Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 19: Oilers blow 4-1 lead as Canucks take Game 1

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 19: Oilers blow 4-1 lead as Canucks take Game 1
Credit: © Bob Frid

The Florida Panthers were in desperate need of a win before heading to Boston, and the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers finally began their second round series during Wednesday’s Stanley Cup playoff action.

Panthers blowout Bruins 6-1 to tie series

After a dominant Game 1 performance from the Bruins, they kicked things off in similar fashion in Game 2. Through the first period, they got the only goal in the frame, as Charlie Coyle scored with under eight minutes remaining.

But from that point, the Panthers took over. In the second period, they scored three straight courtesy of Steven Lorentz early in the frame, Aleksander Barkov at the midway point, and then Gustav Forsling closed off the period of the 3-1 marker in the final minutes.

That momentum continued into the third period with another three goals. Eetu Luostarinen ended Jeremy Swayman‘s night with his first of the postseason, Barkov got his second of the night, and then Brandon Montour closed off the night with a shorthanded goal to make it 6-1 for the final score. Oh, and Montour celebrated his goal in Brad Marchand‘s face and decided to mock is old pastime of licking players faces.

With the win, the Panthers tie the series at 1-1, although they still find themselves behind the eight-ball by giving home ice advantage in the series to the Bruins with the Game 1 loss. Barkov finished the night with 2 goals and 2 assists, Sam Reinhart had 4 assists, and Montour also had a great game with 1 goal and 2 assists.

Garland caps off 4-1 comeback for Canucks to take 1-0 series lead

There seemed to be plenty of anticipation for the series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Edmonton Oilers, partially because it was a matchup between two Canadian teams, but also because it took a shockingly long time to kick things off. But now that we finally have Game 1, it’s living up to the hype… for Canucks fans.

It didn’t take long to get the game’s first goal, as not only did Zach Hyman score 2:11 into the opening period, but somehow the Oilers already had a power play opportunity to create that goal. They added to that with a goal from Mattias Ekholm later in the period, and the Oilers had a 2-0 lead after the first.

The Canucks first attempted to mount a comeback with Dakota Joshua scoring 53 seconds into the second, and they certainly looked to be creating some pressure for the first half of the period. But the Oilers scored two goals in 45 seconds courtesy of Cody Ceci and Hyman’s second of the night, and suddenly it was 4-1 for the Oilers.

But we’ve already seen that three goal leads aren’t safe in the West so far in the second round, and that proved to be the case again tonight. Elias Lindholm scored late in the second, but for the rest of that period and the first half of the third, it looked to be a false beacon of hope for Canucks fans.

But then came the flurry of goals. Just before the halfway mark of the third period, J.T. Miller made it interesting with the 4-3 goal. Four minutes later, Nikita Zadorov got the game-tying goal, and just when we though we were going to get another overtime thriller in the second round, Conor Garland needed only 39 seconds after that to give the Canucks the lead.

The Oilers pressed for the tying goal, but it was no dice, and Vancouver walked away with a 5-4 victory after facing a three-goal deficit late in the second, and took the 1-0 lead in the series. Joshua was the only player with three points in the game, with two assists to go along with his goal, while Hyman had the two goals for the Oilers in the loss.

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