Horvat has 4 points for Canucks in victory against Oilers
EDMONTON– Bo Horvat had two goals and two assists, and the Vancouver Canucks clinched a 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Friday.
Horvat got the go in the third period for the Canucks (15-15-3), who were 2-0 down after the first period.
J T Miller hit twice, and Collin Delia made 31 saves to win his first start for Vancouver. He won in relief on his debut on December 5, 7-6 in overtime against the Montreal Canadiens.
“I’m really proud of the boys, how they’ve progressed,” said Horvat, the Canucks captain. “It’s not an easy back-to-back for us [6-5 shootout win against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday] with the time change and the travel and everything else that’s going on. Obviously it wasn’t the best start for us to play like we did tonight, but we finished strong and Delia was really strong for us tonight.”
Connor McDavid extended his points streak to 15 games with his 30th goal and Stuart Skinner made 25 saves for the Oilers (18-15-2).
“We got the start we wanted and then we spit it out,” McDavid said. “It wasn’t the second period we wanted, but we still had a chance. We have to find a way to win this game, there’s no way around it.”
Video: [email protected]: McDavid extends Oilers lead in 1st period
Derek Ryan scored the first on a breakaway at 9:42 to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. He took a pass from Warren Foegele and walked around Delia.
McDavid made it 2-0 at 19:55 and converted a cross-kick pass Zach Hyman. McDavid has 14 goals and 17 assists during the longest active point streak in the NHL.
“This is unacceptable,” Hyman said. “We had a really good start and were 2-0 up and were the fresher team and then they scored five goals without reply. Of course you can’t win like that.”
Video: [email protected]: Miller equalizes game in 2nd period
Miller made it 2-1 just 41 seconds into the second period. His shot from the high slot bounced off Skinner and into the net for his first goal in 12 games.
Miller equalized 2-2 on the power play at 18:33 after a rebound from a shot Elias Petterson.
“It’s been an interesting year for us, to say the least, and we’ve never given up, which is really positive, even though we have games where we have glitches and disappointments,” Miller said. “That was one of our better games just because we came in at 3am and had a quick turnaround against a team who are ready and obviously very dangerous. The penalty was huge for us [3-for-3] and the power play could take you and our third period was easily one of the best of the year.”
Delia made 13 saves in the second period and seven in the third.
“Our goalkeeper was great, he made the saves, especially early on,” said Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau. “I think they had a 9 or 10-0 barrage on us early in the first five or six minutes of the game and he kept them in check most of the time so that was good, really good.”
Video: [email protected]: Horvat scores 23rd goal of the season in 3rd place
Horvat gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead at 12:25 when he scored with a shot from a carom off the end boards Tyler Myers.
Ilya Mikheyev scored the 4:2 with a score of 17:19 in the third period with a shot from the slot on a pass from Horvat.
“It’s the best 60-minute game we’ve played in a long time,” said Boudreau. “Maybe there were five minutes at the end of the first third where we weren’t as good as we’d like, but I thought everyone was keen to play right tonight and if you do that and you do it As a group of 20 rather than a group of 8 or 10 or 14 you’re a tough team to beat.”
Horvat scored an empty goal with 41 seconds left to make it 5-2.
“Tonight, I thought, when it was 2-1, we had a lot of chances to get the third goal and go a little further,” said Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft. “It didn’t go in for us. Part of that is down to us and part of that is thanks to the other team’s goalkeeper, who played very well tonight.”
REMARKS: The Canucks came from a deficit of two or more goals and won on consecutive nights for the first time in their history. On Thursday, they fought back the Kraken 3-1, 4-2, 5-3 and won 6-5 in a shootout. … Horvat leads the NHL with seven multigoal games this season. … McDavid is the first Oilers player to score 30 goals in a season in the NHL since Wayne Gretzky in 1986-87. He is the second active player to have scored seven consecutive seasons with at least 30 goals (Alex Ovechkin, 15 times, 2005-06 to 2019-20). …Edmonton forward Ryan McLeod had two shots in 10:10 after missing 13 games with an undisclosed injury.
