Evan Bouchard scored in overtime to give the visiting Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday and evened their Western Conference semifinal series at one win apiece.
Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid both scored once in four-point games for Edmonton. Mattias Ekholm added a goal, and Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner made 16 saves.
Building on a third period in which they outshot the Canucks by a 15-2 margin, the Oilers were rewarded when Bouchard joined a rush led by his team’s dynamic duo, took a drop pass and sent a long shot that banked into the net off the stick of Canucks defenseman Ian Cole at 5:38 of overtime.
Bouchard told Sportsnet, “I honestly just tried throwing it to the net and maybe (Zach) Hyman would tip it, but lucky for me their guy tipped it.”
He added of Edmonton’s victory, “That was huge. We came out, played hard all game long and got rewarded.”
McDavid and Draisaitl are the third-fastest players in NHL history to reach 90 career playoff points, both reaching the mark in 56 games. Their pace was eclipsed only by Wayne Gretzky (43 games) and Mario Lemieux (45 games).
“Everyone battled to get this one. It was a big win,” McDavid said. “It feels good to come into their building and earn a win. I thought we earned tonight’s win and it feels good, but it’s just one and we move on.”
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said, “There was a lot of storylines to this game, but I think the top storyline tonight was McDavid and Draisaitl. They were terrific.”
Nikita Zadorov collected one goal and one assist for the Canucks, while Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser also tallied. Goalie Arturs Silovs stopped 27 shots and J.T. Miller collected two assists.
“For the most part, we had our looks and we had the game where we wanted it, and sometimes we’ll close that out and sometimes we won’t,” Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes said. “I thought we had a good game and we’ll just continue to push forward.”
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series will be played Sunday in Edmonton.
Three times the clubs exchanged goals, with the Oilers erasing a deficit each time.
“I thought we earned it throughout the night,” Ekholm said. “They had a hell of a comeback in the first night and tonight we had that comeback mindset.”
Pettersson netted a power-play goal at 4:14 of the first period to open the scoring, utilizing a quick release after receiving Miller’s cross-ice pass. It was his first of the postseason.
Draisaitl responded with a power-play goal at 10:56 of the first. He finished a perfectly executed give-and-go with McDavid for his sixth tally of the playoffs.
Boeser’s marker 53 seconds into the second period, a neat deflection of Carson Soucy’s point shot for his fifth of the playoffs, put Vancouver ahead a second time. However, Ekholm tied the game 23 seconds later with a shot from the slot for his second of the playoffs.
Zadorov’s fourth goal of the playoffs, a sharp-angled offering from the bottom of the left circle with 1:43 remaining in the second period, gave the hosts their third lead. But McDavid converted a breakaway opportunity at 5:27 of the third period for his second goal of the payoffs, again tying the clash.
–Field Level Media
