VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers are showing they have more scoring options than just Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist as Edmonton scored three times in the second period and held on to beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 on Monday night to advance to the Western Conference final.
Zach Hyman and Cody Ceci also scored, and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner finished with 15 saves.
“It takes every single guy in here,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Definitely proud to get the job done with this group.”
Draisaitl leads all players in the playoffs with 24 points, McDavid has 21. and Bouchard leads all defensemen with 20 points. The Canucks held McDavid off the scoresheet for the third time in seven games, and limited Draisaitl to just one assist.
Edmonton, back in the conference finals for the second time in three years, will next face Dallas with Game 1 of that series on Thursday night.
Conor Garland and Filip Hronek scored in the third period for Vancouver, and Arturs Silovs had 26 saves.
After learning leading goal-scorer Brock Boeser was sidelined due to a reported blood-clotting issue, the Canucks were forced to juggle their forward lines on Monday. Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev drew in for Game 7 after a two-game absence, while Vasily Podkolzin was scratched.
Coaching in his first Stanley Cup playoffs, the Oilers’ Kris Knoblauch singled out Nugent-Hopkins and the bottom-six forwards for successfully killing off a four-minute penalty called on Ryan McLeod late in the first period.
“We played, I thought, really well,” Knoblauch said of his team’s first-period effort, when Edmonton outshot Vancouver 13-2. “That could be a turning point in the game, but our penalty kill, like it has been for almost all the playoffs, has been really solid.”
