EDMONTON — Leon Draisaitl’s long backhand shot into an empty net put the game away as the Edmonton Oilers collected their first win of the season, defeating the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 on Saturday.
Noah Philp and Andrew Mangiapane also scored for the Oilers (1-0-1) who are coming off a second consecutive loss to the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final.
Brock Boeser replied for the Canucks (1-1-0) who failed to qualify for the playoffs last spring after finishing first in the Pacific Division the previous campaign.
Calvin Pickard only needed to make 14 stops to collect the win for the Oilers, while Thatcher Demko recorded 34 saves for the Canucks.
Takeaways
Canucks: Star blue-liner Quinn Hughes picked up an assist to give him 410 career points and pass Alex Edler for most points by a defenceman in Canucks history, despite being just 25 years of age. Hughes achieved the feat in 435 games, fewer than half of Edler’s 925 games with Vancouver.
Oilers: The Oilers finally broke the scoreless deadlock 12:21 into the second period as the fourth line came up big when Kasperi Kapanen fed the puck ahead to Philp and he beat Demko with a snapshot for his first NHL goal. It was the 17th career NHL game for the 27-year-old former University of Alberta Golden Bears player, who became the 417th player to score a goal for Edmonton in Oilers team history.
Key moment
Playing in his 500th career NHL game, Mangiapane gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead with 51 seconds remaining in the second period after picking off an errant pass from Filip Chytil while the teams were playing four aside, and rifling in his second of the season in as many games with Edmonton. Mangiapane signed as a free agent this summer.
Key stat
Although Pickard is the backup to Stuart Skinner, there has been plenty of reason to have confidence in his abilities. Pickard came into the contest with a 34-17-2 record in 59 career starts for the Oilers over the past two seasons, registering a 2.63 GAA and .903 save percentage and was 7-1 in last year’s playoffs.
Up next
Canucks: Host the St. Louis Blues on Monday.
Oilers: Visit the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
