The Oilers scored the game-winner with 38.1 seconds left in Game 4 on Tuesday on a wrist shot from Evan Bouchard that went under the right arm of Arturs Silovs for his fourth goal of the playoffs, marking the Oakville, Ont. product’s NHL-leading 15th point among all defencemen in the post-season after the Canucks tied the game at six-on-five with 1:41 remaining.
Leon Draisaitl made the seam pass through the slot to Bouchard from behind the goal line to set up his defenceman for the game-winner, with the German’s assist making him the ninth player in NHL history to record 20+ points in a postseason (8G, 12A in 9 GP) as one of the game’s best playoff performers.
Draisaitl leads the League in post-season scoring with 20 points (8G, 12A) and power-play goals with six, along with recording a point in all nine games this postseason – five of which include multi-point games.
“It’s quite remarkable,” Knoblauch said, describing the challenge of excelling in the postseason. “It’s more difficult. The checking’s tighter. There’s less room, there’s less space. It’s just harder to perform, and here he is elevating his play even more. As good as he is during the regular season, he’s even better in the playoffs.”
The work of Draisaitl’s linemates, Evander Kane and Dylan Holloway, was crucial to their side’s late game-winner, with Kane delivering a hard forecheck to win the puck and Dylan Holloway helping strip the puck again seconds later before Mattias Ekholm kept it in at the blueline to extend Edmonton’s game-winning shift.