GAME RECAP: Canucks 3, Oilers 1

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers' hopes of finishing in first place in the Pacific Division took a heavy blow on Saturday against the division-leading Vancouver Canucks, who secured the four-game season sweep over the Blue & Orange with a 3-1 win at Rogers Place to tighten their grip on the top spot in the Pacific.

"We knew this was an important game," said Warren Foegele. "We're just trying to play the right way heading into playoffs, and I thought we played strong and there are areas to improve on, but obviously we're disappointed we didn't get the two points."

Edmonton competed for 60 minutes in a playoff-calibre contest but couldn't catch up to Vancouver after the visitors received first and second-period goals from Sam Lafferty and Pius Suter to build themselves a two-goal lead.

Evander Kane scored late in the middle frame to make it 2-1 on his 23rd goal before Dakota Joshua locked in the two points for the Canucks with an empty-netter at 1:47 of the third period, ending a 12-game point streak on home ice for the Oilers and serving them their first home loss in regulation since Feb. 24.

"I thought it was a competitive game," Foegele added. "Two teams getting ready for playoffs and they just were able to capitalize on their chances more than us."

With the victory, the Canucks moved five points ahead of the Oilers for first place in the division with two games left in their schedule while the Oilers have three games remaining over the next five days against San Jose, Arizona and Colorado to close out their regular season.

FIRST PERIOD

While they might've already locked in their playoff spot, the Oilers still have high aspirations this regular season of winning their first division title since 1986-87, when they won the last of their six division titles in franchise history behind Wayne Gretzky's 183-point season.

Edmonton looked the team more likely to find the crucial opening goal in Saturday's pivotal Pacific Division clash, but you could feel Vancouver come into the game in the final 10 minutes of the first before eventually taking a late lead into the intermission.

Vincent Desharnais was tripped up by J.T. Miller inside the first two minutes of the game and subsequently shoved to the ice from behind to draw the first power play to the Oilers, but the League's third-best power play was unable to create momentum for their team from an early man advantage against the Canucks' 20th-ranked penalty kill.

The Oilers had a sizeable 7-1 shot advantage in the game's early going, but after Quinn Hughes nearly picked out a teammate at the back door at 11:34 of the frame, the play certainly shifted in the Canucks' favour.

"I thought we got off to a tremendous start. I thought the energy was high and we spent a lot of time in the offensive zone," Knoblauch said. "And then, I think after we had a power play, we didn't make many mistakes but we weren't able to advance the puck very well and get into the offensive zone to get some more scoring chances."

Vancouver pressured hard in the period's second half and enjoyed plenty of possession as they started to pick up their shot totals, eventually finishing the period with nine to Edmonton's 13 attempts on goal. Ilya Mikheyev could've opened the scoring with 2:31 left in the period if it weren't for a terrific sprawling save from Stuart Skinner, who lunged out to deny the winger's open look in front that was created behind the net by a falling Teddy Blueger.

Despite that save, Skinner couldn't get the Oilers into the intermission unscathed before Sam Lafferty had the space down the right side with 15.9 seconds remaining, shooting across the netminder and lifting the Canucks into a 1-0 lead in the final moments of the opening 20 minutes

SECOND PERIOD

Despite conceding a second goal to fall behind 2-0 to the Canucks, a late surge in the middle stanza put the Oilers within striking distance of the Pacific Division leaders heading into the final frame.

A pair of tip-ins rounded out the scoring in the second period as Pius Suter extended Vancouver's lead to two by putting the simplest of deflections on Tyler Myers' sifted shot-pass off the rush 11 minutes into the frame.

Sensing they needed something to work with heading into the intermission, the Oilers pressed to try and get back into the contest and found it on a net-front deflection from Evander Kane for his first goal against the Canucks in an Oilers uniform and his first against the club since December 14, 2019 as a member of the San Jose Sharks.

After Sam Carrick nudged it up to Darnell Nurse at the blueline, the defenceman let go of a wrist shot that was knocked down by Kane in front of Casey DeSmith, who was perfect on the night until the winger's deflection found its way through to halve the visitors' advantage to 2-1.

With his 24th goal of the campaign, Kane now has five points (3G, 2A) over his last five games and could be catching fire at the perfect time for the Blue & Orange heading into the postseason.

"He can be a difference-maker. He has the physicality and the ability to score a key goal like tonight, and that's an important goal and a very skilled goal," Knoblauch said. "Few can do that going to the net, being able to deflect that in, and he had some other chances. He's been a part of three goals in the last four and three in the last two games, and that's a good sign going into the playoffs."

THIRD PERIOD

Edmonton's attempt at a comeback – and potentially a Pacific Division crown – ended after Dakota Joshua iced the result with an empty-netter at 1:47 of the final period, solidifying Vancouver's 3-1 win and the sweep of the season series.

"Three of those four games happened at the beginning of the season; so long ago that I don't think anyone really remembers what happened there," said Knoblauch, who wasn't even behind the bench the last time these two teams met in early November.

"I think tonight, we'll look at it and see it was a competitive game, and we'll look at things that we could have done better and they're a good hockey team. We'll have to look very hard at how to beat them, but we feel we'll find a way."