Paul Cotter’s second goal of the night ended a wild one in Edmonton, lifting the Vancouver Canucks to a 6-5 overtime win over the Oilers on Tuesday.
The Canucks had already watched a three-goal lead disappear in the third period, but Cotter helped finish the job in extra time. He created the turnover in the Edmonton zone, took off toward the net and buried Max Sasson’s pass at 1:59 of overtime.
Sasson was part of the scoring surge all night, finishing with a goal and an assist. Marco Rossi, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Elias Pettersson also scored for Vancouver, which finished last in the league standings last season. Filip Hronek added two assists, and Kevin Lankinen stopped 30 shots.
Edmonton got a huge night from Evan Bouchard, who became the first defenseman in NHL history to post a five-point game in a season opener.
The teams will meet again Thursday in Vancouver’s home opener, with the Oilers looking for a quick response.
This one turned into a full-on shootout after each club traded goals in the first two periods. Vancouver kept finding answers, but Edmonton kept punching back.
Cotter got the Canucks on the board just before the first-period midpoint with a short-handed goal, only for Bouchard to level it at 16:26 with a long wrist shot.
Rossi restored Vancouver’s lead 2:07 into the second when he finished a breakaway chance, but Bouchard answered again at 14:34 with a shot from the slot.
Then the game really opened up in the third. Lekkerimaki made it 3-2 just 70 seconds into the period, flying into an odd-man rush and sliding a shot through Jarry’s legs. Sasson stretched the margin to 4-2 1:45 later by redirecting Drew O’Connor’s crossing pass, and Pettersson pushed it to 5-2 at 5:15 with a power-play deflection.
Edmonton refused to go away. Podkolzin scored from the top of the crease at 8:56, then Bouchard ripped in another long shot 24 seconds later to pull the Oilers within one. He completed his hat trick later, and the other defensemen to record a hat trick in a season opener are Mark Howe in 1980-81 for the Hartford Whalers and Bert Corbeau in 1919-20 for the Montreal Canadiens.
With time running out, Podkolzin tied it on a power-play goal with 42.5 seconds left in regulation, sending the game to overtime before Cotter finished it.
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