EDMONTON – Even with star strikers Connor McDavid and Leon Drysight resting for the playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers have managed to close the regular season with a high note.
Devin Shore was the only player to score in a penalty shootout involving 10 players as the Oilers managed a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.
Brett Kulak and Tyson Barry also scored for the Oilers (49-27-6), who set a new franchise record for consecutive home points, scoring 14-0-1 in their last 15 Rogers Place appearances. Edmonton, who will face the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the playoffs, also won seven of their last eight in total.
“The way we’ve played in the last few times, even in the last two and a half months, is building on what we’re going to get into (with the playoffs) on Monday,” Barry said. “I think we are in a good position, we are a confident group and we know what is expected of us and what our systems are. We are just ready and excited to do it.
“I have been there several times, but I have never been so excited to enter the post-season.
“I think we have a real chance for that this year and I can’t wait until Monday.”
Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft, who has a record 26-9-3 since taking office, is looking forward to the regular pace of the playoffs after the tense last few months.
“It was a sprint,” he said. “For me personally, coming in mid-February, the schedule seems relentless, but we felt comfortable in the rhythm of it. I like where our team is.”
JT Miller and Connor Garland responded to Canucks (40-30-12), who ended their campaign with losses in four of their last six after missing a post-season game.
“I told them I was really proud of them. I can take maybe four or five games where we didn’t start very well, but of the 50 games I’ve been here, the effort has been there almost every night, “said Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau. “I’m unhappy that we didn’t qualify for the playoffs, but not the way we played, and I think the organization has a bright future.”
Canucks almost climbed the board with the opportunity for a powerful game in the middle of the first, when a shot leaked into the net behind the Oilers goalkeeper Miko Koskinen, but Duncan Keith caught the puck just in time.
However, Vancouver would have started 2:27 by the end of the starting frame when Miller hit the crossbar into the net for his 32nd goal and 99th point.
There were no goals in the second period, with Canucks having 30 shots in 40 minutes, while the Oilers had 18 for Vancouver starter Spencer Martin.
Edmonton equalized the game 31 seconds after the third, as Kulak’s shot from the point found the back of the net, and Evander Kane provided the screen in front.
Vancouver came back two minutes later with a goal that Koskinen wanted to get back when Garland put it under his arm from the meeting point.
The Oilers brought the game back in nine minutes in the third with a long-range bomb across the screen from Barry, eventually sending the game into overtime.
Edmonton hosts the first game of the first round series against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.
Notes: The two teams also played each other to open the season, with Edmonton winning 3-2 on penalties. Oilers won the next two games 2-1 and 3-2 (OT)? Oilers still without defender Darnell Nurse, out with lower body injury? Vancouver did not include William Lockwood (upper body), Thatcher Demko (undisclosed), Yaroslav Halak (upper body), Bo Horvath (lower body), Tanner Pearson (upper body), Tucker Pullman (upper body). upper body) and Nils Hoglander (lower body).
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