Hoglander, Canucks win 2nd straight against Oilers

EDMONTON -- The Vancouver Canucks completed a home-and-home sweep of the Edmonton Oilers to start the season with a 4-3 win at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Nils Hoglander had a goal and an assist, and Elias Pettersson had two assists for the Canucks (2-0-0), who won 8-1 at Edmonton on Wednesday in the season opener for each team. Casey DeSmith made 37 saves.

“It was a big challenge for us to bring what we did the first game,” Pettersson said. “Two really good wins, especially today, so I’m very happy with the group. Casey played great in net, and it was a good team performance.

“They came out hot, scored first shift, but that was a bit of a wake-up call for us that it was going to be a tough game.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists, and Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers (0-2-0). Stuart Skinner allowed four goals on 16 shots.

“There's a little bit of frustration,” Skinner said. “Obviously, you want to start 2-0, not 0-2, but in my opinion, adversity never kills you. I think it makes you a lot stronger. And for us to face it early on might be a really good thing for the long term.

“We're going to have games like this. I'm going to get 16 shots and let four in. It’s how you respond to that.”

Sam Lafferty scored the game-winner for Vancouver 2:56 into the third period, taking a cross-ice feed from Hoglander and beating Skinner from the top of the right face-off circle.

Draisaitl gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead 42 seconds into the first period with his second goal in as many games, scoring on a backhand at the left post.

Andrei Kuzmenko tied it 1-1 on the power play at 9:25 on a redirection of a shot from Quinn Hughes.

The Canucks went 1-for-3 with the man-advantage after they were 3-for-6 Wednesday. They killed five of the Oilers’ seven power plays.

Vancouver held the Oilers’ League-leading power play from last season to 2-for-7.

“We had some good pushback, we killed a lot of penalties, we had some guys on fumes, we were overusing some guys because of the penalty kill, so I give a lot of credit to the guys,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought Casey DeSmith was outstanding, he battled his [tail] off. [Pettersson], I think he played with every person on a line and he did a great job. The whole team did a nice job.

“Edmonton, we knew they were going to come, and they were coming. They had seven power plays, and it’s not a recipe against that team.”

Hoglander gave Vancouver a 2-1 lead at 17:52 on a deflection of Brock Boeser’s slap shot.

McDavid tied it 2-2 with his first goal of the season at 1:45 of the second period. With the Oilers on a power play, McDavid dug the puck out of traffic in front and scored top shelf.

“Obviously, penalty killing was something that we wanted to improve on this year, and I think we’ve done a good job improving on it,” Canucks defenseman Ian Cole said. “That being said, we still gave up three goals in two games, so it’s clearly not good enough, but the power play we’ve been going up against is very good, very skilled.”

Vancouver restored the lead just 41 seconds later at 2:36, when Jack Studnicka put a snap shot past Skinner to make it 3-2.

Nugent-Hopkins tied it 3-3 on a power play at 9:20 with a shot from the left circle.

“The big thing for our team that I wanted to see was a response. There were a lot of good things in our game,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “We’re not on the moral victory business, I know that, but I saw a response. I saw us way more competitive.

“We’re not there just yet, but any game you have 88 shots attempts, [40] on net, and earn seven power plays, give up 16 shots on net, you expect to win those games. It didn’t happen for us tonight, but I think you win that game more often than you lose it.”

NOTES: Pettersson is the second player in Canucks history to have six points through two games in a season, joining Andre Boudrias (1973-74). He was plus-3 in 19:42 of ice time. … Draisaitl extended his point streak against the Canucks to 20 games. … Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm had one shot on goal in 15:47 of ice time after missing the season opener with a hip/groin injury sustained during offseason training.