Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in the second game of their series Friday night. The series is tied 1-1.
The teams traded power play goals in the first period. Elias Pettersson blasted a one-timer past Stuart Skinner for his first of the post-season. It was the first power play goal allowed by the Oilers after killing off their first 15 penalties of the playoffs. Leon Draisaitl flicked home a pass from Connor McDavid to even it up with 9:04 left in the first.
“What an impact they had on the game,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after being asked about the performance of McDavid and Draisaitl. “Especially you talk about Leon; Leon we didn’t even know if he was going to play until after the warmup. We knew it was okay, he had a couple of shifts and then we had that first penalty kill and the face-off is on the one side and he’s looking over like do you want me to take it and as soon as he gave me that look I knew that we’re going to be fine — he’s going to have a heck of a game.”
“Obviously I was smart about it, but, for the most part, it felt good,” Draisaitl said when asked about playing with his undisclosed injury.
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The teams swapped scores early in the second period while playing four-on-four. Brock Boeser deflected Carson Soucy’s point shot to make it 2-1 Vancouver. Only 23 seconds later, Mattias Ekholm found the top corner on Arturs Silovs for his second of the series. With 1:43 to go in the second, Nikita Zadorov beat Skinner over the right shoulder with a shot from along the boards and just above the goal line.
McDavid tied it 5:27 into the third, beating Silovs blocker side on a breakaway. The Oilers outshot the Canucks 15-2 in the third.
In overtime, Bouchard’s shot from the right wing went in off the stick of Canucks defender Ian Cole.
“I thought there was lots of resilience,” McDavid said after the game. “I thought we were maybe a little bit unlucky to be down going into the third, but we stuck with it. We hung in there all night — I thought everybody battled so hard to get this one. This was a big one and it feels good to be tied heading home.”
Skinner stopped 16 of 19 shots in the win.
The Oilers will host Game 3 on Sunday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7:30 p.m).
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