Game Highlights 2.0: Vancouver Canucks beat Edmonton Oilers 4-3

At least it wasn’t an 8-1 loss this time around.

The Oilers dropped their home opener on Saturday by a score of 4-3 to the Vancouver Canucks, putting them at 0-2 early in the season. Below are the highlights from the game.

The Oilers came flying out of the gates and peppered the Canucks during the first couple of minutes of play. Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the first period after jamming a rebound past Casey DeSmith.

The early momentum that the Oilers had dried up in the middle part of the first frame. The Canucks got on the board and tied the score at 1-1 on the power play when Quinn Hughes fired a shot from the point and Andrei Kuzmenko deflected it past Stuart Skinner.

The Canucks grabbed a 2-1 lead shortly before the end of the first period. The Oilers weren’t able to clear the puck out of their own zone and Brock Boeser fired a shot from the point that was deflected past Skinner by Nils Hoglander.

The Oilers capitalized on a power play opportunity early in the second period to tie the game at 2-2. The Canucks tried to exit the zone but got stopped at the blueline and Connor McDavid buried a loose puck past DeSmith following some chaos in front of Vancouver’s net.

The 2-2 tie lasted for under one minute before the Canucks restored their lead. Warren Foegele wired a shot that rimmed behind Vancouver’s net and out of their zone and no Oilers defenceman was there to keep the puck in. Elias Pettersson and Jason Studnicka broke in on a 2-on-0 breakaway and Skinner had no chance.

The Oilers tied the game again in the middle of the second frame while on the power play. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got the puck just inside Vancouver’s blueline and sniped a shot past DeSmith from the face-off circle.

The Canucks pulled out in front again early in the third period. Sam Lafferty drove around Mattias Ekholm and fired a shot through Skinner to make the score 4-3 for Vancouver.