Oilers rally in third period before falling to Canucks in overtime: Recap, Highlights, and Reaction

Just over two and a half minutes into the second period, the Canucks extended their lead to two. Filip Hronek found Elias Pettersson (the forward) in the faceoff dot, allowing him to fire it home to make it 2-0.

With about three and a half minutes left in the second, Evan Bouchard made a terrific pass to Leon Draisaitl at the Canucks’ blue line. That led to a breakaway, and the reigning Rocket Richard winner buried it to give the Oilers hope.

That hope was dampered in the final minute of the second period, as Kiefer Sherwood undressed Mattias Ekholm, giving him a breakaway and a goal to put the Canucks up 3-1.

The Oilers got back into it, though. Vasily Podkolzin did a great job of winning the puck in the offensive zone, with it ending up on Jack Roslovic’s stick. From the faceoff dot, Roslovic was able to fire it past Thatcher Demko for his first as an Oiler.

On a power play with about five minutes left in the game, the Oilers tied it. Connor McDavid found Draisaitl with a cross-seam pass, giving the German centre his second of the game. Unfortunately, the Canucks won it in overtime thanks to Sherwood’s second.

Takeaways…

The Oilers were the better team once again, finishing with 12 high-danger chances to the Canucks’ five. Still, it feels as if they were lucky to get a point out of it, as they were down two in the third period.

This was a nice bounce-back game from Evan Bouchard. His assist on the first goal was a thing of beauty, and it was a strong defensive game for the right-shot defenceman. Interestingly, he was paired with Darnell Nurse for a significant chunk of the game, which worked well. Mattias Ekholm was paired with Jake Walman, while Ty Emberson and Brett Kulak remained on the same pairing.

Leon Draisaitl played alongside Jack Roslovic and Vasily Podkolzin for nearly 13 minutes of five-on-five play. That’s a line to look forward to moving forward, as is playing Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Andrew Mangiapane alongside Connor McDavid.

It wasn’t a strong game for Calvin Pickard, as the backup netminder finished with an .852 save percentage, stopping 23 of 27 shots. Defence needs to be better, but so too do the netminders.

Next up for the Oilers, they’ll return home to host the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday at 9:30 PM ET. After a win on Sunday, the Mammoth are 8-2-0 and are on a seven-game win streak.