Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 21: Oilers tie series as Canucks blow three leads

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
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Credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports

It was an entertaining day of games in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the first one ending in a blowout and the second going all the way to overtime.

Rodrigues scores twice as Panthers steamroll Bruins (again)

It feels like an eternity ago that the Boston Bruins held a 1-0 lead over the Florida Panthers in their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series.

But now, after back-to-back blowout wins, the Panthers are firmly in the driver’s seat as they approach a crucial Game 4 in Boston on Sunday.

Evan Rodrigues scored twice — the first and last goals in the game — as the Panthers clinched a 6-2 victory over the Bruins at TD Garden on Friday evening. The Panthers held the Bruins to just 17 shots on goal in the contest.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour, and Sam Reinhart also scored for Florida, which moved within two wins of clinching its second consecutive Eastern Conference Final berth. Matthew Tkachuk added three assists for the victors.

All three games of the Bruins/Panthers series have been decided by at least four goals. Friday’s game was close for a while: Rodrigues opened the scoring at the 8:04 mark of the first period, but nobody else scored until late in the middle frame.

But the goals came fast and furious from there, with Tarasenko and Verhaeghe tallying exactly a minute apart to send the Panthers into the second intermission up 3-0. Just over three minutes into the third period, Montour beat Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman with a heavy one-timer to make it 4-0.

Jakub Lauko and Jake DeBrusk gave the Panthers a brief scare with two quick goals midway through the final frame, but Reinhart and Rodrigues responded in kind in the dying minutes of regulation to restore the Cats’ four-goal cushion.

Canucks blow it against the Oilers

The Vancouver Canucks had three one-goal leads over the Edmonton Oilers in regulation of Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinal playoff series on Friday. They ended up blowing them all.

scored the winning goal in overtime as the Oilers came from behind to win by a 4-3 score and tie the series at one game apiece with the series set to switch to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4.

Elias Pettersson opened the scoring for the Canucks early in the first period with his long-awaited first goal of the playoffs, hammering a one-timer past Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner to give the hosts the early advantage.

After Leon Draisaitl netted the equalizer just past the midway mark of the opening frame, the Canucks restored their one-goal advantage in the first minute of the second period as Brock Boeser redirected a long-range shot by Carson Soucy into the Oilers’ net.

Mattias Ekholm tied the game once again just 23 seconds after the Boeser goal, capitalizing off a turnover in the Canucks’ end with a quick shot from the low slot that eluded netminder Arturs Silovs. But Nikita Zadorov send the Oilers into the second intermission on a high note, beating Skinner from a sharp angle to make it 3-2.

Once again, the Canucks couldn’t hold it. After assisting on Edmonton’s first two goals, Connor McDavid netted one of his own at the 5:27 mark of the third period, bursting past Soucy and Tyler Myers before firing a picture-perfect shot past Silovs on a breakaway.

After weathering an extreme storm of Oilers chances in the final few minutes of regulation, the Canucks finally surrendered the winning goal at the 5:27 mark of overtime. Evan Bouchard banked his second of the playoffs off the stick of Canucks defender Ian Cole to clinch the game for the Oilers.

With the series now knotted up at one, the Canucks will get their chance to retake the lead when the two teams reconvene for Game 3 in Edmonton on Sunday night.

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