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Edmonton Oilers put boots to Vancouver Canucks to force Game 7
You didn’t think the Edmonton Oilers were going to go away that easily, did you? With their backs to the abyss and their playoff lives flashing before their eyes, the Oilers delivered a resounding show of force Saturday, reminding the Vancouver Canucks, and anyone else who doubted them, that they are a long way from dead. After struggling for offence the last three games, Edmonton broke out hard in Game 6, with Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard counting for three points each in a season-saving 5-1 triumph. “I thought the boys were ready from the start,” said winger Dylan Holloway, who opened the scoring on one of the nicest goals of the series. “We obviously knew what was at stake tonight. There were probably a bit of nerves, but once we kind of got settled in we played our game and rolled all four lines and never looked back. “We felt we were the better team for most of the series, we just couldn’t capitalize on our chances.” This time they did. After five one-goal games, this one was a rout. “I thought we did a good job of getting in on the forecheck and holding on to pucks and playing in their zone, making them defend and making it hard for them to work up the ice,” said McDavid. “I thought we played faster, we played cleaner, we were better with the puck, better coming through the neutral zone. We did a great job of getting on top of them on the forecheck and keeping pucks alive.” So a series the Canucks had in their grasp after a dominating performance in Game 5 put them up 3-2 with a chance to close things out in Edmonton will now come down a 60-minute war of wills against an opponent that just showed what it’s capable of when it comes face-to-face with the executioner. Game 7 goes Monday in Vancouver. “It’s nothing to be satisfied or excited about,” McDavid said of the Game 6 effort. “We just bought ourselves another day. I would expect the same level of urgency and desperation from our group and I would expect Vancouver to play a better game as well. “I expect a highly competitive, great Game 7.” Saturday night at Rogers Place was the Oilers at their best. They stayed tight defensively, were hard on the puck, outshot the Canucks 21-10 by the time the contest was out of reach and finally got to Vancouver goalie Arturs Silovs, striking a big psychological blow heading into Game 7. “We capitalized, that’s the key,” said Hyman, who scored his playoff-leading 10th goal. “We’ve had looks all series but we beared down on our chances and made good on them. Y ou have to get guys to the dirty areas and the blue paint and make it uncomfortable. “And t he more looks you get, just by nature you’re going to score more and I think we did a good job of producing more looks tonight and then capitalizing.” The first-period storm of desperation one might have expected from an Oilers team facing elimination never really came — Holloway scored on a great individual rush at 8:18 and the Canucks tied it when Nils Hoglander replied at 10:03. A 1-1 tie after 20 wasn’t a very good sign for a team fighting for its life on home ice. But the storm did come. Edmonton came to life in the second period, outshooting Vancouver 14-5 and opening up a 3-1 lead on goals from Hyman and Bouchard. “We’ve got off to some good stretches and then let them back into it in the series,” said Holloway. “Tonight we played a full 60. We got off to a hot start and got some goals and even when they came back to make it 1-1, we didn’t waver at all. We kept to our game.” An early marker from Nugent-Hopkins and one from Evander Kane closed the deal and forced a deciding Game 7. After Saturday night, the Oilers like their chances. “I thought we responded pretty well tonight,” said defenceman Vincent Desharnais. “This group has been through lots of adversity throughout the season. Even though we have a lot of skill but we have hard workers and if we can match their compete level in Game 7 it will be a good one for us.” NET RESULTS With Edmonton’s life on the line in Game 6, head coach Kris Knobauch made the bold, if not curious, pre-game decision to start Stuart Skinner in goal ahead of Calvin Pickard. So starting somebody who they hope had found his game over somebody who’s been excellent is a call that could have easily backfired, but Skinner is the guy they’ve invested their future in and he has shown an ability to rebound after a bad stretch, so they decided to live or die with their No.1 goalie. And he didn’t let them down. Skinner didn’t face a lot of shots but made all the saves he needed to. “ Every save he made he made it look pretty easy,” said Desharnais. “He didn’t have that many shots, but there were some Grade A’s and some screened shots. I’m not surprised the way he played tonight. He proved tonight that we can trust him.” SPECIAL TIMES The Oilers got some clutch penalty killing in the first period after Draisaitl and McDavid took minors and also closed out an extended five-on-three power play late in the second and early in the third to preserve a two-goal lead. “I thought our penalty kill was outstanding again, keeping momentum on our side,” said Hyman. “If they score a goal there, things are a little different obviously. It’s 3-1 and we get a huge 5-on-3 kill to start the third and we go out and score the next one and that’s the dagger obviously.” E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
