J.T. Miller scored with 32.6 seconds left in the third to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night. The Canucks lead the series 3-2.
“They played faster than we did, and I think we play best when we’re skating and we’re getting the puck behind them and taking control of the pace, but obviously that wasn’t the case in the second,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said after the game.
“I thought we started to find our game in the third there. Obviously, they got the late one there.”
The Oilers broke the ice 4:34 into the game when Leon Draisaitl set up Evander Kane for his third of the playoffs.
Carson Soucy fired a high wrister over Calvin Pickard’s glove to tie it with 2:33 left in the first.
The Oilers responded just 23 seconds later with Connor Brown feeding Mattias Janmark on a two-on-one.
The Canucks dominated the Oilers in the second period, earning a 17-4 advantage in shots on goal and forcing Pickard to make several challenging saves.
Phillip Di Giuseppe made it 2-2 when Evan Bouchard turned the puck over in front of the Oilers’ net. Di Giuseppe slid a backhand through Pickard.
The Canucks’ barrage continued in the third. Nils Hoglander had a golden chance on a rebound, but Pickard got a piece of the puck with his left skate, causing it to clang off the post.
In the final minute, Miller found the puck after a pass deflected off the post and slammed it behind Pickard.
“The bounce-back or whatever you want to call it, it’s been all year,” Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said. “I mean, it happened a few times this year where we didn’t like our effort and we dealt with it. And we usually bounce back.
“So, it’s all the players, you gotta give them a ton of credit.”
Pickard finished with 32 saves, while Arturs Silovs made 21.
The Oilers were 0 for 5 on the power play, while the Canucks were 0 for 4.
“When you don’t have the puck, it looks like you’re chasing the game, and we want to have the puck a lot more and be making more plays, and we just want to play faster, quicker and a little more competitive,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said.
“The guys are trying and I think the defensive details are there, but I think the biggest thing we want to take out of this is we’ve just got to be making plays. If we’re making plays, we possess the puck and that’s when we’re the strongest.”
Game 6 will be Saturday at Rogers Place. You can listen to the game live on 630 CHED, beginning with The Faceoff Show at 4 p.m. The actual game starts at 6 p.m.
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