Miller scores late in 3rd, Canucks push Oilers to brink with Game 5 win

VANCOUVER -- J.T. Miller scored the go-ahead goal with 33 seconds left in the third period, and the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Arena on Thursday.

Elias Lindholm threw the puck at the net from the right wing, and it deflected off Vancouver center Elias Pettersson’s skate at the top of the crease, hit the far post and then bounced to Miller for a tap into an open net.

“I was open for a split second earlier and I'm glad 'Lindy' didn't force it there because [Connor] McDavid was ready to go the other way and it's one of the ones where we got a nice bounce,” Miller said. “'Petey' went to the net and it him in the foot and off the post, and I think I got a little lucky. That puck was kind of all over the place. So, just nice to get rewarded at the end of the game.”

Vancouver leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be at Edmonton on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN).

Carson Soucy and Phillip Di Giuseppe also scored, and Arturs Silovs made 21 saves for the Canucks, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific Division.

“Almost every single guy gave us everything they had,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “Resilient. I thought the guys were terrific tonight. They really came to play. It thought it was obviously one of our best games in the playoffs.”

Leon Draisaitl had an assist to extend his Stanley Cup Playoff-opening point streak to 10 games, and Calvin Pickard made 32 saves in his second straight start for the Oilers, the No. 2 seed from the Pacific.

Edmonton entered Thursday with the best power play in the playoffs, having gone 14-for-30 (46.7 percent), including 5-for-10 against the Canucks, after scoring in each of the first four games of this series. But the Oilers went 0-for-5 with just three shots on goal in Game 5.

Vancouver was 0-for-4 with seven shots on the power play.

“Obviously the power play has been really good the whole entire playoffs,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. “Today was definitely a night where we would like to have had one to help the team win, especially with the chances we had. You're not going to be perfect, right? We did some good things out there. We weren't good enough, obviously. We didn't generate as much as we usually do on the power play.”

Evander Kane gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 4:34 of the first period with a one-timer in the left face-off circle off a Draisaitl pass from below the goal line.

Soucy tied it 1-1 at 17:27 with a snap shot from the top of the left circle through traffic and over Pickard’s glove but was involved in the Oilers regaining the lead 23 seconds later.

Soucy fell trying to make a play in the offensive zone, leading to a 2-on-1 rush the other way. Mattias Janmark converted to make it 2-1 at 17:50, putting in a cross-crease pass from Connor Brown at the left post.

“I thought we got off to a great start,” said McDavid, the Edmonton captain. “I didn't think we capitalized enough. We were real good in the first period, generating chances, generating power plays, and we didn't do enough capitalizing early.”

Di Giuseppe tied it 2-2 at 5:14 of the second period. Nils Aman poked the puck away from Evan Bouchard behind the Oilers net to Di Giuseppe in front, where he slid a spinning backhand between Pickard’s pads.

It was Di Giuseppe’s first game back after missing the previous two for the birth of his son, Sam, following a difficult pregnancy.

“It's been crazy but it's good emotions, I guess, so kind of on a high right now,” Di Giuseppe said. “I might choke up again, but it's been it's been a battle the nine months for her and obviously with my job, I've been away a lot and she's been in the hospital a lot, so we've had a lot of family coming in and out and support us. So like I said before, it takes a village and it's a blessing.”

Vancouver, which changed three of its four forward lines ahead of Game 5, outshot Edmonton 17-4 in the second period and finished with 35 shots, its most in the playoffs.

“When you don't have the puck, it looks like you're chasing the game, and we want to have the puck a lot more and making more plays and we just want to play faster, quicker and a little more competitive,” Edmonton coach Kris Knobluach said. “The guys are trying and I think the defensive details are there, but I think the biggest thing we want to take out of this is we've just got to be making plays. If we're making plays, we possess the puck and that's when we're the strongest.”

NOTES: When a best-of-7 series is tied 2-2, the winner of Game 5 has gone 231-61 in the series all time. Vancouver is 3-1 in that situation. … With 98 career playoff points, Draisaitl passed Esa Tikkanen for sixth in Edmonton history and became the fourth player in the last 25 years open the playoffs with point streak of at least 10 games. He has 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) during his streak. … Canucks forward Brock Boeser had his point streak end at five games (seven points; three goals, four assists). … Soucy returned after being suspended for one game by the NHL Department of Player Safety for cross-checking McDavid at the conclusion of Game 3.