The Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 at Rogers Arena on Friday (May 10), evening up their best-of-seven 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs second-round series at one win apiece.
Related: Oilers Take Game 2 in Overtime 4-3 vs. Canucks
Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime for the Oilers, who also got goals from Leon Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, and Connor McDavid. Goalie Stuart Skinner made 16 saves in a victorious effort.
Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and Nikita Zadorov each lit the lamp for Vancouver, while Canucks goaltender Arturs Silvos took the loss after being beaten four times on 31 shots.
Here are five takeaways from a thrilling Game 2 triumph for Edmonton.
Oilers Finally Beat the Canucks
Edmonton came into Game 2, having lost five straight games to the Canucks. The Oilers went 0-4-0 against Vancouver during the regular season and dropped Game 1 by a score of 5-4 on Wednesday (May 8).
There was an asterisk next to every one of those losses. The first three came in October and early November, when the Oilers were in a complete funk and had yet to make the coaching change from Jay Woodcroft to Kris Knoblauch that would turn their season around. Then, the fourth was in April when the Oilers were without McDavid, who missed the game due to injury, and the fifth was just an inexplicable meltdown in Game 1 by the Oilers, who blew a three-goal lead while going 22:46 without recording a shot on goal.
But while a couple of losses might be easy to brush off, five is a pattern that no number of excuses can explain away. And though the Oilers continued to speak confidently about playing against Vancouver, there had to be increased doubt creeping into their heads with each subsequent loss to the Canucks. With that in mind, for the Oilers to finally win in Vancouver, it had to be massive for Edmonton’s players, regardless of whether they’ll admit it.
Skinner Gets Monkey Off His Back
Speaking of getting over hurdles, Skinner finally picked up the first overtime playoff win of his NHL career. Edmonton’s netminder was previously 0-3 when playing in overtime of an NHL postseason game and had stopped just six of the nine shots he’d faced during playoff sudden death. He had taken the loss in a pair of overtime games against the Los Angeles Kings last spring and was beaten on the first shot of overtime in Edmonton’s first-round loss to the Kings on April 24.
Skinner only had to stop three shots in overtime on Friday, and none were particularly dangerous, but there is no such thing as an easy save, given the pressure of the situation. Like his team in beating the Canucks, Skinner must feel at least a bit of relief by getting his first playoff OT victory.
Oilers Ride Stars to Victory
Knoblauch stacked his No. 1 line with Edmonton’s top three scorers on Friday, playing Draisaitl and Zach Hyman with McDavid.
Edmonton’s coach doubled down by frequently double-shifting the trio as the game wore on. By the end of overtime, Hyman had logged 25:48, Draisaitl had played 27:01, and McDavid was on the ice for 28:12. Between the three of them, Draisaitl, Hyman, and McDavid totaled 82 shifts; Edmonton’s other nine forwards combined for just 153 shifts.
Knoblauch took the same approach on the back end, too, leaning heavily on the defensive pairing of Bouchard and Ekholm, who played 29:49 and 25:42, respectively. Edmonton’s other four bluelines logged between 17:19 and 18:22 of ice time.
The coach’s top-heavy strategy ultimately paid off in Game 2, with members of either the No. 1 forward line or the top defensive unit accounting for all of Edmonton’s goals on Friday. But how far can the Oilers go this postseason without getting more contributions from deeper down their lineup? Half of Edmonton’s 30 goals in the playoffs thus far have come from either Hyman (nine) or Draisaitl (six), while only five Oilers have more than three points through the team’s first seven games in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That’s not a model for sustained success, but the Oilers weren’t worried about winning 16 games on Friday. They just needed to do whatever it took to avoid falling into a 2-0 hole in the series. Knoblauch surely knows that for his team to win more games to advance to more series, the rest of his roster needs to contribute.
Draisaitl No Worse for Wear
On the other hand, seeing Draisaitl log such heavy minutes without any discernible difficulties had to be a relief for the Oilers fans, given he was questionable to play just hours before Game 2.
In Game 1, Draisaitl missed most of the second period and appeared to be in pain when he returned to play in the third period. He didn’t participate in practice on Thursday (May 9) or the optional pre-game skate on Friday. Little was known about what the issue was with Draisaitl, other than Knoblauch saying the forward was dealing with “cramping and equipment issues” in Game 1.
The status of the five-time All-Star had all of Oil Country on edge, but as it turned out, there was nothing to be worried about because if anything was bothering Draisaitl, it certainly didn’t hinder his play. He was on the ice for 29 shifts, most among all Oilers players, and factored in on all of Edmonton’s scoring, with one goal and three assists. McDavid was also in on all his team’s goals, recording three assists in addition to his third-period tally.
Oilers Refused to Lose
Perhaps most impressive about Edmonton’s Game 2 win was the resiliency displayed by the Oilers. They trailed three times on Friday, and each time, they responded by scoring the next goal: Pettersson gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead just 4:14 into the game before Draisaitl tied it up with a power-play goal at 10:56 of the first. Ekholm got the Oilers back on level terms with a goal at 1:16 of the second period, only 23 seconds after Boeser had put the Canucks ahead 2-1. After Zadorov scored late in the second period to restore Vancouver’s lead, McDavid came up with the clutch tying goal at 5:27 of the third period.
Through the first two games of the series, the most dangerous situation appears to be playing with the lead. Vancouver won Game 1 despite leading for just 5:34 compared to 51:36 for the Oilers, but it lost Game 2 despite leading for 14:25 while the Oilers never led. The team that has scored first has lost both games.
We’ll see if that trend continues when Edmonton and Vancouver reconvene for the pivotal Game 3 on Sunday (May 12) at Rogers Place.