Quinn Hughes scored twice on the power play and J.T. Miller added a pair of assists as the host Vancouver Canucks held on to beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 Saturday to end a two-game losing streak.
Danton Heinen also scored and Thatcher Demko stopped 13 of 15 shots for the Canucks, who have won just two of their last eight games.
Miller, who was benched for part of Thursday’s 5-1 loss to Los Angeles, rediscovered his scoring touch by getting his first point in the last six games.
Leon Draisaitl scored the Oilers two goals, both in the second period, and Stuart Skinner made 24 saves. Edmonton had its four-game winning streak snapped as it played its fourth game in the last six days.
Draisaitl’s goals came from the same side of the net. He banked the first one in off the Canucks’ goalie to begin the Edmonton rally at the 4:01 mark. He then scored his league-leading 33rd of the season about nine minutes later on the power play for Edmonton.
This is the first of two meetings between the teams within a week. There will be some bad blood carried over into the contest on Thursday after Oilers star Connor McDavid and Canuck defenseman Tyler Myers were both slapped with match penalties with three seconds left in the third.
The Canucks started quickly, scoring three goals in less than four minutes to break the game open in the first period.
Hughes opened the scoring at 14:38 on the power play. Vancouver won the faceoff and Hughes moved in from the point. He tried to center the puck, but it took a lucky bounce off a skate in.
Heinen added his goal at 15:49, and Hughes made it 3-0 with a laser shot over the right shoulder of Skinner with two minutes left in the first period.
Draisaitl then extended his point streak to six games, banking a sharp-angle shot off Demko to cut the lead to 3-1 four minutes into the second period.
He got his second from almost the same spot on the ice to make it 3-2 at 13:38 of the second. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins carried the puck behind the net and came out on the other side. He then slipped a short pass to Draisaitl, who recorded his seventh multi-goal game of the season.
–Field Level Media
