Canucks score four in first, defeat Oilers

EDMONTON -- Elias Pettersson and Antoine Roussel each had a goal and assist for the Vancouver Canucks in a 4-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Thursday.

Tyler Motte and Brock Boeser scored, and Nikolay Goldobin had two assists for the Canucks (18-18-4), who have won four of their past six games and seven out of 10. Jacob Markstrom made 30 saves.
"From Day One we've talked about how we want to play, we want to be faster and harder to play against, and we wanted to play meaningful games down the stretch," Vancouver coach Travis Green said. "For us, it's about developing our young guys and, obviously, winning. We want to win, and we're preaching it."
WATCH: [All Canucks vs. Oilers highlights]
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, Connor McDavid had two assists, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Oilers (18-16-3), who lost their fourth straight game, matching a season high.
Mikko Koskinen allowed four goals on six shots in the first period before being replaced by Cam Talbot at the start of the second. Talbot made 14 saves.
"Anything we gave them in the first they seemed to capitalize," McDavid said. "They had four goals on six shots in the first period. That's not because of our goaltender at all, it was because of the quality of the chances they were getting. They made them count, for sure."
Motte scored on Vancouver's first shot for a 1-0 lead at 3:48 of the first period. Boeser scored on the second shot by the Canucks, converting a cross-crease pass from Pettersson to make it 2-0 at 6:25.

"We played 55 minutes of really good hockey," Edmonton coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We had a tough go on some of the goals, but we had exactly the start we needed, we had a lot of things, and it just seemed like every opportunity (they scored). There was one opportunity we got beat off the wall, on the fourth goal, which was disappointing, but the rest of the time, we did a lot of things right."
Nugent-Hopkins scored on the power play on a shot from the slot to make it 2-1 at 10:24.
Pettersson scored at 18:48 to make it 3-1, picking the left corner from the left face-off circle.
"It's easy to start after the (Christmas) break and have a slow start, so we talked about coming out hard, play simple and just skate a lot and make it hard for them, and I think we did," Pettersson said. "The first period was really good, the second wasn't that good, the first 10 in the third wasn't that good, but I think we finished it really well."
Roussel gave Vancouver a 4-1 lead with 11 seconds left in the first with a quick shot from the bottom of the right circle.

Oilers forward Alex Chiasson left the game at 9:32 of the first period after being hit on the inside of the right knee by a shot from Edmonton defenseman Adam Larsson.
"The X-ray was negative, but he's very sore right now," Hitchcock said.
Draisaitl scored on the power play at 7:05 of the second period to make it 4-2 with a shot from the right circle.
"They had a lot of push in the second, we knew it was going to come, it was probably not our best period," Motte said. "But we tried to go right back at them in the third, play our game no matter what the scoreboard is or what the period looks like, just try to go out, play our game, and continue to be aggressive, and we were able to do that."

They said it

"This is how it should feel. Winning shouldn't be something you celebrate, it should be normal, and in this organization, we had that for a long time. That's what we're working to get back." -- Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom on their 7-2-1 record in their past 10 games
"The last guys you can blame this on are our goaltenders. All year, they have been very, very good for us. This is on us players. We needed to be better in the first, but there were too many breakdowns." -- Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl on goalie Mikko Koskinen allowing four goals on six shots in the first period

Need to know

The Canucks had not scored four goals in the first period since Dec. 27, 2009, in a 5-1 win at the Calgary Flames. … Pettersson became the second Vancouver rookie to score six game-winning goals in a season. Pavel Bure had six in 1991-92. … McDavid has had an assist on Edmonton's past five goals. … Koskinen has lost two straight games at Rogers Place after winning his first seven at home.

What's next

Canucks: At the Calgary Flames on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; SNW, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)