The Pacific Division opened with a home-and-home between Edmonton and Vancouver, and two games in, the clubs have combined for 27 goals. Vancouver won the first 6-5 in overtime at Rogers Place on Tuesday. Edmonton won the rematch 9-7 at Rogers Arena on Thursday.
Game one: a 5-2 lead, then overtime
Vancouver led 5-2 with 14 minutes and 45 seconds left after goals from Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Max Sasson and an Elias Pettersson power-play tip, all in the first 5:15 of the third period. Edmonton came back: Vasily Podkolzin at 8:56, Evan Bouchard at 9:20, and Podkolzin again on a power play with Edmonton’s goalie pulled for an extra attacker, 43 seconds from the end.
Paul Cotter settled it 1:59 into overtime, his second goal of the night. Bouchard finished with three goals and two assists from the blue line. Edmonton outshot Vancouver 37-23, and Kevin Lankinen made 32 saves to get the Canucks the extra point.
Vancouver6
Edmonton5Edmonton9Vancouver7Game two: 8-2, then 9-7
Edmonton scored four times in the first period on Thursday and led 8-2 at 8:23 of the second after Kasperi Kapanen’s goal. Lankinen was pulled after eight goals on 20 shots, and Leevi Meriläinen stopped 10 of 11 in relief.
Vancouver then scored four of the next five. Arshdeep Bains beat the second-period buzzer by a second, Marco Rossi scored twice in the first five minutes of the third and Pettersson added a power-play goal at 7:37 to make it 8-6. Leon Draisaitl answered on an Edmonton power play two minutes later, his second of the night, and Jamie Oleksiak’s goal at 18:31 only closed the gap to two.
Connor McDavid had a goal and four assists, and Bouchard added a goal and two assists. Edmonton went in as the 65% pre-game favourite and won.
What two games say
Not much about the standings, and a fair amount about the goaltending. Vancouver scored 13 goals on 45 shots across the two games, a 28.9% shooting rate. Edmonton scored 14 on 68, or 20.6%. Neither number will hold: skaters across the league scored on about 11% of their shots last season.
The shot counts lean Edmonton’s way, 68 to 45, and the Oilers left the series with three points to Vancouver’s two. Both teams play again on Saturday: Edmonton host Seattle, and Vancouver host Calgary. The clubs meet twice more this season, on 7 November in Edmonton and 21 March in Vancouver.
Pacific · 2026-27
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