Warren Foegele and Leon Draisaitl scored power-play goals as the Edmonton Oilers went 2-for-2 with the man advantage and rebounded from their first loss of the season with a 2-1 victory against the host Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
Mikko Koskinen, making his fourth straight start in place of the injured Mike Smith, made 29 saves. Koskinen’s shutout bid ended with Brock Boeser’s goal with seven seconds remaining. That came shortly after Koskinen made four saves on a Vancouver man advantage, including three in a 15-second span with about 1:30 remaining.
Thatcher Demko stopped 32 of 34 shots for the Canucks, who lost for the third time in as many home games this season.
Foegele opened the scoring at 11:39 of the first period, slamming the puck into the net with one second remaining on the man advantage.
Darnell Nurse’s shot from the top of the left faceoff circle went off the stick of Vancouver’s Juho Lammikko, forcing Demko to make an awkward save and preventing him from controlling the rebound. Foegele was alone at the right post to knock the puck into the open net. Evan Bouchard also got an assist.
The Canucks have allowed the first goal in seven of nine games this season.
The Oilers made it 2-0 at 19:20 of the second. Connor McDavid’s shot from the left faceoff circle was blocked by a Vancouver defenseman, with the puck falling to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins between the top of the circles. He quickly fired a pass to Draisaitl on the right wing, and he slapped a one-timer from the bottom of the faceoff circle past Demko.
Boeser roofed a wrist shot from between the faceoff dots to prevent the shutout. J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat were credited with assists.
It was the Oilers’ second victory against Vancouver this season. The teams met Oct. 13 in the season opener in Edmonton, with the hosts coming away with a 3-2 shootout victory.
–Field Level Media
