May 16, 2024 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in Game 5 on Thursday night. It was the Canucks’ turn to escape with a last minute game winning goal thanks to JT Miller. The Oilers had 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the first period, but the Canucks took over the game from there. They outshot the Oilers 17-4 in the second period and they tied the game. The Oilers held on as long as they could, but the bounce went the Canucks’ way in this one.

Call Outs

Evan Bouchard has been fantastic in this series, but he made a costly mistake in this game. He gave the puck away twice on the Canucks’ second goal. Bouchard tried to make a pass through the middle of the neutral zone, but it was intercepted. The Canucks won a puck battle at the blue line, but the puck made its way back to Bouchard behind his own net. He was stripped of the puck as he was trying to escape the pressure, and the puck went to Phillip DiGuiseppe who was able to slide the puck under Calvin Pickard.

It’s rare that the powerplay unit ends up in this section, but they went 0/5 tonight. They had three chances in the first period, which would’ve put them up 3-1 after the first period. The Canucks made a tactical change to be more aggressive on Oilers puck carriers on their penalty kill, so they deserve a ton of credit. The Oilers powerplay is usually an advantage, but it played a role in costing the team Game 5.

Stand Outs

Pickard was the reason that the Oilers even had a chance in this game. He kept the Oilers in the game during the second period by making 16 saves. Pickard made 32 saves on 35 shots. It’s hard to believe that this was only his second NHL playoff start because he was stellar.

Shoutouts

Mattias Janmark scored his first goal of the playoffs. Brett Kulak won a race to a loose puck in the Oilers zone and got the puck to Connor Brown, who made a nice pass to Janmark on a two-on-one rush. Getting a goal from the fourth line was huge for a team that has desperately needed depth scoring.

Wrap

The team that wins Game 5 of a series wins the series far more often than not. it was disappointing for the Oilers to have that type of performance in such a pivotal game. The series is far from over though. The teams have alternated wins so far in this series. The Oilers are now in a position where they will have to break that trend and win two games in a row if they are to advance past the second round in 2024.

Game 6 will go on Saturday night. It will be an earlier start (6 pm MT) because that will be the only game scheduled for the night. An elimination game featuring two Canadian rivals on Hockey Night in Canada will be great theater.

Related: Call Outs, Stand Outs, and Shout Outs: Oilers take Game 4 over the Canucks