The Oilers on Monday showed they have more options than just Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, as Edmonton scored three times in the second period and held on to beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 to advance to the Western Conference final.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tallied a goal and an assist, while Zach Hyman and Cody Ceci also scored, and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner finished with 15 saves.
“It takes every single guy in here,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Definitely proud to get the job done with this group.”
Photo: AP
Draisaitl leads all players in the playoffs with 24 points, McDavid has 21 and Bouchard leads all defensemen with 20 points. The Canucks held McDavid off the scoresheet for the third time in seven games, and limited Draisaitl to just one assist.
Edmonton, back in the conference finals for the second time in three years, face Dallas with Game 1 of that series tomorrow night.
Conor Garland and Filip Hronek scored in the third period for Vancouver, and Arturs Silovs had 26 saves.
Coaching in his first Stanley Cup playoffs, the Oilers’ Kris Knoblauch singled out Nugent-Hopkins and the bottom-six forwards for killing off a four-minute penalty called on Ryan McLeod late in the first period.
“We played, I thought, really well,” Knoblauch said of his team’s first-period effort, when Edmonton outshot Vancouver 13-2. “That could be a turning point in the game, but our penalty kill, like it has been for almost all the playoffs, has been really solid.”
Silovs was the story of the first period, stopping all 13 shots he faced.
“For the most part, I thought we played really well,” said Draisaitl, who famously declared this season “Cup or Bust” after the Oilers were eliminated from the second round of last year’s playoffs. “Would we like to keep it a little less stressful? Yes, probably.”
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