Brock Boeser had four assists as the Vancouver Canucks downed the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 in pre-season action Saturday night.
“I liked the way we started,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. “I thought we gave ourselves a chance by playing fast, getting on top of them and controlling the game through the first half. You make a mistake here and there and its kind of compounded. We took some penalties. We’ll learn from it and move on.”
The Oilers took the lead late in the first when Adam Erne found a loose puck in front, spun, and fired the puck past Thatcher Demko.
Quinn Hughes scored twice 1:53 apart in the second. He batted an aerial pass from Phillip Di Giuseppe past Stuart Skinner, then tallied on a backhand to make it 2-1 Canucks.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored on a two-man advantage 40 seconds into the third. Elias Pettersson added another power play goal less than five minutes later. Di Giuseppe tipped a shot past Skinner with Raphael Lavoie replying 26 seconds later for the Oilers.
“We’re always competing hard, you know we never give up,” Lavoie said. “We had a little push there at the end, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”
The Oilers, playing without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, were 0/4 on the power play.
The Oilers will play in Seattle on Monday (Face-off Show at 6:30 p.m., game at 8 p.m.).
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