The Vancouver Canucks bounced back in game five to take a 3-2 series lead against the Edmonton Oilers.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet wasn’t surprised to see the resiliency of his team and felt they put together one of their more complete games of the playoffs.
“I thought there was just a ton of energy. I thought the power play was great, I know we didn't score or whatever but that's the power play I love where mindset was attack, we had some good shots, good attacking and I think that gives the team momentum. The way they were buzzing around and attacking, so that helped their five-on-five play,” Tocchet said.
The Canucks’ bench boss talked about the contributions up and down the lineup from J.T. Miller’s “monster effort” to the fourth line applying consistent pressure on the forecheck and capitalizing on it to tie the game in the second period.
“A lot of effort from a lot of different guys. I mean, almost every single guy gave us everything they had, I thought the guys were terrific tonight. They really came to play, obviously that was one of our best games in the playoffs,” Tocchet said.
"I thought Podzy played really well. Di-G had his kid there, he said that was a big highlight but the cherry on top tonight, him getting the goal, it's a pretty good story. I thought it was good. I thought [Nils] Åman was good, I thought that fourth line really helped us.”
Miller walked through his game-winning goal, pointing to the fact that everyone was in the right spot and veteran Elias Lindholm orchestrated the play perfectly.
“I was kind of open for a split second early and I’m kind of glad Lindy didn’t force it there because McDavid was ready to go the other way. It's one of those ones where we got a nice bounce, Petey went to the net, I think it hit him in the foot or something off the post and I think I got a little lucky, the puck was kind of all over the place so just nice to get rewarded at the end of the game,” Miller said.
The Canucks had 35 shot attempts on goal, which is their highest so far in the playoffs.
Miller said the team went into the game knowing they needed to be more intentional about taking their space on the ice instead of playing it safe.
“I thought we kind of just went back to playing our game and being more aggressive and whenever there is a situation where it's time to be above him [Conor McDavid] worry about it when it happens, but I thought maybe we just were a little more aggressive today and we're able to extend some of those zone times...that's how you get the momentum,” he said.
Insider Extra
We caught up with Nils Höglander after he was scratched in the previous couple of games, to hear his thoughts on his return to the lineup.
“I think it was good for me maybe to rest a little bit and get that excitement for coming back,” said Höglander. “I think we played really good tonight, our line, we could have had some goals and they scored it at the end. It is always good to come in to a win."
What do you think your line did well to maintain offensive zone possessions?
“We were just strong on the puck on the walls. If you win your battle, you get the puck more and more, and so on. Yeah, we just won more puck battles out there.”
What was your reaction to the Miller goal?
“I actually thought Lindy scored but he hit the post and then Millsy scored, and it was unbelievable. Yeah, pretty cool.”
How about that J.T. MILLER chant from the fans?
“Yeah, I love that. They got the Petey chants going too with what they were cheering for him too. That’s fun when they do that.”
Game Summary
Evander Kane got the Oilers on the board in the first period.
Soucy opened things up for the Canucks and found the back of the net from the point to tie the game briefly.
Less than a minute later, Mattias Janmark scored to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission.
