Article content
The Edmonton Oilers condition has been upgraded from serious to good after what might have been a season-saving response Friday night in Vancouver.
After all of the hand-wringing, angst and doomsday scenarios, the Oilers leave Vancouver the same way most road teams hope to come out of the first two games of a series, having stolen home-ice advantage with a split.
Article content
They were one shot away from suffering damage they might not have been able to walk away from, but Evan Bouchard’s winning goal 5:38 into overtime sealed a richly deserved 4-3 Game 2 victory.
Now it’s Vancouver’s turn to worry after Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, playing together on the first line, ran their show, combining for eight points to get the Oilers back in front of the series.
McDavid, held without a shot on net in Game 1, had a goal and three assists, including the game-tying goal on a third-period breakaway.
Most of this game was a script flip from Game One, where Vancouver charged back from 4-1 down and Edmonton didn’t register a shot on net for over 22 minutes. This time it was Edmonton coming back and Vancouver hanging on the ropes at the end of regulation.
After coming back from 1-0 down in the first period, 2-1 down in the second period and 3-2 down in the third, Edmonton hit the gas and outshot Vancouver 15-2 over the final 20 minutes.
The knockout punch finally came in overtime and it puts the advantage back in Edmonton’s corner.
But the two teams have made it very clear that nothing is going to come easily for either side. It was neck and neck all night.
Article content
They traded power-play goals in the first period — Elias Peterson for the Canucks at 4:14 and Draisaitl for the Oilers at 10:56. Then they traded four-on-four goals early in the second — Brock Boeser at 53 seconds for the Canucks and Mattias Ekholm for the Oilers at 1:16.
The Oilers couldn’t get a lead and the Canucks couldn’t pull away.
Then, another awful goal against put the Oilers back in a hole at the second intermission. Nikita Zadorov flipped a butterfly from a sharp angle with 1:43 to go and it floated over Stuart Skinner’s shoulder for a 3-2 Vancouver lead.
That set up 20 of the most crucial minutes the Oilers have played in some time, and they unloaded everything they had.
McDavid got them back in it with his breakaway goal five minutes in and Bouchard sealed the win.
COSTLY MISS
The Oilers caught a massive break in the second period when both referees missed McDavid clipping Quinn Hughes across the face with a high stick and drawing blood. Instead of a four-minute power play, the Canucks got nothing. Just a huge missed call for Kelly Sutherland and Eric Furlatt.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
