Vancouver Canucks' Conor Garland is stopped by Edmonton Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard during first period second-round NHL playoff action in Edmonton on Tuesday May 14, 2024.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Evan Bouchard scored with 38 seconds remaining and Calvin Pickard shined in the first playoff start of his career on Tuesday as the Oilers beat the Canucks 3-2 in Game 4 of their second-round playoff series at Rogers Place.
Edmonton held a 2-0 lead until Vancouver rallied in the third on goals by Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua, the latter with 1:41 left to tie the game.
Bouchard scored from 42 feet out to tie the best-of-seven series at two wins apiece. Game 5 will be played at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Thursday with Game 6 back at Rogers Place. Bouchard also had an assist and now leads all defencemen in the NHL playoffs with 15 points in nine games.
Pickard, Edmonton’s 32-year-old backup goalie, stopped 19 of 21 shots in the first game he has started since April 17. The journeyman had never started a postseason game. He was inserted into the lineup after Stuart Skinner, the Oilers’ No. 1 netminder, allowed 12 goals in the three previous games.
Pickard came on in relief of Skinner in Sunday’s 4-3 defeat and made three saves. He was 12-7-1 with a .909 save percentage in a secondary role this season but had not recorded a victory since April 6.
Drafted in the second round by the Colorado Avalanche in 2010, Pickard has played 322 games in the AHL, 241 in the Western Hockey League and 140 in the NHL. His hockey caravan has included stops at Bakersfield, Lake Erie, Grand Rapids, San Antonio, Seattle, Toronto and Tucson.
When he was introduced during pre-game ceremonies, the crowd let out a roar.
“I was trying to channel my emotions the best I could,” Pickard said. It was a high-stakes game but I felt comfortable right from the get-go.”
He broke into the NHL 10 years ago but has spent most of the time as a No. 2 goalie. He was no longer sure that he would ever get a chance to appear in a playoff game.
“You never know,” he said. “You are always hoping. Now that it is finally here it’s exciting. It has been a great journey for me. I am just grateful for the opportunity.”
Leon Draisaitl scored on a power play in the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored with just 40 seconds left in the second to make it 2-0. But then Garland scored with 13:06 remaining in the third and Joshua following him with less than two minutes remaining. The goal came with the Canucks goalie, Arturs Silovs, pulled so that they had six skaters on the ice.
It looked like the contest was headed to overtime until Bouchard scored after receiving a pass from Draisaitl. Evander Kane also was credited with an assist.
“He has been amazing for us all year, especially in big moments,” Draisaitl said of Bouchard, who had 18 goals and 82 points during the regular season.
Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet was upset at his team for allowing the winning goal.
“There were too many soft plays on that goal,” Tocchet said. “Four or five guys made mistakes. We need five or six guys to get going. We have some guys who acted like they didn’t know it was the Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight.
“You can’t win if you have five or six passengers.”
The Oilers protected Pickard well for the first 20 minutes. Much of the period was played in Vancouver’s end of the ice and the Canucks had just four shots overall.
Edmonton was 4-for-8 on the power play in the first three games and converted again in the first period. Draisaitl snapped a shot in from the right side of the net off a crisp pass from Connor McDavid. It was Draisaitl’s eighth goal of the playoffs and the ninth straight game in which he has garnered a point.
Draisaitl set up the power play when he drew an interference penalty on J.T. Miller. The assist was the 16th of the playoffs and 18th point for McDavid. Bouchard was also credited with a helper.
The Canucks had two power plays in the first 20 minutes, including a four-minute advantage when Kane was called for high sticking. In those six minutes, however, they mustered just one shot on goal.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Tocchet said. “You have to have a work ethic and we didn’t.”
Vancouver stuck with rookie Silovs in the crease. The 23-year-old rookie had 42 saves in the 4-3 victory in Game 3 and came in 4-1 with a .908 save percentage during the playoffs. He had only played in nine NHL games before this postseason.
He played well again in the defeat, stopping 27 of 30 shots.
The Canucks finished first in the Pacific Division and had a winning record in all but one month during the regular season. The Oilers rallied from last in the league in November to finish in second place five points behind Vancouver.
The Canucks were without defenceman Carson Soucy, who was suspended for one game on Monday for cross-checking McDavid in the throat on Sunday right after the final buzzer.
Vancouver joined the league in 1970 as an expansion team and has never won the Stanley Cup. They have reached the finals three times, the last in 2011 when they lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games.
“We’re excited,” Tyler Myers, Vancouver’s strapping 6-foot-9 defenceman, said following the morning skate. “We know we have a chance to go up 3-1. They are going to play their most desperate game of the series and we have to do the same.
“As playoff series go on it gets tighter and tighter. Guys play harder and harder. We have to match them.”
They rallied but in the end it was not enough.
Pickard learned on Monday that he was going to be in the net against the Canucks.
Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch hinted that a change may be coming when he addressed the media on Monday and made it official early Tuesday. Afterward he was pleased with the effort.
“He looked like a guy who had played 100 playoff games,” Knoblauch said. “He is not a guy who is nervous at all. His body of work in tonight’s game gives us a lot of confidence in him.”
Asked if he felt starting Pickard paid off, Knoblauch said, “We won. I think it was a good move.”
Does your relationship with alcohol change during the NHL playoffs?
If you’re following the NHL playoffs this spring, we want to hear from you. Are you drinking during weeknight games or only during weekend games? Are you going out to watch games at the pub more than you normally would? If so, how is that changing your drinking habits? Has the amount of drinks you consume in a week gone up or down since the playoffs began? Share your experiences below.