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.
from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
This, friends, is the playoff journey. How are you enjoying it so far?
A game well in hand turns into a crazy, frantic fold job. A lead youve been holding for a few months now sifts through your fingers on the latest, greatest, most important game of the season.
A goalie whos been stellar for most of six months gets burned for the second time on an Opening Night in Vancouver, scorched for three goals inside five minutes as a 4-1 lead somehow morphs into a 5-4 loss in Game 1 at Vancouver.
We definitely gave them this one.
That was the voice of goaltender Stuart Skinner, who was level-headed and thoughtful in describing what happened here, as the Oilers let shaky Canucks rookie goaler Arturs Silovs off the hook with just seven shots on goal in the last 40 minutes.
A little bit too passive, said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. It wasnt how we wanted to play. We could be a little more assertive.
Meanwhile, Skinner put his team on the hook by steering a harmless pass into his own net before getting fooled on the game-winner by a nice shot fake and five-hole groove courtesy Conor Garland.
Stu has won us so many games; he's played so spectacular through the year, Knoblauch said. There are going to be games that arent his A game, and he'll be the first to admit today wasnt his A game.
continued
from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,
If they didnt already know, the Edmonton Oilers discovered Wednesday who theyre playing. Everybody did.
The Vancouver Canucks, widely dismissed like spam from your inbox ahead of their series with Edmonton, did what they have done since the National Hockey League season began by stunning the Oilers (and probably a lot of other people) by winning 5-4 in Game 1 of the teams second-round playoff series.
And it wasnt just that the Canucks won, although given the Stanley Cup tournament and all, that would have been enough.
Its that Vancouver won by scoring four goals over the final 23 minutes to erase a 4-1 deficit. They scored three times in five minutes in the third period before Edmonton even managed a shot on net.
continued
Partly (mostly?) because the Slicks played tar pits after their 4-1 lead. They sat back sat back sat back and just let the Nucks come to them until it was too late. When it was 4-3, suddenly they woke up BUT forgot to play the game that got them the 4-1 lead.
Just Game One and I can't stand the Nucks but if they turn EDM into a quivering ball of self-loathing not unlike the Laffs, they've done the hockey world a massive favor.
I quit watching after the 1st, and Van looked so unconfident and dejected. My eyes popped this morning when I saw the score.
Edmonton has done this the last few years, where they give up some stinkers at the end and get shocked, only to come back harder the next game. I'd expect a very strong game from Edmonton in game 3.
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