With a slightly fading voice and a ticket to the Western Conference finals in hand, Connor McDavid said what many were surely thinking about his team’s latest performance.
“We know how to make it stressful,” McDavid told Sportsnet.
McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers saw their three-goal lead come under threat late in the third period with the Vancouver Canucks scoring twice. Even with those goals, the Oilers held firm in a 3-2 win Monday in Game 7 of the second-round series.
Now, the Oilers will travel to Dallas where they will face the Stars in the conference final for the right to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. For the Oilers, this will be their second trip to the conference final in the past three years, while the Stars are making a consecutive appearance.
Three second-period goals from Cody Ceci, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins signaled the Oilers were 20 minutes away from the conference final.
Then, their lead was cut to 3-1 on a goal from Conor Garland with less than nine minutes left. Nearly four minutes later, Filip Hronek scored to cut the Oilers’ lead to 3-2 and give the Canucks new life with 4:36 remaining in the third.
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch immediately called a timeout after Hronek’s goal, a decision that McDavid praised for a few reasons.
“I thought it was a great timeout,” McDavid told reporters. “Even Darnell [Nurse], he was getting guys together and showing great leadership. That’s what he is, a great leader. He’s big in this room and showed great leadership there bringing everybody in. … It just settled everyone down and we were able to close it out.”
Another aspect of that reset was it appeared to have played a role in the Oilers preventing what could have been another comeback. It started in Game 1 when the Oilers lost a three-goal lead to lose 5-4, which began a trend of the Canucks winning their three games after previously trailing.
