GAME STORY: Oilers 4 at Canucks 2

VANCOUVER, BC -- Ty Rattie scored twice and Cam Talbot stopped 22 of 23 shots as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 at Rogers Arena in NHL pre-season action on Tuesday night.

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OILERS TODAY | Tony Brar wraps up the game
POST-GAME RAW | Rattie
POST-GAME RAW | Talbot
POST-GAME RAW | Strome
POST-GAME RAW | Oilers head coach Todd McLellan
WHAT'S NEXT
Edmonton returns home for their first pre-season contest on Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets The game can be seen on EdmontonOilers.com and heard on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED. Puck drop is 7:08 p.m. MDT.
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"It's always nice to win. We realize it's the exhibition season but we're trying to create some confidence in the group and find ways to win games," Oilers head coach Todd McLellan stated after the game. "This group did a pretty good job tonight. A bit of concern in the number of penalties we took. I thought we overtaxed out team far too many times. And it wasn't necessarily the penalties, it was the play leading to the penalty that caused it. We'll have to clean some of that up."
Cooper Marody took the first penalty of the game, for slashing, just over five minutes into the contest.
Oilers did a good job on the PK, with the best scoring chance on either side going to the penalty killers. Jujhar Khaira knocked down Ben Hutton in the corner of the Oilers zone. He then retrieved the puck and skated up ice shorthanded, putting the puck on goal but it was stopped by Canucks starting goaltender Anders Nilsson.
9:10 into the opening frame, Jesse Puljujarvi stopped with the puck in the high slot, pivoted and wristed the puck five-hole past Nilsson to put the Oilers on the board first.
"Jesse had a good game tonight. The goal aside, he used his teammates well. He created opportunities for other players, used his big body to protect pucks. He looked confident and like he was enjoying the game and that's important," McLellan remarked.
Over a minute later, Nikolay Goldobin took a penalty for interference, sending the Oilers on the power play for the first time on the night but they were unable to generate anything of consequence.
Shots on goal were 7-5 for Edmonton with just over six minutes to play in the opening frame but the Canucks picked up their play in the final quarter of the stanza, thanks partially to a Keegan Lowe tripping penalty with 3:33 to play.
Cam Talbot had to make an unbelievable save on Goldobin with 6:03 to go in the first. He took away what was a gaping wide net by diving over and snagging Goldobin's shot with his glove.
"Desperation," said Talbot when asked to describe the save. "Reached my glove out to try and take away something. You don't want to use those up in pre-season but at the same time, it's a confidence builder moving forward."
Coach McLellan was happy with what he saw from both of his goaltenders tonight. Talbot stopped 22 of 23 shots and Montoya turned away 13 of 14 in the third period.
"Good night for both our goaltenders," he said. "I thought Talbs was outstanding and Monty going in, especially in the penalty kill situations, they move the puck around pretty good. I was happy for both of those guys."
After one, shots on goal were 9-8 for Vancouver.
Ashton Sautner received two minutes for cross-checking to give the Oilers an early second period power play in the opening minute of the middle frame and it only took 46 seconds for the visitors to connect.

The Oilers swarmed the net and with Nilsson down and out after stopping the first two shots, Ty Rattie swooped in and jammed home the second rebound to double the Oilers lead. Kailer Yamamoto and Tyler Benson got the assists.
"I thought he had a tremendous night along the boards, which is good to see. He's going to have to play hard and he did that. Quite a responsible night on his behalf. Probably the only negative was the hooking penalty but that can happen," McLellan noted.
"A number of our right wingers were challenged earlier in camp and almost all of them responded."
Rattie was pleased with his performance in his first exhibition game.
"I felt good tonight. You want to hit the ground running," he stated after the game.
Less than a minute after the Oilers goal, Vancouver nearly tied it. Sven Baertschi skated in along the left wing side on a partial breakaway but his shot was turned away by the right pad of Talbot. On the same shift, Baertschi took a penalty for high sticking Talbot in front of the Edmonton goal.

Shortly after Baertschi came out of the box, he received a pass from the side boards by Bo Horvat and neatly tucked the puck between his legs past Talbot to cut the Oilers lead in half at 2-1.
Shots on goal in the second period were 11-4 for the Oilers almost eight minutes in but Vancouver narrowed that gap strong second half, led by Elias Pettersson who had a handful of great chances.
Pettersson forced Jason Garrison to hold him up as he drove to the net and also made sure Talbot was sharp, firing a quick shot on the Oilers netminder off the rush.
Caleb Jones also took a penalty late in the period. Shots in the second were 10-1 for Vancouver in the final 11 minutes.
Overall, shots were 23-21 Vancouver in the game.

Edmonton regained their two-goal lead 3:43 into the third when Ryan Strome spotted Jones at the hashmarks in the slot and Jones made no mistake, quickly firing the puck past Nilsson.
Zack Kassian was sent off for interference, putting the Canucks power play back on the ice with 15:28 to play in the third and the Canucks connected 42 seconds later.
Horvat's attempt from the side of the net went off the post but the rebound went straight out to Goldobin who fired the puck past Montoya's outstretched blocker to make it a one-goal game once again.
Vancouver went right back to the power play after Rattie received two for hooking only 41 seconds after the goal but this time the Oilers were able to kill it off.
Montoya made a nice stop, scooping a Jake Virtanen shot up at close range to keep the Oilers in front with 7:53 to go.
With less than seven minutes to go in the game, Rattie stole the puck at the Canucks blueline and broke in alone, deking out Nilsson for his second of the game, making it a 4-2 contest.