The Edmonton Oilers blew a 4-1 lead and lost game one of their second round series 5-4 to the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks were nabbed for too many men just 40 seconds into the game. The Oilers power play, which went 45% in the first round against Los Angeles, came through again. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins set up Zach Hyman for his eighth of the post-season. Conor Garland went in alone on a breakaway not long after but couldn’t beat Stuart Skinner. With five minutes to go in the first, Leon Draisaitl grabbed a giveaway by Ian Cole. Draisaitl fed Mattias Ekholm at the point who blasted his first of the playoffs past Arturs Silovs.
Dakota Joshua slammed a bounce off the end boards behind Skinner to put the Canucks on the board 53 seconds into the second. The Oilers went up 4-1 on goals 45 seconds apart from Cody Ceci and Hyman. Elias Lindholm scored late in the second when he banked the puck in off Skinner from behind the net.
Draisaitl didn’t play the latter half of the second but returned for the third.
With the teams playing four-on-four halfway through the third, J.T. Miller deftly deflected a pass from Brock Boeser to pull the Canucks within one. Nikita Zadorov bombed a long shot past Skinner to make it 4-4 with 6:13 to go in the third. Garland then slid a shot under Skinner to put the Canucks ahead 39 seconds later.
The Oilers managed just two shots on goal after Hyman scored with 6:49 left in the second. The Canucks had a 24-16 edge in shots on net.
Game two is Friday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 6 p.m., game at 8 p.m.).
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