Oilers vs. Canucks: Connor McDavid's Five-Point Night Survives Four Straight Vancouver Goals in a 9-7 Win

When the ninth goal of a road game feels like a lifeline, something has gone sideways. That was the Edmonton Oilers' Thursday night in Vancouver: up 8-2 in the second period, sweating bullets in the third.

The Oilers held on to beat the Vancouver Canucks 9-7 at Rogers Arena, with Connor McDavid finishing with a goal and four assists, Leon Draisaitl scoring twice and Evan Bouchard adding a goal and two assists to make NHL history. Edmonton split the season-opening home-and-home after losing 6-5 in overtime on Tuesday, and Mike Babcock picked up his first win as Oilers coach.

"Weird to be excited about the ninth one, but given the situation, it was a big goal," McDavid said.

Forty Minutes of Fireworks

For two periods, this looked like a revenge tour. Vasily Podkolzin, filling in for Zach Hyman on the top unit, opened the scoring on the power play at 9:26 of the first, finishing a cross-ice pass from Kasperi Kapanen for his third goal of the season. Owen Michaels then scored his first NHL goal at 14:26, one-timing a Mathieu Joseph feed from behind the net past Kevin Lankinen's blocker.

Sixteen seconds later, it was 3-0. Bouchard's low shot came off the boards and bounced in off the skate of Canucks defenseman Tom Willander at the edge of the crease. Ryan Shea made it 4-0 at 19:32 with his first goal as an Oiler after McDavid spun off a check and found him trailing the rush. Draisaitl banked one in off the back of Lankinen's shoulder from below the goal line 27 seconds into the second. Five goals, zero answers.

Paul Cotter finally got Vancouver on the board at 4:31 of the second, but Trent Frederic answered 33 seconds later. Brock Boeser beat Devon Levi at 5:47 to make it 6-2, and then the wheels came off for the home team in a way that was almost impressive.

The Turning Point: 34 Seconds of Shorthanded Chaos

Frederic went to the box for tripping at 7:24, which should have been Vancouver's chance to claw back into it. Instead, Boeser's drop pass on the power play went straight to McDavid, who swooped around Elias Pettersson, cut through the crease and beat Lankinen to the far side at 7:49. Thirty-four seconds later, Kapanen scored on a shorthanded breakaway. 8-2. Lankinen's night was over after eight goals on 20 shots, and Leevi Merilainen, claimed off waivers from Ottawa last Friday, took over.

Canucks coach Manny Malhotra made clear the hook was not about his goalie. "By no means are we blaming 'Lanks,'" he said. "It was more of a messaging to our group."

"We're obviously trying to be aggressive, trying to pressure pucks, and we got some speedsters that, when the puck does turn over, can make something happen," McDavid said.

Then Vancouver Woke Up

The message landed, just late. Arshdeep Bains scored with one-tenth of a second left in the second to make it 8-3. Marco Rossi scored at 1:53 and again at 4:43 of the third, the second on a deflection that bounced off his shoulder and trickled in. Pettersson then one-timed a Rossi pass over Levi's glove on the power play at 7:37. Four straight goals, and suddenly it was 8-6 with more than 12 minutes left. Rogers Arena had a pulse again.

Then Rossi went to the box for interference at 8:50, and Draisaitl did what Draisaitl does. He took a pass from McDavid and snapped it under Merilainen's pads at 9:26 for a 9-6 cushion. Jamie Oleksiak scored his first Canucks goal at 18:31 to make it interesting again, but the Oilers got out alive.

"Right from the start, we didn't seem to be as prepared as we needed to be," Malhotra said. "They were just far more hungry than us in a lot of areas."

Star Watch

Connor McDavid: One goal, four assists, plus-4 in 22:03. NHL.com noted it was the 15th five-point game of his career, tying him for the seventh most in NHL history and moving him past Jari Kurri (14) for the second most in franchise history behind Wayne Gretzky (79). He is also the third player in Oilers history with five assists through the first two games of a season, joining Draisaitl (2020-21) and Gretzky (1987-88).

Evan Bouchard: A goal and two assists in 24:21. With three goals and two assists in the opener, he became the first defenseman in NHL history with eight points over the first two games of the season, per NHL.com.

Leon Draisaitl: Two goals and an assist, including the power-play dagger that stopped the bleeding.

Marco Rossi: Two goals and an assist for Vancouver, the engine of the comeback.

Elias Pettersson: A goal and two assists, plus 13 faceoff wins.

Devon Levi: 15 saves on 22 shots in his first NHL start since Jan. 20, 2025, when he was with Buffalo.

Stats That Matter

• 2: Shorthanded goals for Edmonton, scored 34 seconds apart. NHL.com said they were the Oilers' two fastest shorthanded goals since Jan. 19, 2000 (21 seconds).
• 4: Straight Vancouver goals, from 8-2 to 8-6, before Draisaitl stopped the run.
• 8 points: Bouchard's total through two games, a first for a defenseman in league history.
• 31-22: Edmonton's advantage in shots on goal.
• 27-19: Vancouver's giveaways against Edmonton's.

What It Means

Edmonton moves to 1-0-1 with three points, and it got there without Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the lineup. The Oilers head home to face Seattle on Saturday. Babcock liked plenty, but not all of it. "We know we can be way better," he said. "What I saw tonight was a group that could play right and knew what they were doing, and then I saw a group that didn't do it."

Vancouver falls to 1-1-0 and hosts Calgary on Saturday. The silver lining for the Canucks is real: NHL.com noted they scored six or more goals only three times last season and have already done it twice this season. The problem is the other side of the puck.

"That stings," Cotter said. "Unacceptable."

Closing Take

McDavid summed it up like a man who knows a 9-7 win is fun for exactly one night. "You'd like it to be a lot cleaner than that coming down the stretch, but ultimately a win is a win in this league, and we found a way to get a big win and get our season up and running," he said. Two games, 27 combined goals between these teams. If this matchup keeps playing out like a pinball machine all season, somebody should check on the goalies.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.