VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Conor Garland broke a tie with 5:34 left and the Vancouver Canucks overcame a three-goal deficit to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the second-round playoff series.
Garland took a short pass from Dakota Joshua, faked a slap shot at the right circle, sped in on Stuart Skinner and slipped a wrist shot between his legs from a sharp angle for Vancouver’s second goal in 39 seconds and third in 4:48.
Game 2 is Friday night in Vancouver.
Elias Lindholm got the comeback started with 2:59 left in the second period. J.T. Miller cut it to 4-3 at 9:38 of the third, and Nikita Zadorov tied it with 6:13 remaining.
Joshua scored early in the second period and assisted on Lindhom’s goal. Arturs Silovs stopped 14 shots for the Canucks.
Zach Hyman scored twice for Edmonton to take the playoffs goals lead with nine. Mattias Ekholm and Cody Ceci also scored, and Skinner made 19 saves.
After getting just five shots on goal in the first period, Vancouver outshot Edmonton 19-7 in the last two periods.
Edmonton was coming off a six-day break after beating Los Angeles in five games in the first round. Vancouver eliminated Nashville in Game 6 on Friday night.
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
