Bouchard lifts Oilers in OT
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl kept Edmonton even with Vancouver and Evan Bouchard capped the Oilers’ big win over the Canucks.
McDavid and Draisaitl each had a goal and three assists, and Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime as Edmonton beat Vancouver 4-3 on Friday to even their second-round playoff series at one game apiece.
“When they put on a show like the did tonight it’s hard to stop them,” the Oilers’ Mattias Ekholm said.
Ekholm also scored and Stuart Skinner made 16 saves for Edmonton.
Draisaitl was listed as a game-time decision earlier in the day due to an undisclosed injury after he appeared to be in pain late in Edmonton’s 5-4 loss Wednesday. He played and had a big game when the Oilers needed it.
“He’s a great player,” McDavid said. “He’s an amazing player, one of the best players in the world, the best player in the world on a lot of nights. And tonight was one of those nights.”
Nikita Zadorov had a goal and an assist, and Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks. Arturs Silovs made 27 saves.
“We’re not going to get too high or too low,” Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes said. “For the most part we played a pretty solid game and now we just look forward to Edmonton.”
In the extra period,
Bouchard got the gamewinner with a shot from near the boards that skittered in past Silovs.
“There was lots of resilience,” McDavid said. “I thought we were a little unlucky to be down in the third but we stuck with it, we hung in there all night. It feels good to come into their building and earn a win.”
McDavid used his speed to tie the score 3-3 at 5:27 of the third. The three-time Hart Trophy winner picked up a contested puck in the neutral zone, sprinted down the ice ahead of a pair of Canucks defensemen, and sent a shot flying under Silovs’ blocker for his second goal of the postseason.
Edmonton continued to press for the winner late, hemming Vancouver into its own end for extended stretches and outshooting the home side 15-2 across the third period, but had to settle for overtime.
“Too many guys were flipping pucks when we didn’t have to," Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said about his team’s play in the third period. ”I guess that’s playoff experience. You have the puck, you have someone on your back, skate with it, keep your heart rate down. I feel as soon as somebody got it, they flipped it. Everybody. There were plays to be made but we never gave then anything to defend.”
PANTHERS 6, BRUINS 2
Florida pounced on the power play, scoring twice on a Boston double-minor — and four goals in all with a man advantage — to take a 2-1 series lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe scored 1 minute apart on the same power play, and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 14 shots to lead the Panthers to a victory over Bruins on Friday night. It was Florida’s second straight sixgoal game, helped by Mason Lohrei’s high stick that hit Panthers forward Steven Lorentz in the face and drew blood.
“That was a huge opportunity for us. And we knew it, and we capitalized,” said Florida center Sam Bennett, who returned after missing four games with an undisclosed injury. “Power-play goals in the playoffs, they can be hard to come by at times. Our power play did a great job of bearing down and getting two very important goals at an important part of the game.”
Power-play goals have been especially hard to come by against Boston, which killed off 27 of its first 28 penalties in this year’s postseason. The Panthers have now scored in five of their last seven power-play opportunities in the series.
Evan Rodrigues scored twice, and Brandon Montour also connected for the Panthers.