In Edmonton, the Oilers took a 2-0 lead over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night in then first period.
To cut to the chase, the Canucks reeled off five unanswered goals over the final two periods of the game for a 5-2 win.
J.T. Miller hit for a double in the middle frame t send the game to the third period tied, 2-2.
In the third, Bo Horvat scored twice, he had four points in the win, to lead the late surge.
“I’m really proud of the guys, the way they stepped up,” said Horvat. “It’s not an easy back to back for us [6-5 shootout win against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday] with the time change and travel and with everything else going on. So, for us to play the way we did tonight, it obviously wasn’t the best start, but we finished strong and Delia was really strong for us tonight.”
Derek Ryan scored off the power play in then fist period for a 1+0 lad to Edmonton, and Connor McDavid hit for his 30th of he season for a the 2-0 advantage.
“We had the start that we wanted and then we cough it up,” McDavid said. “It was not the second period that we wanted, but we still had a chance. We have to find a way to win that game, there is just no way around it.”
The Canucks improved to 15-15-3.
“It’s been an interesting year for us, to say the least, and we don’t have any quit in us, which is a real positive thing even though we have games where we have breakdowns and letdowns,” Miller said. “That was one of our better games, just for the fact of getting in at 3 a.m. and having a quick turnaround against a team that’s ready and are obviously very dangerous. The penalty kill was huge for us [3-for-3] and the power play was able to get one, and our third period was one of the best of the year, for sure.”
Collin Delia made 31 saves in the Vancouver win.
“Our goaltender was great, he made the saves, especially early,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I think they had a nine or 10-0 barrage on us early in the first five or six minutes of the game, and he held them at bay for the most part, so that was good, real good.”
The Oilers dropped to 18-15-2.
“It’s unacceptable,” the Oilers Zach Hyman said. “We had a really good start and were up 2-0 and were the fresher team, and then they scored five unanswered. Obviously you can’t win like that.”
Horvat gave the Canucks a 3-2 lead in the third before Ilya Mikheyev  scored to get some breathing room for Vancouver at 4-2.
“It’s the best game through 60 minutes that we played in a long time,” Boudreau said. “Maybe there was five minutes at the end of the first period that we weren’t as good as we’d like to be, but I thought everybody was committed to playing the right way tonight, and when you do that, and you do it as a group of 20 and not of eight or 10 or 14, then you’re a hard team to beat.”
Horvat’s second of the period was into an empty net for the 5-2 final.
Stuart Skinner made 25 saves in the Oilers loss.
“Tonight, I thought when the score was 2-1, we had numerous chances to find that third goal and create a little bit more separation,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “It didn’t go in for us. Part of that is on us, and part of that is credit to the other team’s goaltender, who played very well tonight.”
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