Colorado showed patience and discipline against an Edmonton team trying to avoid a 3 game deficit in the series.
The Edmonton Oilers came out fast to begin game 3 of the Western Conference Final. Connor McDavid scored his ninth goal of the playoffs just 38 seconds into the first period, assisted by Zach Hyman and Darnell Nurse.
Shortly after the goal, Edmonton would start to get into penalty trouble. Just 28 seconds after the goal, Evander Kane would be called for boarding against Nazem Kadri. Kadri would leave the game and not return.
“He’s out. He’ll be out for the series at least, if not longer,” Bednar said. “The hit, it’s the most dangerous play in hockey. He puts him in headfirst from behind, 8 feet from the boards. I’ll leave it at that.”
Colorado wouldn’t get on the board until the end of the first period. With 3:48 left in the period, Valeri Nichushkin tried to feed a pass across the front of the net and it was deflected in off the stick of Nurse.
Nichushkin would strike again in the second period. A shot from Devon Toews would be stopped by Oilers goalie Mike Smith but the rebound would be shot in by Nichushkin from the right face-off circle.
“The first one, I tried to pass it, and the second, I just was going to the net and good bounce for me,” Nichushkin said. “We talked about it before the game on Smith, he’s not moving well, so I tried to shoot it as fast as possible.”
With 12:33 left in the third period, Ryan McLeod recovered a rebound from Nico Strum shot, all the way down the ice, and beat Pavel Fracsouz to tie the game at 2-2.
“I thought it was a competitive hockey game,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “Penalty kill was excellent (5-for-5). Some of the goals that went in against us, one goes in off of our stick, one goes in off a blocked shot and lands on someone’s tape, and another one where a player comes out of the box where we just hit the post. So those are tough ones, but our team competed to the very end.”
Shortly after serving his tripping penalty against Leon Draisaitl, J.T. Compher beat Evan Bouchard to a loose puck in the neutral zone and beat Smith with 7:18 left in the game.
“Shot five-hole and I didn’t see it go in,” said Compher, who has five goals in the past four games. “I thought it was in his pads the way he was moving. It took me a second to get there and it was nice to see when I finally did see it in the net.”
“It obviously stings to go down 3-0, but saying that, it’s not over until you lose four,” Smith said. “We’ve got to come back in Game 4 and try and win one game and move on from there. Obviously, the desperation level has to be at an all-time high in order to win at this time of the year.”
Colorado added one more goal with an empty-net goal from Mikko Rantanen with 34 seconds left in the game.
“They’re a good hockey team, I’m going to keep saying that,” McDavid said. “They obviously do a lot of good things defensively and offensively. We’re a good team, too, and we have to find a way to score and find a way to defend as well.”
Game 4 is scheduled for Monday night at 8 p.m. ET at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
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