed Manning every time he touched the puck.

The loudest cheers of the night didn't come for one of the Oilers six goals, but when Patrick Maroon dropped the gloves and went toe-to-toe with Manning.

"I respect that he responded," said Maroon. "Good job for him. He stood in there, it was a good fight. He plays the game hard, everyone plays the game hard. It was one of those things where I think that he knew he had to step up and he did a really good job. It's not hard to do when a bunch of guys are kinda 'he knows it's coming' 'he knows to expect it.' He did a really good job and it's something we're going to drop now. We're going to move forward here, and we're not going to hear about it anymore."

"Patty did a great job," McDavid said of his teammate. "It was a great fight with a couple of big boys going at it."

Manning also said the war of words is now over.

"Let's hope so. I'd love that," he said. "Connor didn't say a word out on the ice tonight, Patrick said, 'Good job,' after. We'd do the same thing if one of our superstars got hurt. We understand it."

The Oilers move to 31-19-8, while the Flyers (27-24-7) lost for the fifth time in six games.

Jordan Eberle, Matt Hendricks and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who also got goals from Leon Draisaitl and Oscar Klefbom. Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot made 33 saves.

Radko Gudas, Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Schenn scored for Philadelphia, which got 19 saves from Michal Neuvirth.

Just 2:14 after the opening faceoff, Hendricks gave the Oilers the lead, when his low wrist shot from 35 feet out beat Neuvirth. Flyers coach Dave Hakstol challenged the goal, calling for a video review to see if Hendricks and linemate Mark Letestu went offside when they entered the Flyers zone. The goal stood. It was Hendricks 100th career point.

"I think Neuvirth would like to take that one back but, I'll take them how I can get them," said Hendricks. "At the end of the day, I can say I got 100 points in the NHL. I never thought I'd get here."

The Oilers doubled their lead at 15:19. Draisaitl got his 22nd of the season, directing in an inch-perfect pass from defenseman Matthew Benning.

But, just 31 seconds into the second period, the Flyers got one back. Gudas pressed deep into the offensive zone and got the final touch on a scramble in front of the Oilers net.

The Oilers restored their two-goal lead at 7:17 of the second when Eberle's backhanded effort went in just below the crossbar, after Neuvirth had made an initial save on McDavid.

Just over a minute later, it was 4-1 when a point shot from Gryba hit Nugent-Hopkins and went in.

Klefbom made it 5-1 at 16:39 with a point shot that blew past Neuvirth.

Simmonds got it back to 5-2 with a backhanded effort with 44 seconds left in the second.

Schenn scored on the power play at 7:13 of the third to slice the deficit to 5-3. However, McDavid made it 6-3 with 5:10 left.

Flyers center Jordan Weal left the game in the first period and didn't return. The Flyers only dressed 11 forwards on Thursday, and Schenn said, after playing in Calgary the night before, the injury put a tired team under pressure.

"You can't predict that obviously and on a back-to-back it's a little more minutes for each guy. But I think in the second period they had some good chances and capitalized on them then in the third period we made a good push but we weren't able come back."

NOTES:

-- The Flyers beat the Oilers 6-5 in their only other meeting of the season on Dec. 9.

-- The Flyers lost to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday; their Alberta trip marks the 14th time they've played back-to-back games this season. Of those 14 back-to-backs, 10 of them have seen the Flyers play their second game against a team that didn't play the night before.

-- Oilers D Kris Russell missed the game with an undisclosed injury, but he will make the upcoming six-game road trip.

-- Oilers coach Todd McLellan said LW Benoit Pouliot, who crashed heavily into the boards during practice Sunday, will miss at least the start of the upcoming road trip.

-- The Flyers scratched LW Roman Lyubimov, RW Dale Weise and D Nick Schultz. The Oilers scratched D Jordan Oesterle.