VANCOUVER, BC – Round 3 bound.
The Oilers confirmed their place in the Western Conference Final on Monday night with a 3-2 victory over the Canucks in Game 7 at Rogers Arena, scoring three times in the second period to help build a three-goal cushion that was challenged in the final nine minutes of regulation after the hosts mounted a late push.
“It’s exciting to be a great Vancouver team. That’s first and foremost,” Connor McDavid said. “They’re a really great team. They obviously had our number all year long. It wasn’t too long ago we were sitting here doing an interview talking about losing 8-1, so they’ve had our number and it feels good to come out on top in this series.”
“It was a tight series. A passionate series. Both fanbases were going crazy. It’s fun to come out on top of that.”
Cody Ceci broke things open less than two minutes into the middle frame, ripping a slap shot past netminder Arturs Silovs for the second Game 7 goal of his career before Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each added goals to build Edmonton a 3-0 lead heading into the final period.
The Canucks weren’t about to go down without a fight, scoring twice through Conor Garland and Filip Hronek to make for a dramatic final nine minutes in the winner-take-all decider between the two Canadian rivals. The Oilers collected themselves during a timeout before preventing Vancouver from registering any shots in the game’s final two minutes with their net empty, solidifying the series victory and their place in Round 3.
“I thought we played 52 great minutes really well. And little mistakes, those are going to happen,” McDavid said. “Obviously, it gets a little chaotic from there. You can expect that. We knew it was going to be a tight game. I don’t think anyone came in here thinking it would be some sort of cakewalk. It was tight. I thought we did a good job of responding. I thought it was a great timeout by Kris to settle everyone down, and from there on out, I thought we played a real solid game the rest of the way.”
