*Photo from Yahoo Sports*
Series tied 3-3
We'll go to 7. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists, Connor McDavid had 3 assists, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks with a 5-1 victory Saturday night in Edmonton.
The Oilers had to win on home ice to force the series to a deciding game 7, and they did just that, riding 4 unanswered goals in the second and 3rd period to take down the Canucks. Leon Draisaitl also chipped in two assists while Evan Bouchard had a goal and an assist.
McDavid, the Oilers captain, said of the win that "Nothing to be satisfied or excited about. We just bought ourselves another day, and I would expect the same level of urgency and desperation from our group. I would expect Vancouver to play a better game as well, and I would expect it to be a highly competitive, great Game 7."
Dylan Holloway kicked off the scoring for the Oilers, giving them a 1-0 lead 8:18 into the game on his 3rd goal of the playoffs. Nils Hoglander tied it for the Canucks at the 10:03 mark of the period on his first career playoff goal. Zach Hyman scored his 10th goal of the playoffs 7:14 into the second period, giving the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
Holloway said of his goal that "They were kind of cheating, thinking that Leo was going to pick up the puck and he did. I was able to gain some speed, and he made a nice play to me and I kind of caught their D flat-footed. I was happy for that one to go in. It felt pretty good."
Bouchard scored at the 11:20 mark of the second, making it 3-1 Oilers with assists from McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins. 3:25 into the 3rd period was when Nugent-Hopkins got his goal, assisted by Bouchard and McDavid on his 3rd goal of the playoffs. Evander Kane scored with help from Draisaitl later in the period to make it a 5-1 game.
After Calvin Pickard got the start in games 4 and 5, the Oilers went back to Stuart Skinner in game 6 with their season on the line. Skinner made 14 saves on the 15 shots the Canucks offense sent his way, giving him a .933 save percentage.
Getting the start between the pipes for the Canucks was once again Arturs Silovs, who continued his win-loss flip flop streak this round. Silovs stopped 22 of the 27 shots on goal the Oilers tested him with, posting a .815 save percentage.
Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet said after the game that "You’re disappointed a little bit, but you know that we are a good bounce-back team. Our job is we’ve got to flush this game. Some guys know they’ve got to play better, and you’ve got 48 hours to get your energy back. It’s a Game 7. People would kill to be in this situation right now, and we’ve got to make sure that we act like we want to be in that situation. Play like you want to be a hero on Monday, that’s what I think."
The decisive game 7 is in Vancover Monday night. One game separates the teams from a conference finals matchup with the Dallas Stars or going home for the summer.
Comments
Post a Comment