Oilers Shock Canucks in OT

The Edmonton Oilers pulled out a thrilling come-from-behind 3-2 OT win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night. The team saw themselves down by a 2-0 margin heading into the third before getting a pair of goals from Ryan McLeod and Leon Draisaitl. Mikko Koskinen turned aside 25 shots while Connor McDavid sealed the deal in 3-on-3.

It was a nice change of pace as the Oilers look to build up a winning streak to combat their losing ways. If you didn’t get a chance to watch this one, I got you covered with every detail...

First Period:

There was a timid start from both teams in the early goings of this one. The Canuck’s had a slight edge with the game’s first few chances but Mikko Koskinen was able to fend them off. The Oilers started to get going near the midway point.

Kailer Yamamoto nearly opened the scoring with a brilliant deflection that hit the post. McDavid seemed to be buzzing as he was aggressive on the rush each time he was on the ice. The pressure paid off as the captain drew a penalty to give Edmonton a chance on the man advantage.

Evan Bouchard was anchoring the top unit for the second straight game, but he wasn’t able to convert. The Oilers fail to get much going and we remained scoreless.

The final two minutes were an absolute shooting gallery for the Oilers. The top line hemmed in the Canuck’s for the entirety of their shift with McDavid getting denied on a sweet backdoor chance. The second line came out and continued that pressure as Warren Foegele had yet another chance that was stopped.

The Canuck’s may have been rolling with rookie Spencer Martin in goal but he was perfect in the opening frame, as was Koskinen. We ended it as we started it, tied at zeros.

Second Period:

The middle frame opened up with a long nine-minute period without a whistle. Nothing of note happened during that time other than a few mid-tier chances on either net. Kris Russell went down early during that segment after taking a slapshot to the foot but he was able to remain in the game. Eventually, with 11 minutes left on the board, the whistle blew on an Oilers icing call.

McDavid connected with Yamamoto on a fantastic chance at the midway point of the game but he struck iron. Martin was having a good game in the Vancouver net, but he was also getting plenty of help from his posts as well. The score remained 0-0.

We had a strange play happen with just under seven minutes to go. Matthew Highmore ran into McDavid in the Oilers end and the ref took them both the box. McDavid was guilty of interference but Highmore was caught with embellishment. Teams would go 4-on-4.

Elias Pettersson got the game’s first goal as he used Cody Ceci as a screen to beat Koskinen over the glove. Oilers let in the first goal of the game for the 10th straight game and the Canuck’s hold the 1-0 lead.

Oilers would have a chance to square things as Juho Lammikko tied up Draisaitl a bit too long. Evan Bouchard had a couple of point shots that made their way through traffic but Martin was sharp to keep Edmonton off the board.

In fact, it would be the Canucks that would score. J.T. Miller blocked a McDavid shot and sent Tyler Motte on a breakaway who went five-hole on Koskinen. Oilers ain't doing themselves any favours as they fall behind 2-0 late in the period.

Edmonton would have another last-minute push but couldn’t beat Martin. Edmonton needed two goals if they wanted a chance as Vancouver took a 2-0 lead into the third period.

Third Period:

Edmonton came out with plenty of pressure early on. They had the Canucks pinned in their own end for the first few minutes but failed to get any high-quality chances on net. The Canucks came the other way with a great chance but Koskinen was there to stop them.

Ryan McLeod finally broke the goose egg for the Oilers. He drove down the right side and beat Martin from a sharp angle. It was a bit of a strange one but it cut the Vancouver lead to 2-1 with more than half the period to go.

A chance to tie things up was within reach for the Oilers on the very next shift. Oliver Ekman-Larsson got called on a crosscheck on McDavid to give the Oilers their third PP of the game.

Motte had yet another breakaway chance on the kill but Koskinen made sure to keep him off the board this time. Draisaitl was denied from his wheelhouse on a magnificent save by Martin but the overwhelming pressure would set up the German for another crack at it and he wouldn’t miss. 29 goals for #29 as we had a 2-2 tie game. The goal came seconds after the powerplay chance expired.

That hard work to tie things up was under threat of coming undone as Jesse Puljujarvi went to the box to give Vancouver their first PP chance. Canucks would push but the Oilers were able to keep them off the board.

Neither team could figure it out in regulation so we headed to OT tied at 2-2.

OT:

It was all Edmonton for the majority of the overtime period. Draisaitl and RNH had a few in-close chances that were foiled by Martin. McDavid linked up with Draisaitl late in the period that was once again denied.

Finally, Darnell Nurse was able to find McDavid on a 2-on-1 rush to end the game. A very entertaining battle ends with an Oilers comeback.

Takeaways:

• I will give it to the Oilers tonight, they earned that win. I thought they played a pretty good 40 minutes and didn’t deserve to be down heading into the third. To their credit, they overcame a hot goalie and got things done. Very refreshing considering the current state of the team.
• Not completely sold on RNH being on the top-line with McDavid. The two players just didn’t seem to gel together all that much tonight. That being said, this is RNH’s first game back from injury, so maybe I am looking a bit too far into tonight’s performance. I am very intrigued by having him play as the third line centre moving forward.
• I think Kailer Yamamoto had a helluva game beside McDavid. He was all over the ice and had at least three or four really good looks on the net, including a deflection that caught iron. The kid has been trending up for some time now.
• Mikko Koskinen was solid for the second game in a row. He was especially good in overtime with a few game-saving stops. Maybe it wasn’t ALL goaltending to blame for Edmonton’s recent struggles. I still like the big Finn.
• You know who would have looked good in tonight’s game? Tyler Benson. I thought Devin Shore looked awful tonight which begs the eternal question of why he continuously finds himself in the lineup.
• A ton of respect to Spencer Martin tonight. The guy had the Oilers stumped for most of the game and if it wasn’t for some luck and Draisaitl, a shutout was definitely a possibility. Best Canuck by a country-mile.
• The Oilers are riding a two-game win streak and see their record improve to 20-16-2. For the standings watchers, this gives Edmonton 42 points which is four behind the second wildcard and six behind the third-place LA Kings. They will try to shorten that gap on Thursday as they host the Nashville Predators.