Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl is questionable for today's Game 2 against the Vancouver Canucks. Draisaitl passes the puck during the first period in Game 1 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks, in Vancouver, B.C., Wednesday, May 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers bounced back for a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Friday.
The result levelled the best-of-seven series at 1-1, with Game 3 set for Sunday in Edmonton.
Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid each registered a goal and three assists, while Mattias Ekholm also scored for the Oilers.
Draisaitl was listed as a game-time decision earlier in the day due to an undisclosed injury.
The Canucks got a goal and an assist from Nikita Zadorov, while Elias Pettersson put away his first of the playoffs and Brock Boeser also scored.
Stuart Skinner stopped 16 of 19 shots for the Oilers and Canucks goalie Arturs Silovs made 27 saves on 31 shots.
The Canucks opened the scoring on an early man advantage Friday.
With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the box for tripping, J.T Miller wound up and looked like he was about to launch a big shot from the faceoff circle. Instead, he sliced a pass across the slot to Pettersson, who blasted a quick snap shot past an out-of-position Skinner 4:16 into the game.
Edmonton’s potent power play got to work before the first intermission after Tyler Myers was called for hooking.
Silovs made a pad stop on McDavid, but couldn’t keep the Oilers’ captain off the scoresheet for long.
Stationed at the goal line, the superstar centre sent a pass to Draisaitl in the slot and he fired it in to tie the game at 1-1 with his sixth goal of the playoffs 10:56 into the first.
Edmonton and Vancouver both went 1-for-3 on the power play.
Silovs kept the Oilers from taking a lead into the locker room with some last-second heroics at the end of the opening frame.
Ekholm fired a slap shot from distance and the rookie goalie got a glove on it. He couldn’t contain the puck, however, and Hyman was there to scoop up the rebound. Silovs then dove across the net to stop the sniper from the side of the net.
The ice opened up early in the second after Edmonton’s Derek Ryan was sent to the box for interference and Vancouver’s Nils Hoglander was called for slashing, setting up two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey.
Fifty-three seconds into the period, Carson Soucy fired a shot on net from inside the blue line and Boeser tipped it in past Skinner from the middle of the slot. His fifth goal of the playoffs put the Canucks up 2-1.
The lead lasted 23 seconds.
With both sides still down a man, Draisaitl dished Ekholm a pass from the blue line and the veteran defenceman sent a shot sailing past Silovs from the high hash marks, knotting the score at 2-2 with his second of the post-season.
Zadorov put the home side up once again 18:17 into the second. The bruising defenceman picked up a puck from Miller in the neutral zone, streaked down the ice and unleashed a wrist shot that soared up and under the cross bar to make it 3-2.
The tally was Zadorov’s fourth of the playoffs.
McDavid used his otherworldly speed to level the score once again 5:27 into the third.
The elite centre picked up a contested puck in the neutral zone, sprinted down the ice ahead of a pair of Canucks defencemen, and sent a shot flying under Silovs’ blocker for his second post-season goal.
Edmonton continued to press for the game winner late, hemming Vancouver into its own end for extended stretches and outshooting the home side 15-2 across the third period, but had to settle for overtime.
Bouchard put away the game winner 5:38 into overtime, with a shot from near the boards that skittered in past Silovs.
UP NEXT
The series shifts to Edmonton for Game 3 on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2024.
