Vancouver, British Columbia — JT Miller scored with 33 seconds left to give the Vancouver Canucks a win over the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference finals on Thursday night.
Carson Souci and Philip Di Giuseppe both scored in their returns to the Vancouver lineup as they look to close out the series in Game 6 in Edmonton on Saturday. Rookie Arturs Silovs made 21 saves for the Canucks.
With the score tied at 2-2, Vancouver’s Pius Suter’s shot near the boards bounced off the skate of teammate Elias Pettersson in front of the net and hit the goal post. Miller picked it up and scored the go-ahead goal, his third goal of the playoffs.
“I was open a little bit early and I’m glad ‘Lindy’ didn’t force it there because (Connor) McDavid was ready to go the other way and that was one of the places where we got a good bounce.” Miller said.
Evander Kane and Mattias Janmark scored for the Oilers, who got 32 saves from Calvin Pickard.
Leon Draisaitl set up the first goal of the game, digging the puck out from behind Vancouver’s net and backhanding it to Kane at the bottom of the faceoff circle. Kane fired a shot past Silofs for his third goal of the postseason at 4:34.
Draisaitl’s assists have provided at least one point in each of Edmonton’s 10 playoff games. He has eight goals and 13 assists in the postseason.
Soucy, who sat out Game 5 due to suspension, tied the game late in Game 1 with a blast from the faceoff circle at 17:27. The defenseman was suspended by the NHL for cross-checking Edmonton’s Connor McDavid after the final horn of Game 3.
Edmonton regained the lead 33 seconds later on an odd-man rush after Soucy fell into the offensive zone. Connor Brown picked up the loose puck and sprinted into Vancouver territory with Janmark. Brown passed to Janmark, who capitalized on it to put the Oilers up 2-1.
The Canucks tied the game in the second after Nils Aman thwarted Evan Bouchard’s clearance attempt behind Edmonton’s net. Di Giuseppe, who missed Game 5 due to personal issues, picked up the puck and fired a shot past Pickard for his first career playoff goal.
“Almost every player gave us everything they had,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “It’s resilient. I thought those guys were amazing tonight. They really came to play. I thought it was one of our best games in the playoffs.”
McDavid came within inches of giving Edmonton the lead with about six minutes left in the game, but his shot went just wide of the Canucks’ net.
“I thought we got off to a good start,” McDavid said. “I thought we were undercapitalized. “We played really well in the first period, creating opportunities and creating power plays, but we didn’t capitalize enough early on.”
The Oilers were 0 for 5 on the power play, while the Canucks were 0 for 4 on the power play.
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The story has been updated to correct Miller’s goal clock to be with 33 seconds remaining rather than 31.9 seconds, according to official statistics.
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AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
