Connor McDavid produced one goal and four assists to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a 9-7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Thursday night.
Edmonton opened up a four-goal lead in the first period. Vasily Podkolzin put the Oilers ahead with a power-play wrist shot at 9:26. Owen Michaels added an even-strength goal at 14:26, and Evan Bouchard scored unassisted only 16 seconds later. Ryan Shea pushed the lead to 4-0 when he scored on a wrist shot at 19:32.
Leon Draisaitl made it 5-0 just 27 seconds into the second period. After Paul Cotter got Vancouver on the board, Trent Frederic responded 33 seconds later for Edmonton. Brock Boeser scored for the Canucks at 5:47, but the Oilers answered with consecutive unassisted shorthanded goals from McDavid and Kasperi Kapanen in a 34-second span to take an 8-2 lead.
Vancouver mounted a surge with four straight goals. Arshdeep Bains scored in the final second of the middle frame before Marco Rossi scored twice early in the third period. Elias Pettersson converted on the power play at 7:37 to pull the Canucks within two, but Draisaitl answered with a power-play goal at 9:26. Jamie Oleksiak capped the scoring for Vancouver at 18:31.
Edmonton finished 2-for-5 on the power play while killing off two of three penalties and scoring two shorthanded goals. Devon Levi made 15 saves on 22 shots to earn the victory for the Oilers. Canucks starter Kevin Lankinen stopped 13 of 20 shots before being replaced by Leevi Merilainen, who stopped 10 of 11 in relief.
The victory moved Edmonton to 1-0-1 on the season, while Vancouver dropped to 1-1-0. The result gave each team one victory in their two regular-season matchups.
Both teams return to action on Tuesday, October 20. The Oilers host the Minnesota Wild, while the Canucks host the Carolina Hurricanes.
