For Game 5 the Edmonton Oilers have no choice but to start this goalie.
EDMONTON -- Last night's game was certainly a nail-bitter.
The Edmonton Oilers looked more like themselves against the Vancouver Canucks. Mixing up the lines and starting Calvin Pickard over Stuart Skinner were all moves that paid off.
Dylan Holloway looked fantastic, despite not getting on the scoresheet with any goals or assists. He played a playoff high of 13:28 - and looks primed to take on more responsibility and ice time.
Stuart Skinner & Calvin Pickard.But the star of last night was truly Pickard - who started his first ever playoff game. His relief appearance the other night was the first time he'd ever seen time in a playoff game in his entire career.
Pickard stopped 19 of 21 shots against him last night - which is good for a .905 save percentage (SV%). He was battling hard all night and was rewarded with his first career playoff win.
In my mind it's a no-brainer to start Pickard for Game five tomorrow in Vancouver. Kris Knoblauch was less forward about that in his post game comments last night saying, "his body of work tonight allows us to have a lot of confidence in him if we did do that (start Pickard next game)."
Knoblauch may not be tipping his hand at this point in time - but it seems like a slam dunk decision for Knoblauch to go with Pickard again tomorrow night.
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