McDavid has five points, Oilers bounce back with nine goals against Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists, and the Edmonton Oilers hung on for a wild 9-7 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Thursday.

The Oilers split the season-opening home-and-home series after losing to the Canucks 6-5 in overtime in Edmonton on Tuesday.

“No one is in here being, you know, 'Way to go,'” McDavid said. “Obviously we understand the game has got to look a little bit different, but I thought, the first 40 (minutes) is what it could look like a lot of the time, and what it should look like a lot of the time. Guys working hard, tracking back, responsible with the puck, and just kind of rolling over them. That 40 minutes we have to replicate night in and night out.”

Leon Draisaitl had two goals and an assist, Evan Bouchard had a goal and two assists, and Kasperi Kapanen and Vasily Podkolzin each had a goal and assist for Edmonton (1-0-1).

“We know we can be way better,” coach Mike Babcock said of his first Oilers win since being hired June 23. “What I saw tonight was a group that could play right and knew what they were doing, and then I saw a group that didn't do it. So, the main thing is if you know you can do it, now you got to find a way to just repeat, repeat, rinse, repeat, do it again.”

Devon Levi made 15 saves in his Oilers regular-season debut after being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on July 1.

Marco Rossi had two goals and an assist, Elias Pettersson had a goal and two assists, and Brock Boeser, Paul Cotter, Arshdeep Bains and Jamie Oleksiak each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks (1-1-0), who trailed 8-2 late in the second period.

“That stings,” Cotter said. “Unacceptable. … On the other side of things, I am proud of how we didn't give up.”

Kevin Lankinen allowed eight goals on 20 shots before being pulled 8:23 into the second period for Leevi Merilainen, who made 10 saves in his Vancouver debut after being claimed off waivers from the Ottawa Senators on Friday.

“By no means are we blaming ‘Lanks,’” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said. “There were just far too many (Grade-A chances) in front of him and breakaway opportunities. It was more of a messaging to our group.”

Podkolzin, taking the place of Zach Hyman (upper body) on the top unit, gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead on the power play at 9:26 of the first period, converting a cross-ice pass from Kapanen.

Owen Michaels scored his first NHL goal at 14:26 to make it 2-0, one-timing Mathieu Joseph’s pass from behind the net past Lankinen’s blocker from the low slot.

“That's what it's all about is these young guys coming in the League and finding a role, finding success, and obviously he's been the epitome of that,” McDavid said of Michaels. “Since the start of camp, he's been so good and just great to see him get rewarded like that.”

Bouchard, who had three goals and two assists in the opener, made it 3-0 just 16 seconds later when a rebound from his low shot off the boards bounced in off the skate of Canucks defenseman Tom Willander at the edge of the crease. He became the first defenseman in NHL history with eight points over the first two games of the season.

Ryan Shea scored his first goal with Edmonton at 19:32 to make it 4-0, snapping a low shot past Lankinen from the hash marks after McDavid spun off a check and spotted him skating in alone as the trailer on a rush.

Draisaitl made it 5-0 just 27 seconds into the second period after he banked a shot from below the goal line in off the back of Lankinen’s shoulder.

“Right from the start, we didn't seem to be as prepared as we needed to be,” Malhotra said. “We knew they were going to have a response, not happy with the result on their home opener, and I think that was kind of the story of the game. That's how it got away from us. We lost the majority of puck battles, lost the majority of races. They were just far more hungry than us in a lot of areas.”

Cotter scored on a screened shot after cutting into the slot at 4:31 to pull the Canucks to 5-1, but Trent Frederic converted a rebound in tight 33 seconds later to restore the five-goal lead at 6-1.

Boeser made it 6-2 at 5:47 with a wrist shot off the rush through the skates of defenseman Jake Walman and over Levi’s blocker, but gave the puck away on a power play drop pass for the first of two short-handed goals.

McDavid pounced on the pass and extended it to 7-2 at 7:49 when he skated around Pettersson and cut through the crease, beating Lankinen far side. Kapanen then scored on a short-handed breakaway to push it to 8-2 at 8:23. 

“We're obviously trying to be aggressive, trying to pressure pucks, and we got some speedsters that, when the puck does turn over, can make something happen,” McDavid said.

Bains scored on a rebound with 0.1 seconds remaining to make it 8-3.

Rossi cut it to 8-4 at 1:53 of the third period on a rebound in tight, and scored again at 4:43 to make it 8-5 when a deflection bounced off his shoulder and trickled in.

Pettersson’s power-play goal closed it to 8-6 at 7:37, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Rossi over Levi’s glove from above the right face-off dot. But Draisaitl replied on the power play at 9:26 to give Edmonton a 9-6 lead, taking a pass from McDavid and quickly snapping it under the pads of Merilainen from below the right dot.

“Weird to be excited about the ninth one, but given the situation, it was a big goal,” McDavid said.

Oleksiak one-timed a rebound over Levi’s blocker from above the left dot at 18:31 for his first Canucks goal and the 9-7 final.

"You'd like it to be a lot cleaner than that coming down the stretch, but ultimately a win is a win in this league, and we found a way to get a big win and get our season up and running,” McDavid said.

NOTES: McDavid is the third player in Oilers history with five assists through the first two games of a season, joining Draisaitl (2020-21) and Wayne Gretzky (1987-88). It was McDavid’s 15th five-point game in the NHL, tying him for the seventh most in NHL history. He also surpassed Jari Kurri (14 games) for the second most in franchise history behind only Gretzky (79). … McDavid and Kapanen’s short-handed goals, which were scored 34 seconds apart, were the two fastest by the Oilers since Jan. 19, 2000 (21 seconds). … Vancouver only scored six or more goals three times last season, but has already done so twice this season.