Devin Shore scored in the sixth round of the shootout to give the Edmonton Oilers a 3-2 victory over the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Friday night in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Shore circled in from the right and then fired a wrist shot past Spencer Martin’s stick side for the game-winner.
Brett Kulak and Tyson Barrie scored goals and Mikko Koskinen made 39 saves for Edmonton (49-27-6, 104 points). The Oilers, who already had clinched second place and home-ice advantage for their first-round Western Conference playoff matchup against the third-place Los Angeles Kings (44-27-11, 99 points), rested their two top scorers, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, as well as No. 1 goalie Mike Smith.
McDavid, who had 44 goals and 123 points, won his fourth Art Ross Trophy awarded to the NHL’s top scorer while Draisaitl finished second to Toronto’s Auston Matthews (60) in the goal-scoring race with 55 goals.
Conor Garland had a goal and an assist and J.T. Miller scored his career-best 32nd goal of the season for Vancouver (40-30-12, 92 points), which bounced back from an 8-15-2 start to finish fifth in the Pacific Division. Martin, making his ninth career NHL start, finished with 31 saves.
Vancouver took a 1-0 lead at the 17:31 mark of the first period when Miller ripped a shot from the edge of the right circle past Koskinen’s glove side.
Kulak tied it 31 seconds into the third period with a shot from the left point past a screen by Evander Kane bar-down on Martin’s glove side for his fifth goal of the season.
The Canucks made it 2-1 at the 2:35 mark when Garland beat Koskinen short-side with a quick snap shot from the bottom of the left circle for his 19th goal of the season. Barrie answered with his seventh goal of the season to tie it again at the 9:10 mark with a long wrist shot through traffic and past Martin’s glove side.
–Field Level Media
