VANCOUVER, BC – Round 3 bound.
The Oilers confirmed their place in the Western Conference Final on Monday night with a 3-2 victory over the Canucks in Game 7 at Rogers Arena, scoring three times in the second period to help build a three-goal cushion that was challenged in the final frame after the hosts mounted a late push in the final nine minutes of regulation.
“First and foremost, they’re a really great team. They obviously had our number all year long,” Connor McDavid said. “It wasn’t too long ago we were sitting here doing an interview, talking about losing 8-1, so they’ve had our number and it feels good to come out on top in this series.
“It was a tight series. A passionate series. Both fanbases were going crazy. It’s fun to come out on top of that.”
Cody Ceci opened the scoring on a slap shot less than two minutes into the middle frame, netting the second Game 7 goal of his career before Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added goals before the second intermission to build Edmonton a 3-0 lead heading into the final period.
The Canucks weren’t about to go down without a fight, with the hosts scoring twice through Conor Garland and Filip Hronek over a 3:57 stretch of the period to make for a dramatic finish to Monday night’s winner-take-all matchup between two Canadian rivals. But the Oilers settled themselves down after a timeout to keep their resilient opponents from registering any shots in the game’s final two minutes with the net empty.
“A lot of credit to the Vancouver,” Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They obviously have a lot of really good hockey players, and any deficiencies they had I think the coaching staff did a really good job covering those up and getting the most out of their guys. Their work ethic and their compete would be some of their strongest attributes, but they’re a well-coached, well-rounded hockey team and there were a lot of close games. Only one game wasn’t close, that’s it.”
First appeared on www.nhl.com