VANCOUVER — The Edmonton Oilers outlasted the Vancouver Canucks 9-7 on Thursday in Vancouver, surviving a late four-goal push after building leads of 5-0 and 8-2. The result split the home-and-home series 1-1, with Edmonton winning 14-13 on aggregate after Vancouver's 6-5 overtime win in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Vancouver surrendered seven goals over 14 minutes and trailed by six early, abandoning the structure coach Manny Malhotra has emphasized since camp. "Careless with the puck, didn't defend hard enough, kind of lost structure and details. At times it looked like everyone was on their own page a little bit," defenceman Luke Schenn said. "If we want to have a chance. . . we've got to play as a five-man unit. That's the only way. Obviously, we're going to turn the corner here and continue to improve, but I would agree with your statement: that was playing losing hockey."
Centre Marco Rossi led the third-period surge with two goals as Vancouver scored four times and twice climbed within two, but the deficit was too deep. "You know, body language, winning battles and stuff, that shouldn't be a roller-coaster," Rossi said. "Every night we should be the hungry team. We said before the game, like, every team who comes in here, it has to be tough for them. But it was super easy for them tonight." Starting goalie Kevin Lankinen was pulled at 8:23 of the second period after Kasperi Kapanen's breakaway — Edmonton's second short-handed goal on the same Vancouver power play — made it 8-2 with shots 20-5 for Edmonton. Pre-season waiver pickup Leevi Merilainen played 31 minutes in relief and allowed one goal on 11 shots.
Elias Pettersson matched Rossi with three points for Vancouver, while Connor McDavid paced Edmonton with a goal and four assists. Canucks sophomores Zeev Buium and Linus Karlsson were each minus-three and Devon Levi started in net for Edmonton. "That stings," newcomer Paul Cotter said. "Unacceptable, I guess. They are. . . obviously an elite team. An overtime win against them last game (so) you know they're going to make a push, which they did. I am proud how we didn't give up (and) went till the buzzer there." Schenn added: "Obviously, they came out flying. But I think the last thing we said coming out of the dressing room before the game was 'expect it to be way harder than it was last game.' And yeah, they started on time. We didn't."
"There's a lot to be learned from that game," Malhotra said. "How we want to develop this team and how we want to grow as a group." The Canucks practise Friday before back-to-back home games against the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights.