It all comes down to this.
The Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks will face off in a do-or-die Game 7 on Monday night, to see which team will advance to the NHL Western Conference final.
The best-of-seven, second-round series is tied at three a piece, after the Oilers came out with a commanding 5-1 victory over the Canucks in Edmonton on Saturday night.
The winner of Monday’s game will face the Dallas Stars, with the third-round matchup scheduled to start on Thursday night.
The Canucks will be without Brock Boeser, who along with teammate J.T. Miller, are the only Vancouver Canucks on the top 15 post-season scoring list. Boeser, who did not practise Sunday, has seven goals and five assists in 12 playoff games.
The Edmonton Oilers Leon Draisaitl (23 points), Connor McDavid (21 points) and Evan Bouchard (18 points), are first, second and third in the playoff scoring race.
If the Canucks hope to knock off the Oilers they’ll likely have to shut down at least two of the snipers and then hope that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (14 points) or Zach Hyman (12 points) don’t pick up the slack.
The Oilers have outscored the Canucks 21-18 after six games and have outshot them 174-132. All the games in Vancouver have been decided by one goal.
There will no doubt be Oilers fans in the Vancouver stands on Monday night, including Brenda and Gary Nahornick.
The couple boarded a plane at YEG Monday morning, on a previously planned trip to Vancouver.
“This was a shot in the dark that they ended up going to Game 7,” Gary said. “We said, ‘we’re already there, let’s see about going.’
“There was plenty of tickets.”
Brenda said they bought their tickets at 6 a.m. Monday.
“Very, very excited. It’s my first time going to an NHL playoff game ever. And my husband’s bucket list was to see the Oilers play in every major city across Canada,” she said.
“This will be our first time to Vancouver. We’ve been to Winnipeg, Ottawa, Edmonton, now Vancouver.”
The pair will be decked out in Oilers jerseys, tattoos and hats. They even packed their pompoms.
“Go Oilers! We’re super excited and we can hardly wait,” Brenda said.
The puck drops on the series-deciding game in Vancouver just after 7 p.m. MT.
— with files from The Canadian Press