The lineup shakeups proved to be the right decision for the Oilers brass after Calvin Pickard made key saves in Edmonton’s 3-2 victory over Vancouver, splitting their two games in Oil Country.
In Tuesday’s Game 4, Calvin Pickard recorded his first career playoff start and victory, stopping 19 shots en route to the win. The Canucks did solve Pickard again on a late goal by Dakota Joshua amid plenty of player traffic in front of the net and Silovs pulled for an extra attacker, but Evan Bouchard’s winner gave the 32-year-old netminder the win.
According to Pickard post game, any nerves he had leading up to the game ended abruptly and found his rhythm right away.
Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring on the powerplay for the Oilers, followed by a Ryan Nugent Hopkins goal, giving them a 2-0 lead heading into the 3rd period. Vancouver did score two unanswered from Connor Garland and Drake Joshua before Evan Bouchard scored in the final minutes of regulation.
Head coach for the Oilers Kris Knoblauch gave his thoughts on what a win under those circumstances can do for a locker room.
Knoblauch didn’t provide the Game 5 starter post game but did say Pickards “body of work allows us to have a lot of confidence in him if we did do that.” Game 5 between the Oil and Canucks will be in Vancouver Thursday night at 8pm.
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