That was easily the Edmonton Oilers’ best game this season.
On Saturday night, the Oilers went to British Columbia to take on the Vancouver Canucks for the first time this season, slamming the Canucks 7-3, to bring their record to 7-7-1. Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring early in the first period, scoring his 10th goal of the season four seconds after the power play to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead. It stayed this way until the second period.
The Oilers scored another early goal to kick off the second period, as a nice passing play from Derek Ryan and Mattias Janmark found Corey Perry all alone on the side of the net for the 2-0 lead.
A minute and 13 seconds later, the Oilers took a 3-0 lead as Viktor Arvidsson scored his second of the game, with assists to Draisaitl and Brett Kulak. It was a nice play by Draisaitl to shield the puck and find Arvidsson all alone in the slot.
Reminiscent of Game 7 of the second round, as a nice high deflection from Elias Petterson got the Canucks their first goal 18 seconds later. About two minutes later, a goal from Filip Hronek made the game 3-2 with the game heading into the third period.
It was all the Oilers in the third period. Connor Brown scored an insurance goal just over six minutes into the period, as he scored on a rebound to give the Oilers some breathing room.
Just over a minute later, the Oilers scored a power play goal of the game, as Connor McDavid banged in a loose rebound on the side of the net for his fourth goal of the season, assisted by Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Brett Kulak put the game away with his fourth goal of the season, beating Kevin Lankinen five-hole for a goal he’d love to have back. About three minutes later, Brown scored his second of the game, another weak goal, and he got pulled in the process.
Vancouver scored a power play goal at the end of the game, giving us the final score of 7-3.
Takeaways…
Connor McDavid picked up a goal and an assist, his first three-point game of the season to give him four goals and 13 points in 12 games. He’s now just five points away from becoming the fourth-fastest player to 1,000 points.
Mattias Janmark also had a great game, picking up three assists to give him six points through 15 games. He was even reunited with Connor Brown and Adam Henrique, with that line instantly clicking as it did in the postseason last season.
In 15 games so far this season, the Oilers have allowed a goal on the penalty kill in 12 of those games. On Saturday, they allowed a power play goal at the very end of the game, going one-for-two on the penalty kill. Not great. On the other hand, their power play looked solid as they scored on one of their three opportunities, and were five seconds away from going two-for-three on the man advantage.
Statistically, it wasn’t a great game for Stuart Skinner as he allowed three goals on 20 shots. The netminder finished the game with an .850 save percentage, but it’s hard to fault him on goals one and three.
Guess what? It’s another two-day break for the Oilers, as they don’t play until Tuesday when they host the New York Islanders at 7:00 PM MT.
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