Oilers top Canucks on late goal in Game 4, even series

EDMONTON -- Evan Bouchard scored the go-ahead goal with 39 seconds left in the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 4 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Place on Tuesday.

The best-of-7 series is tied 2-2. Game 5 will be at Vancouver on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).

Bouchard scored with a wrist shot through traffic from the point 1:02 after Dakota Joshua was credited with the tying goal for the Canucks. Brock Boeser's wrist shot from the left face-off circle went in off Joshua's skate.

“There’s not much more adversity than giving up a two-goal lead late in the game the way we did, and coming up big and scoring late in the third period,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “So, it just makes the win even sweeter.”

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for the Oilers, who are the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division.

“It definitely wasn’t ideal giving up that second one in the third, but there wasn’t much time to sulk and think about it. We had to go out and still finish the period,” said Bouchard, who also had an assist. “Kudos to our forwards for battling in front. It’s a tough job getting to the goalie. I saw a lane and I took it.”

Calvin Pickard made 19 saves for the Oilers in his first Stanley Cup Playoff start.

“I was trying to channel my emotions as much as I could. Obviously it’s tough, it’s a high-stakes game,” said Pickard, 32, who made his playoff debut Sunday when he replaced Stuart Skinner in the third period of Game 3, a 4-3 loss. “It’s a great opportunity. The guys played great in front of me and now it’s a best-of-3.”

Conor Garland scored, and Arturs Silovs made 27 saves for the Canucks, who are the No. 1 seed from the Pacific.

“I’m disappointed,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “There are too many soft plays on that (third) goal, four or five plays. You have to dig in there. I thought we had four or five guys make mistakes on that goal. You can’t do that.

“We’ve been a resilient group all year, but we need five or six guys to get going. This is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there are some guys, I don’t know if they thought it was playoffs, and we can’t play with 12 guys.”

Draisaitl put the Oilers ahead 1-0 at 11:10 of the first period with a power-play goal when Connor McDavid found him at the right face-off dot for a one-timer. That made it nine straight playoff games for Edmonton with a power-play goal, the longest streak in team history.

Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-0 with 40 seconds left in the second period. He was sent in by Mattias Ekholm on a 2-on-1 with McDavid and scored low to the blocker side from the right circle.

Garland cut it to 2-1 at 6:54 of the third. His shot from the top of the slot glanced off Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse as it went through his legs and changed direction on Pickard.

“Any way you lose it’s disappointing, but we probably didn’t play well enough to win,” Garland said. “We fought back, which we’ve done a lot this year, but we gave them one too many plays.”

With 4:24 remaining, Silovs left his net to win a race to the puck against Evander Kane and avoid a breakaway opportunity.

Joshua's goal tied it 2-2 at 18:19 with Silovs pulled for the extra attacker.

“To tie it up like that and have a great push and then to lose like that, it’s disappointing,” Canucks captain Quinn Hughes said. “But these things happen and we have to move along.

“There is a lot of belief in this room, there is no quit and obviously going into the next game, we don’t want to find ourselves in a hole. But like I said after Game 1, if it’s 4-1 or 2-1 or 2-0, whatever it is, we’re going to go to the final buzzer."

Bouchard followed Joshua’s goal with his second game-winner of the series. He scored 5:38 into overtime for a 4-3 victory in Game 2 on Friday.

“When things like that happen, it’s a bit of a shock and sometimes you can kind of get on your heels a little bit and try to get into overtime,” Draisaitl said. “[Bouchard is] a great player. He’s been amazing for us all season, especially in big moments.

“It’s a big goal.”

NOTES: With his assist, McDavid became the third player in NHL history to have three consecutive 150-point seasons, including playoffs, joining Wayne Gretzky (11 straight seasons; 1980-91) and Guy Lafleur (three straight seasons; 1976-79). McDavid has combined for 34 goals and 116 assists in 85 games. … Draisaitl extended his goal streak to three games (three goals) and his point streak to nine games (20 points; eight goals, 12 assists), becoming the first Oilers player to begin a postseason with a point streak that long since Mark Messier in 1988. … Ekholm has five points (three goals, two assists) in four-game point streak. … Bouchard extended his goal streak to three games (three goals) and his point streak to seven games (11 points; four goals, seven assists). … Nugent-Hopkins pushed his point streak to five games (seven points; one goal, six assists) and became the 13th player in Oilers history with 50 career playoff points (12 goals, 38 assists). … Vancouver was without defenseman Carson Soucy, who was suspended for one game by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Monday for cross-checking McDavid at the conclusion of Game 3. Defenseman Noah Juulsen entered the lineup and had one shot on goal in 14:25 of ice time. … Boeser (assist) has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak.