It was another wild finish between the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
Down 2-0 heading into the final frame, the Canucks orchestrated another comeback to tie the game with just under two minutes left.
It appeared the game was destined for overtime and Vancouver would be one shot away from taking a commanding 3-1 series lead home for game five on Thursday.
However, the Oilers had other ideas, and an Evan Bouchard point shot found its way through traffic and past Arturs Silovs with 39 seconds left to give the home team a much-needed 3-2 win.
Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring on Tuesday with another powerplay goal in the first period, pounding home a feed from Connor McDavid to put Edmonton ahead 1-0.
In the waning seconds of the middle frame, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins doubled the Oilers lead on a two-on-one, beating Silovs with a snapshot low-blocker side.
But the Canucks, who didn’t have a great first 40 minutes by any means, got to work on another comeback and cut the Oilers lead in half with a Conor Garland goal around seven minutes into the third.
The score stayed 2-1 until Vancouver pulled Silovs and got to work with the extra attacker.
Off a face off win, Brock Boeser fired the puck toward heavy traffic in front of Calvin Pickard, who was solid all night making his first career playoff start, and it took a deflection off Dakota Joshua’s skate to beat the Oilers’ netminder and tie the game.
The goal quieted Rogers Place and surely sent Canucks fans around BC and beyond into a frenzy, but the feeling didn’t last too long.
Edmonton went straight back to the attack and a minute after Joshua’s tying goal, Evan Bouchard scored to put the Oilers ahead for good.
It was Bouchard’s second game-winning goal of the series following his overtime tally in game two, and more importantly for the Oilers it tied up the series heading back to Vancouver.
Game five goes Thursday night at Rogers Arena and it’s now a best-of-three series, which could be decided as early as Saturday night.
Elsewhere around the NHL, the Boston Bruins stayed alive with a game five win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday and now trail the series 3-2 heading back to Boston for game six.
The Dallas Stars have a 3-1 advantage over the Colorado Avalanche and can put the Avs away on home ice during game five tonight.
And the Carolina Hurricanes have won two straight since going down 3-0 to the New York Rangers and will have a chance to do the unthinkable and force a game seven with a win at home on Thursday.
