Oilers beat Canucks to tie series 1-1

(Vancouver) Defenseman Evan Bouchard scored in overtime and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Friday to tie the series 1-1.

Bouchard took a shot toward the net that Ian Cole deflected into his own net and the Oilers beat the Canucks for the first time this season.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl each scored a goal and added three assists in the victory. The two players have respectively 17 and 16 points in seven playoff games so far.

Mattias Ekholm also lit the red light for the Oilers and Stuart Skinner made 16 saves.

Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Nikita Zadorov moved the strings for the visitors. Arturs Silovs stopped 27 shots.

The third and fourth games of the series will take place Sunday and Tuesday in Edmonton. The Oilers and Canucks are the only two Canadian teams still in the running.

blow for blow

The Canucks took the lead three times in this game, but each time the Oilers fought back.

Pettersson opened the scoring with a one-timer on the power play. JT Miller served him a cross pass and the Swede scored his first goal of the current series at 4:14 of the first period.

Draisaitl was questionable for this game due to injury. He was on the Oilers roster and he tied the game on the power play at 10:56 of the first period.

Well placed in the slot, he had no difficulty scoring his sixth of the series when McDavid gave him the puck.

Boeser restored the lead to the Canucks just after a faceoff. He deflected a shot from Carson Soucy just 53 seconds into the second.

Ekholm brought the two teams back on level terms just 23 seconds later.

Zadorov gave the Canucks the lead for the third time in the game when he surprised Skinner with a shot from a tight angle at 18:17 of the middle period.

McDavid forced an extra period by beating Silovs on a breakaway at 5:27 of the third period.

Bouchard then decided with his 11^e point of the series, after 5:38 of play in overtime.