Philp scores 1st NHL goal, Oilers defeat Canucks for 1st win

EDMONTON -- Noah Philp scored his first NHL goal to help the Edmonton Oilers to their first win of the season, 3-1 against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Andrew Mangiapane and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Oilers (1-0-1). Calvin Pickard made 14 saves.

“We're not going to control all 60 minutes,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “A lot of credit for the guys, often when you're playing well and you're getting those scoring chances [that aren’t going in], it's so easy to cheat the game. We're not doing enough to score, we gotta do something else. I thought they stuck with it. And overall, yeah, it was a solid game.”

Quinn Hughes had an assist to set the Canucks record for points by a defenseman. The Vancouver captain assisted on Brock Boeser’s third-period goal to give him 410 points (59 goals, 351 assists) in 435 games, passing Alexander Edler (409 points in 925 games).

“It means lots,” Hughes said of the record. “It’s a great organization and a lot of great players have come through over 56 or 57 years, and it’s an honor for sure.”

Thatcher Demko made 34 saves for the Canucks (1-1-0).

“We were right there and when you have a performance from your goaltender like that, killing five penalties against a power play like that, you have to be a little bit more patient out there,” said Canucks coach Adam Foote. “We started the third, we were all over them, we were flying and then got another penalty, and we just have to control ourselves a bit more.

“We have to be a little more disciplined.”

Darnell Nurse appeared to put the Oilers ahead 1-0 at 10:01 of the first period, reaching up to redirect a wrist shot by Alec Regula from the point through the legs of Demko, only to have it ruled a high stick.

“Pucks weren’t going in for us. Demko was great, he made a lot of big saves,” Pickard said. “But we didn’t stray from the game plan, we didn’t cheat for offense. We earned that win. If we play that game over and over again we’re going to win pretty much every time.

“We’re a good defensive team, a great defensive team and we showed it tonight.”

Philp made it 1-0 for Edmonton at 12:21 of the second period, taking a feed on a line rush from Kasperi Kapanen to get in behind a trio of Canucks, before snapping the puck past Demko’s glove for his first goal in his 17th NHL game.

“It just reminds me of all the people who supported me. I’m just grateful to be here,” said Philp. “We turned it over in the D-zone and I knew we had a three-on-two and then me and (Kasperi) Kapanen had a couple of exchanges.

“I was just trying to get it over to him and drive the net and he made the play to me and I just threw one on net and it worked out.”

Mangiapane made it 2-0 with 49 seconds left in the second, intercepting a pass out of the corner by Canucks forward Filip Chytil before taking two strides into the slot and sending a wrist shot blocker side past Demko.

It was the second goal in as many games for Mangiapane, who was playing in his 500th NHL game.

Boeser made it 2-1 just 47 seconds into the third period, off a Hughes pass from the blue line that found him at bottom of the left circle, before sweeping the puck past Pickard’s pad at the far post.

“I think we sat back a little bit too much in the first two periods there, and I thought when we tried to get momentum in the third,” Boeser said. “We took a couple of penalties and that made us take a step back.

“I thought we were in the box a lot, I think we had to be more disciplined and push a little harder.”

Draisaitl scored off the post and into an empty net on the backhand from the blue line for a short-handed goal and the 3-1 final with 1:13 left in the game.

“There are different ways of winning hockey games and helping your team win,” Draisaitl said. “And if we can help out on the penalty kill, we love doing it.”

NOTES: Mangiapane became the second Oilers player in the past 10 seasons to score in each of his first two games with the franchise, following Derick Brassard (two games in 2021-22). ... Vasily Podkolzin’s assist on the Oilers’ first goal marked his first point against a Canucks team that selected him No. 10 in the 2019 NHL Draft.