By Canadian Press

Canucks score four goals on first six shots to cruise past Oilers for 4-2 win

Dec 27, 2018 | 8:00 PM

EDMONTON — The Vancouver Canucks have climbed back to .500, but head coach Travis Green isn’t satisfied yet.

Elias Pettersson and Antoine Roussel each had a goal and an assist as the Vancouver Canucks scored four goals on their first six shots and cruised to a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

Tyler Motte and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks (18-18-4), who are surging with a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games.

“From Day 1, we’ve talked about how we want to play,” said Vancouver head coach Travis Green. “We want to be faster and harder to play against, and we wanted to play meaningful games down the stretch.

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves — we’re at .500 right now and we have a long way to go.”

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Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom, who made 30 saves in the win, echoed Green’s sentiment.

“This is how it should feel,” said Markstrom. “Winning shouldn’t be something you celebrate. It should be normal. Losing should be, like, ‘It sucks.’ Winning should be normal, and in this organization we had that for a long time. That’s what we’re working to get back.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl replied for the Oilers (18-16-3), who have lost four straight.

“It seemed like every mistake that we made in the first period, they made it count,” said Oilers forward Milan Lucic.

“It was a tough one to come back to after the Christmas break. We have dug ourselves a little bit of a hole the last four games and we can’t afford to keep digging it. We have to find a way out, and it isn’t going to take just one or two guys, it is going to take everyone.”

Oilers goalie Mikko Koskinen gave up all four goals and made just two saves before being replaced by Cam Talbot, who stopped all 14 shots sent his way.

Vancouver started the scoring with a goal on their first shot of the contest four minutes into the opening period, as Motte took a feed in the slot and beat Koskinen for his sixth goal of the season.

The Canucks would score on their second shot as well a couple minutes later, when Pettersson sent it in front to Boeser, who notched his 13th goal.

Edmonton got one of those goals back midway through the first period, when Connor McDavid found Nugent-Hopkins in front for a power-play goal on Markstrom. It was the first time in 10 games that Vancouver had allowed a power-play marker.

Vancouver made it 3-1 with just over a minute left in the first on just their fifth shot, when Pettersson tucked the puck under Koskinen’s arm, giving the rookie his 18th.

The Canucks got their fourth goal on their sixth shot of the game at 19:49 off a giveaway in front, which Roussel put away for his fourth. It was the first time in nine years that Vancouver scored four goals in the first period of a road game.

Talbot came in to start the second in the Edmonton net.

Edmonton clawed back with a second power-play marker seven minutes into the second period on a deadly wrist shot by Draisaitl.

There was no scoring in the third period.

The Oilers actually outshot the Canucks 32-20 in the game.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday as the Canucks head to Calgary to face the Flames and the Oilers host the San Jose Sharks.

Notes: Oilers forward Alex Chiasson, who has 16 goals this season, left the game after taking a shot off of the knee in the first period and did not return.

Shane Jones, The Canadian Press