The Canucks won the second-half of their back-to-back this weekend with a 4-3 overtime win against the Oilers.
Despite dealing with multiple injury announcements throughout the day, the Vancouver Canucks took down the Edmonton Oilers in a 4–3 overtime victory. Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson, and Kiefer Sherwood (2, nearly 3) scored for the Canucks, while Thatcher Demko stopped 26 of 29 shots faced.
The biggest news of the night came a couple of hours before puck drop, when Canucks head coach Adam Foote told media that Victor Mancini would be slotting into the lineup for Quinn Hughes, who did not play tonight due to a lower-body injury.
“I mean, you can’t obviously replace him,” Sherwood said postgame of playing without Hughes. “We’ve just got to pull the rope together and kind of stick to our identity that we’re continuing to build out each and every day.”
The injury news didn’t end there, however, as Mancini left the Canucks’ bench during the final five minutes of the second period and was officially ruled out of the game by the start of the third period. Postgame, the Canucks noted that Mancini was still being evaluated and would not specify any time frame.
“You’ve just got to play for each other and make sure you’re playing simple hockey and not putting the D in a tough spot. So I thought we overall did a pretty good job tonight, and now we’ve got to keep it going,” Boeser added on how injnuries have shaped how the team has played.
Both teams traded chances during the first period, but when things got dicey in Vancouver’s zone, Demko did what he always does and made his stops when needed. He saved all 13 shots faced during the first period, including a breakaway opportunity for Oilers forward Ike Howard.
A big talking point in Saturday’s game was Vancouver’s performance while shorthanded, during which they only went one for three. Conor Garland took a roughing call early into the game, putting Vancouver on the penalty kill against a red-hot Oilers power play. While they did kill that penalty, they were unable to keep the Oilers without tallying a power play goal tonight, as a call on Marcus Pettersson resulted in Edmonton scoring to tie the game at three goals apiece.
After putting together potentially his best game of the season the night before, Pettersson continued his current stretch of stellar play. The forward was moving quickly early on, even earning himself a good rush chance after creating space for himself up ice. On Vancouver’s first power play of the game, he sent a vintage Pettersson one-timer from the top of the dot past Calvin Pickard to give the Canucks a 2–0 lead.
While Vancouver didn’t capitalize on their second power play of the game, they had some good looks that could have very nearly made it 3–0 immediately after. A rush chance for Kiefer Sherwood went past Pickard, though the play was deemed offside and the goal was removed. Sherwood didn’t have to wait long to get his redemption, however, as he scored a legal goal during the last minute of the second period.
The Canucks made an interesting move in overtime that ultimately paid off, as the team put three forwards on the ice instead of the prototypical two forwards and a defenceman. It was Boeser, Sherwood, and Garland who ultimately scored while on the ice during the extra frame. Tiredness played a role in this decision, according to Foote, as no defencemen other than Pierre-Olivier Joseph and Mancini logged less than 20 minutes tonight.
“Our D were tired, they played a lot of hockey. They’re big bodies, and they’ve been overloaded. You can see that in the third period, you could tell they were getting tired,” Foote explained postgame. “It was mainly just the D were playing big minutes back-to-back.”
“We’ve talked about it obviously last year, we know that we lost a lot of overtimes and shootouts, and that could have been a difference maker,” Boeser said. “So far, we’ve done a better job this year. Those extra points are really important, so I’m happy that we got that one.”
Stats and Facts:
- Quinn Hughes is the seventh Canuck, third Canucks defenceman to miss at least one game this season due to injury
- Brock Boeser’s goal is his 19th ever scored against the Oilers and 28th scored in the month of October for the Canucks
- Lukas Reichel finishes the game with a faceoff winning percentage of 61.5%
- Elias Pettersson now leads all forwards in the NHL in blocked shots with 22 this season
Scoring Summary:
1st Period:
15:41 - VAN: Brock Boeser (4) from Evander Kane and Marcus Pettersson
2nd Period:
2:22 - VAN: Elias Pettersson (3) from Filip Hronek and Conor Garland (PPG)
16:32 - EDM: Leon Draisaitl (6) from Evan Bouchard and Jack Roslovic
19:19 - VAN: Kiefer Sherwood (5) from Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson (D)
3rd Period:
1:21 - EDM: Jack Roslovic (1) from Vasily Podkolzin
14:57 - EDM: Leon Draisaitl (7) from Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (PPG)
Overtime:
1:43 - VAN: Kiefer Sherwood (6) from Brock Boeser and Conor Garland
Up Next:
Vancouver’s next game is the last of this three-game homestand, as they’ll be welcoming the New York Rangers to Rogers Arena on Tuesday. This is the first time Vancouver fans will see J.T. Miller on Canucks home ice since he was traded to the Rangers at the end of January. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm PT.
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