Connor McDavid scored a goal and had four assists, Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist and Evan Bouchard added a goal and two assists as the visiting Edmonton Oilers jumped out to a 5-0 lead and then held on for a wild 9-7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
It was the 15th career five-point game of McDavid’s career, tied for the seventh most in NHL history.
Bouchard, who had a hat trick and two assists in a season-opening 6-5 overtime loss to the Canucks on Tuesday in Edmonton, increased his season total to eight points, breaking the NHL record for most points by a defenseman in the first two games of the season set by Harry Cameron of the Toronto Arenas who had seven points in 1917-18.
Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin each had a goal and an assist and Owen Michaels, Ryan Shea and Trent Frederic also scored goals for the Oilers while Devon Levi stopped 15 of 22 shots in net.
Marco Rossi scored two goals and had an assist and Paul Cotter, Arshdeep Bains, Brock Boeser and Jamie Oleksiak each had a goal and an assist for Vancouver. Elias Pettersson had a goal with two assists. Kevin Lankinen was pulled midway through the second period after allowing eight goals on 20 shots and Leevi Merilainen finished up and made 10 saves for the Canucks.
Edmonton outshot the Canucks, 14-2, while taking a 4-0 lead in the opening period.
Podkolzin started the scoring with a power-play goal at the 9:26 mark, his third goal of the season. Michaels followed with his first career NHL goal, and 16 seconds later Bouchard made it 3-0 when his point shot caromed in off the skate of Tom Willander near the left post. Shea capped the scoring when he cut down the slot and took a McDavid pass and fired a wrist shot past Lankinen’s blocker side.
Draisaitl extended the lead to 5-0 just 27 seconds into the second period when he banked a shot from the goal line in off Lankinen’s shoulder.
Cotter made it 5-1 with his third goal, but Frederic answered 33 seconds later to put the Oilers back ahead by five. Boeser then banked a wrist shot from the right circle in off the left post to make it 6-2, the third goal in a 1:16 span.
Edmonton extended the lead to 8-2 later in the period with two short-handed goals by McDavid and Kapanen in a 34-second span.
Vancouver closed to 8-6 midway through the third period on a goal by Bains with 0.1 seconds left in second period followed by a pair of goals by Rossi and a power-play score by Pettersson. Draisaitl made it 9-6 with a power-play goal and Oleksiak ended the scoring with a goal with 1:29 to go.
–Field Level Media
