Sports
Oilers Beat Canucks 3-2 In Game 7 To Advance To Western Conference Final
Vancouver, British Columbia – The Edmonton Oilers are proving they have more scoring options than just Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist as Edmonton scored three times in the second period and defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 on Monday night to go to the Western Conference finals.
Zach Hyman and Cody Ceci also scored, while Evan Bouchard assisted twice for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner finished with 15 saves.
“It takes every single guy in here,” Nugent-Hopkins explained. “Definitely proud to get the job done with this group.”
Oilers beat Canucks | AP News Image
Oilers Beat Canucks 3-2 In Game 7 To Advance To Western Conference Final
Draisaitl leads all postseason players with 24 points, McDavid has 21, and Bouchard leads all defensemen with 20. The Canucks kept McDavid off the scoreboard for the third time in seven games and limited Draisaitl to one assist.
Edmonton, back in the conference finals for the second time in three years, will meet Dallas in Game 1 of their series on Thursday night.
Conor Garland and Filip Hronek scored in the third period for Vancouver, while Arturs Silovs made 26 saves.
On Monday, the Canucks were forced to reshuffle their forward lines after learning that leading goal scorer Brock Boeser had been sidelined due to a reported blood clotting issue. Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev returned for Game 7 after missing the previous two games, but Vasily Podkolzin was scratched.
Kris Knoblauch, coaching in his first Stanley Cup playoffs, praised Nugent-Hopkins and the Oilers’ bottom-six forwards for successfully killing a four-minute penalty on Ryan McLeod late in the first period.
“We played, I thought, really well,” Knoblauch said of his team’s first-period performance, in which Edmonton outshot Vancouver 13-2. “That could be a turning point in the game, but our penalty kill, like it has been for almost all the playoffs, has been really solid.”
Silovs was the highlight of the opening session, stopping all 13 shots he faced.
Ceci opened the score with his team’s first shot of the second period, a slap shot from the right point that beat Silovs high to the glove side at 1:16. The Oilers then went on their first power play, with Hyman scoring his playoff-leading 11th goal at 5:20 by tipping Bouchard’s point shot to Silovs’ stick side.
oilers beat canucks | AP News Image
Oilers Beat Canucks 3-2 In Game 7 To Advance To Western Conference Final
With 4:38 remaining, Nugent-Hopkins pushed the advantage to 3-0 with a crisp angle shot. Edmonton scored its first power-play goal in three games.
For the first 52 minutes, the Canucks struggled to create any dangerous scoring chances, but Garland’s unassisted slot shot with 8:23 left in the third energized the team and its fans. Hronek pulled Vancouver within one with 4:36 remaining, and the Canucks maintained the pressure until the final bell.
“For the most part, I thought we played well,” said Draisaitl, who famously called the 2023-24 season a ‘Cup or Bust’ after the Oilers were eliminated in the second round of the 2023 playoffs. “Would we like to keep things a little less stressful? “Yes, probably.”
Vancouver scored 0 for 3 on the power play, while Edmonton scored 1 for 2. The Oilers were 20 for 23 on the penalty kill in the series.
After allowing one goal on 15 shots in his return to the net for Edmonton’s Game 6 victory, Skinner faced only 17 shots in Game 7, including five in the third period.
But that made for a challenging night.
“They were able to make plays, but just weren’t able to get shots on net,” Skinner stated. “I was working quite hard, believe it or not. But I didn’t have many shots, which is a compliment to the players up front.
The Oilers advanced to 8-4 all-time in Game 7, while the Canucks dropped to 6-7.
Oilers Beat Canucks| Ap news Image
Oilers Beat Canucks 3-2 In Game 7 To Advance To Western Conference Final
The Canucks were making their first playoff appearance in front of a crowd since 2015. Despite losing Vezina Trophy nominee Thatcher Demko to injury after the first game of the first round, the Vancouver Canucks advanced for the first time since the 2020 playoff bubble.
After the game, Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet underlined his team’s progress since he took over the bench in January 2023.
SOURCE – (PA)
