US sports compact: Draisaitl's Oilers continue their record streak in the NHL

The Edmonton Oilers are currently unstoppable in the North American professional ice hockey league NHL. The Oilers won 4-2 (0-1, 1-1, 3-0) in the Canadian duel against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday (local time). It was the Oilers' eleventh win in a row, extending their historic winning streak.

Thanks in part to Auston Matthews, Toronto had a 2-0 lead. Matthews leads the league's top scorer list with 34 goals. German All-Star Leon Draisaitl scored the goal for Edmonton in the middle third with his 21st goal of the season. The Oilers then turned the game around in the final third.

The Ottawa Senators with Tim Stützle suffered a bitter 4:7 defeat against the Colorado Avalanche. Ottawa led 4-2 in the middle period, but then conceded five goals in a row. It was the sixth loss in the last seven games for the Senators, who remain at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

In the Western Conference, the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, the two teams with the fewest points, met directly. Chicago with Lukas Reichel won 2-1 after a penalty shootout. Nine shooters each had to compete until a winner was determined. Reichel missed his penalty and otherwise remained inconspicuous. The Sharks, who have only won one of their last 15 games, were still missing Nico Sturm injured, as was goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer from the Seattle Kraken in the 2-5 loss at the New York Rangers.

Basketball world champion Daniel Theis has returned to success in the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Californians prevailed in the home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the second-best team in the West, with 128:117. Paul George was the standout man of the game thanks to his season-best 38 points.

Theis contributed nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks in around 20 minutes of action. With 26 wins and 14 losses, the Clippers are in fourth place in the Western Conference, two places behind OKC. Two days earlier, Theis and Co. had narrowly admitted defeat in a duel with leaders Minnesota Timberwolves (105:109).

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers made an exclamation point with their 126:121 win against the defending champion Denver Nuggets. MVP Joel Embiid shone with 41 points, while superstar Nikola Jokic scored 25 points on the other side.

Regardless of the German national team's surprising World Cup triumph, world champion Franz Wagner recognizes the increased importance of European basketball in the NBA. This is “now very high” in North America, said the Orlando Magic professional in an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Wednesday). “Today, three of the absolute top players in this league are from Europe,” Wagner added: “When you come in as a young player, as was the case with me personally, you feel a certain respect right from the start.”

But Germany's World Cup victory didn't really make a big impact in the NBA, Wagner reported. He “honestly doesn’t really believe that the Americans know exactly what actually happened at the World Cup.” “They do their own thing, look more at the NBA and can therefore claim, for example, that their best players weren’t there at the World Cup – but ultimately we Germans don’t care at all about that.”

The German World Cup fairytale still feels a bit unreal for the Berlin native. “The fact that we won the world championship title at the end can hardly be described in words,” said the 22-year-old: “I therefore think that this feeling about what we achieved in the summer of 2023 will last for many years to come. “