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 five-goal 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 for McDavid, 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. The old mark of seven points was set by Harry Cameron of the 1917-18 Toronto Arenas.
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. Edmonton’s Devon Levi stopped 15 of 22 shots in net.
Marco Rossi scored two goals and had an assist while Elias Pettersson added a goal with two assists for Vancouver. Paul Cotter, Arshdeep Bains, Brock Boeser and Jamie Oleksiak each had a goal and an assist.
Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen was pulled midway through the second period after allowing eight goals on 20 shots. Leevi Merilainen finished up and made 10 saves.
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 period’s scoring when he cut down the slot, 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 short-handed goals by McDavid and Kapanen in a 34-second span.
Vancouver closed within 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 tally, and Oleksiak ended the scoring with 1:29 to go.
–Field Level Media
