*Photo from MSN*
Vancouver leads series 3-2
How about some more late game drama? Arturs Silovs delivered in goal, JT Miller scored the game winner, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Edmonton Oilers with a 3-2 victory Thursday night in Vancouver.
After the teams scored twice in the last two minutes of game 4, a late game goal by Miller was the difference in game 5 as the Canucks took a 3-2 series lead and pushing the Oilers to the brink of elimination with the win. Holding the top power play in the league to 3 shots on 5 tries helps.
Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said after the game that "Almost every single guy gave us everything they had. Resilient. I thought the guys were terrific tonight. They really came to play. It thought it was obviously one of our best games in the playoffs."
Evander Kane started the scoring in this one, putting the Oilers ahead 1-0 with his 3rd goal of the playoffs 4:34 into the game. Carson Soucy tied the game for the Canucks with an unassisted goal later in the period. Mattias Janmark scored 23 seconds after that, putting the Oilers ahead 2-1 with Connor Brown and Brett Kulak assisting.
After that, the Canucks held the mighty Oilers in check. Phillip Di Giuseppe scored the only goal of the second period, tying the game 2-2 when he scored unassisted for his first goal of the playoffs. It stayed 2-2 until there were 33 seconds left in the game, when Miller scored to put the Canucks ahead for the first time all night.
Miller said of his goal that "I was open for a split second earlier and I'm glad Lindy didn't force it there because McDavid was ready to go the other way and it's one of the ones where we got a nice bounce. Petey went to the net and it him in the foot and off the post, and I think I got a little lucky. That puck was kind of all over the place. So, just nice to get rewarded at the end of the game."
Once again, it was Silovs between the pipes for the Canucks, picking up his 3rd win of the series in a back and forth round so far. Silovs stopped 21 shots on the 23 he was tested with by the Oilers offense, posting a .913 save percentage.
Getting the start in goal for the Oilers for the second straight game was Calvin Pickard, who couldn't win his second game in a row after prevailing in game 4. Pickard turned aside 32 out of the 35 shots on goal the Canucks had, authoring a .914 save percentage.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the loss that "When you don't have the puck, it looks like you're chasing the game, and we want to have the puck a lot more and making more plays and we just want to play faster, quicker and a little more competitive. The guys are trying and I think the defensive details are there, but I think the biggest thing we want to take out of this is we've just got to be making plays. If we're making plays, we possess the puck and that's when we're the strongest."
Game 6 of the series is set for Saturday night as the series goes back to Edmonton. The Canucks will go for the series win to knock out the Oilers, while Edmonton needs to win to keep their season alive and force a do or die game 7.
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