Canucks score 4 straight, rally past Oilers in Game 1 in Western 2nd Round

VANCOUVER -- Nikita Zadorov and Conor Garland scored 39 seconds apart in the third period, and the Vancouver Canucks came back from three goals down to defeat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.

Zadorov tied it 4-4 at 13:47 with a one-timer from the left point through traffic. Garland then put Vancouver ahead for the first time at 14:26, faking a slap shot off the rush at the right dot before sliding a sharp-angled wrist shot through the legs of Stuart Skinner.

“You're just trying to open up the goalie and slide it through and see where it takes you,” Garland said. “Everybody wants to be in that moment. We understand when you have to execute and when you dig a hole like that, you’ve got to execute if you want to get back in the game, and I think that was the biggest thing in the third, that we just executed and buried our chances.”

J.T. Miller also scored in the third period, Dakota Joshua had a goal and two assists and Arturs Silovs made 14 saves for the Canucks, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division.

“The belief is always there,” Joshua said. “Just to know that you got to keep playing to the end, anything can happen and in the third, once the crowd gets behind us and gives us a little bit more confidence, you could see it spread throughout the team."

Zach Hyman scored twice, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had two assists, and Skinner made 19 saves for the Oilers, who are the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division.

Vancouver outshot Edmonton 8-4 in the third period and 19-8 over the final two periods.

“They’re a good team and they were doing everything they could to come back and we were doing everything we could to hold onto the lead,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who had one assist but no shots and was minus-1 in 24:03 of ice time. “That happens in the playoffs, you try to hold onto a lead and sometimes you’re maybe a little too passive. We were doing a good job of holding onto the lead, but they find a way to get two and find a way to get a third to win.”

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be here on Friday.

“Up until 10 minutes left in the third, I thought we controlled the action,” Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “Sometimes that happens, that’s the emotional ups and downs of the playoffs, they get three quick ones and that’s the game right there. We can be encouraged by the way we played for the first 50 minutes. A little bit of a disappointing ending, but at the end of the day, when we’re at our best and to a certain point, I didn’t think we maybe earned it in the third.”

Hyman made it 1-0 on a power play at 2:11, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Nugent-Hopkins into an open net from the bottom of the right circle.

Edmonton went ahead 2-0 at 15:01 following a turnover by Ian Cole to Draisaitl at the side of Vancouver's net. He passed up to Ekholm above the left circle for a slap shot glove side that caught Silovs looking the other way around a screen created by two Canucks forwards.

Joshua cut it to 2-1 just 53 seconds into the second period. Cole’s point shot missed the net wide right and bounced off the end boards to Joshua at the other side for a quick shot into an open net from just above the goal line.

Vancouver was outshooting Edmonton 8-2 in the second period before the Oilers scored on their next two shots.

Cody Ceci made it 3-1 at 12:26 with a slap shot from above the top of the right circle that hit Cole and deflected past Silovs.

Hyman scored 45 seconds later to push it to 4-1. His wrist shot from the left dot hit defenseman Tyler Myers’ stick and went under Silovs pad.

Hyman leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs with nine goals.

“Goals happen right? Nothing is perfect but I just tried to stay cool,” Silovs said when asked how he stayed focused after that. “I was like battling for guys. They did a such amazing job today and, in my mind, I couldn't let them down.”

Elias Lindholm made it 4-2 at 17:01 when his backhand pass from behind the net bounced in off the back of Skinner’s stick.

Miller pulled Vancouver to within 4-3 at 9:38 of the third period with a deflection short side from just above the goal line.

“There's a lot of belief in this group,” said Zadorov, who also had an assist. “I don't think anybody is giving up even when we were down 4-1. We were staying positive because we're liked our five-on-five game. … You got to give the credit to every guy in this room and Arturs stood with us at the end too.”

NOTES: Draisaitl missed the final 8:02 of the second period but returned for the third. He has a point in all six playoff games, multiple points in five of them, and 12 points overall (five goals, seven assists), one behind McDavid for the playoff scoring lead. “Nothing at all, just cramping,” coach Kris Knoblauch said of Draisaitl, who was minus-1 with three shots in 16:43 of ice time. “Between cramping and equipment issues, that’s why his ice time was down.” … Hyman passed Wayne Gretzky (1983) and moved into a tie with Mark Messier (1983) for the most goals by an Oilers player through the first six games of any playoffs. … The Canucks overcame a three-goal deficit to win a playoff game for the second time in their history (Game 5, 1994 Western Conference Final, 4-3 in two overtimes against the Toronto Maple Leafs).