from Kevin Woodley at the NHL's website,
Nikita Zadorov and Conor Garland scored 39 seconds apart in the third period, and the Vancouver Canucks came back from three goals down to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.
Zadorov tied it 4-4 at 13:47 with a one-timer from the left point through traffic. Garland then put Vancouver ahead for the first time at 14:26, faking a slap shot off the rush at the right dot before sliding a sharp-angled wrist shot through the legs of Stuart Skinner....
J.T. Miller also scored in the third period, Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and Arturs Silovs made 14 saves for the Canucks, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division.
“The belief is always there,” Joshua said. “Just to know that you got to keep playing to the end, anything can happen and in the third, once the crowd gets behind us and gives us a little bit more confidence, you could see it spread throughout the team."...
“They’re a good team and they were doing everything they could to come back and we were doing everything we could to hold onto the lead,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who had one assist but no shots and was minus-1 in 24:03 of ice time. “That happens in the playoffs, you try to hold onto a lead and sometimes you’re maybe a little too passive. We were doing a good job of holding onto the lead, but they find a way to get two and find a way to get a third to win.”...
“Up until 10 minutes left in the third, I thought we controlled the action,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “Sometimes that happens, that’s the emotional ups and downs of the playoffs, they get three quick ones and that’s the game right there. We can be encouraged by the way we played for the first 50 minutes. A little bit of a disappointing ending, but at the end of the day, when we’re at our best and to a certain point, I didn’t think we maybe earned it in the third.”
Below are the game highlights.