McDavid scores hat trick, adds assist to fuel Oilers' 5-3 comeback win over Canucks
CTV
After a sluggish start to its regular-season opener, Edmonton eventually found its way by orchestrating a huge comeback to win.
After a sluggish start to its regular-season opener, Edmonton eventually found its way by orchestrating a huge comeback to win.
Connor McDavid scored a hat trick and added an assist as the Oilers battled from a 3-0 deficit to take a 5-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
“It was just not a good start for our group. It was the first game and maybe there was a little bit of jitters,” McDavid said. “It is not going to be perfect every night. You are not going to have the game you want every night and sometimes you get a win with your ‘B’ or ‘C’ game. It was certainly not our ‘A’ game to start, but we found a way to get our legs going and get ourselves back in it.”
Leon Draisaitl recorded a goal and two assists while Darnell Nurse also scored for the Oilers (1-0). Goaltender Jack Campbell made 33 saves in the victory.
“It wasn’t according to anyone’s script, for sure,” said Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft. “I don’t think we were sharp. I don’t think we were in sync early. We found a way to win the game, that’s a really good sign, but we can be better.”
Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Andrei Kuzmenko all scored for the Canucks (0-1). Thatcher Demko stopped 20-of-24 shots he faced in the loss.
“That was pretty disappointing, I thought we came out pretty good in the first and special teams kind of cost us the game,” said Canucks defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. “The power play wasn’t good enough and we couldn’t keep the puck out of our net on the (penalty kill).”
