J.T. Miller scored in the final minute of the game and the host Vancouver Canucks came back for a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of their second-round playoff series Thursday.
The win gave the Canucks a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 scheduled for Saturday in Edmonton.
Carson Soucy and Phillip Di Giuseppe both returned to the lineup and contributed goals for the Canucks.
Soucy sat out Game 5 due to a suspension and Di Giuseppe missed the game for a personal issue.
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Evander Kane opened the scoring for the Oilers early in the first and Mattias Janmark found the back of the net before the end of the period.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs made 21 saves for Vancouver and Edmonton’s Calvin Pickard stopped 32 of the 35 shots he faced.
Leon Draisaitl set up the first goal of the night, digging out a puck behind the Vancouver net and backhanding it to Kane at the bottom of the face off circle. The left-winger snapped a shot in past Silovs for his third goal of the post-season 4:34 into the game.
Draisaitl registered an assist on the play, extending his point streak across all 10 of Edmonton’s playoff games. He has eight goals and 13 assists this post-season.
Soucy levelled the score at 1-1 late in the first with a blast from the face off circle that pinged off the bar at the 17:27 mark.
Edmonton took back the lead 33 seconds later off an odd-man rush after Soucy fell in the offensive zone.
Connor Brown picked up the loose puck and streaked into Vancouver territory with Janmark. Brown sliced a pass to his teammate and Janmark tapped it in back door to put the Oilers up 2-1.
The Canucks knotted the score at 2-2 in the second after Nils Aman disrupted Evan Bouchard’s clearing attempt behind the Edmonton net. Di Giuseppe picked off the puck, spun and wrapped a shot in past Pickard for his first-ever playoff goal.
Vancouver pressed hard across the middle frame, outshooting the visitors 17-4, but were stymied by Pickard.
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Connor McDavid came within inches of giving Edmonton the lead with about six minutes left in the game. Left alone in the slot, the superstar unleashed a rocket that sailed just wide of the Canucks’ net.
Vancouver sealed the score at 3-2 with just 31.9 seconds left on the clock. Pius Sutter fired a shot from near the boards, which bounced off the skate of Elias Pettersson in front of the net and hit the post. Miller picked it up and batted it in for his third goal of the playoffs.
JUST KILLING TIME
The Oilers were 0-for-5 on the power play while the Canucks went 0-for-4.
Edmonton came into Game 5 with the top power play in the playoffs, capitalizing on 46.7 per cent of its man advantages in the post-season.
INS AND OUTS
Soucy returned to the Canucks lineup after missing Game 4 due to a one-game suspension. The defenceman was sanctioned for cross-checking McDavid after the final buzzer in Game 3.
Head coach Rick Tocchet also juggled Vancouver’s forwards, sitting Ilya Mikheyev Sam Lafferty and Linus Karlsson in place of Di Giuseppe, Nils Hoglander and Vasily Podkolzin.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