NHL notes: Paul Maurice and Florida Panthers head to Big Apple for Round 3 of NHL playoffs
Wayne Gretzky was still active for the Rangers the last time New York met the Florida Panthers in a playoff series. That was about the only memorable part for the Cats who lost that 1997 duel to the Rangers in five games. Florida coach Paul Maurice was trying to study as much as he could about his Eastern Conference final opponent the morning after dispatching the Boston Bruins, with a few days to prep for Game 1 Wednesday in Manhattan. The experience factor is the Cats’ corner with a trip to the Stanley Cup final last year and now two rounds through this spring. But the Rangers finished first overall, splitting two late-season games against the Panthers. “You’ve watched (New York beating Washington and Carolina) in between our games and see they’re very fast, very talented team, very dynamic off of the rush,” Maurice said Saturday. “They’ve got all the (key) spots, the goaltending, four at the back end very strong and the forwards are very skilled. We have to go a little longer, maybe more detailed on the video.” Maurice’s team is halfway back to another shot at the Cup. He credited his leadership group for not bringing any negativity into training camp. “They came back more determined, or they felt they were closer and had that belief when they came back. They haven’t been tired. We had three really important pieces of our lineup (forward Sam Bennett and defencemen Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour) out at the start, so we had to play well defensively. We battled hard and got some consistency,” One coaching quirk involving Maurice and New York’s Peter Laviolette, they both coached the Carolina Hurricanes and replaced each other in the early 2000s. Laviolette won the Cup in 2006 with the Canes in place of Maurice after Maurice, who git as far as the ’02 final, then Maurice in a second stint, bumped Laviolette. SELKE LOVE FOR SASHA It would have been quite the feat for Toronto’s Auston Matthews to lead the NHL with 69 goals and be named its best defensive forward as winner of the Frank Selke Trophy. Voters from the Professional Hockey Writers Association thought enough of Matthews’ shot blocking, takeaways and faceoff prowess to make him a finalist, but gave the award to Aleksander Barkov of the Panthers in a Saturday night announcement. Carolinas Barkov, a three-time nominee and first Panther to get the honour, assisted Florida in tying for first in the league in goals-against per game (2.41), the lowest mark in club history. He took a team-leading 1,100 draws with a winning percentage of 57.3%, ninth among players to play at least 50 games and take at least 500 face-offs. Carolina’s Jordan Staal was the other finalist. CHIEF AND THE CAPTAIN Maple Leafs captain John Tavares will now have to get used to his third coach in six years in Toronto with Carig Berube’s appointment. “Obviously very difficult so see (Sheldon Keefe) go,” Tavares told reporters Saturday in Prague where he’s wearing the ‘C’ for Canada at the world championships. “As players, it’s on us to do a better job. With Craig coming in he’s going to help us with that. I’m excited to work with him. He’s got a tremendous pedigree.” More information about who Berube might have as his Toronto assistants could come out Tuesday when he’s officially introduced. One member of his St. Louis staff from the 2019 Stanley Cup year, Mike van Ryn, is already working in Toronto. Steve Ott, his other primary assistant on the Blues, stayed put and is now with Team Canada as an assistant. Guy Boucher, Dean Chynoweth and Manny Malhotra are the other assistants who worked with Keefe. TEAM USA LIKES MIKE Canada and the other hockey powers now know which coach of a well-known foe they’ll face at the Four Nations Face-off next year and in the 2026 Olympics in Italy. USA Hockey announced Saturday that Mike Sullivan, two-time champion behind the bench of the Pittsburgh Penguins, will get the gig. Sullivan’s two Cups in 2016 and ’17 are part of an 11–year record of 445-275-115 and he was an assistant for the Americans in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Canada has named its management staff for the Four Nations, to be played in February in Canada and the U.S. with Finland and Sweden as a replacement for the all-star game, but not its coach. Berube will quickly command the respect factor needed to lift Leafs Craig Berube's past Stanley Cup success won't necessarily result in championship for Maple Leafs lhornby@postmedia.com X: @sunhornby
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