Vancouver Canucks - 1 Edmonton Oilers - 2

October 19, 2009

Jeff Ponder

The Canucks gave it a valiant effort; but it was too little too late.

The Canucks lost a nail-biter in front of a packed Rexall Place crowd Monday night, 2-1. Edmonton got some key goals and flashy goaltending in their fifth win of the season. After a rough start to the first, the Oilers turned it on and got what they set out for.

Just 6:32 into the first period, Oilers' defenseman Denis Grebeshkov had the puck slip off his stick, going right to Canucks' forward Kyle Wellwood. The 26-year old forward got it in front to Steve Bernier just before pounding it past Oilers' goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin for the early 1-0 lead.

"I don't think we started too well in the game," Khabibulin said. "But from the second period on, I thought we took it to them and played pretty well.” Khabibulin stopped 39 of 40 Vancouver shots.

Patrick O'Sullivan scored his second goal of the season for Edmonton just 0:26 into the second period, and Sam Gagner added his third of the season in the middle of the third period after a huge Vancouver giveaway behind their net for the game-winning goal.

But the real excitement came late in the third, when Vancouver kept pressing for the tying-goal. It seemed that all hope was lost for the Vancouver club when the Oilers cleared the zone with a little over 0:08 left, but Kyle Wellwood danced around the Oilers' blue line and skated in with a head of steam past the Edmonton forwards. He made a nice move around defenseman Tom Gilbert and then stuffed the puck past Khabibulin and immediately threw his arms in the air for celebration. After an official review of the play, it was deemed that the puck crossed the line well after the final horn had sounded.

Oilers' coach Pat Quinn did not seem to enjoy the late-game heroics by the Canucks.

"It was a six-on-three attack and our defense looked up and saw the bodies coming and just decided to back in and pray, it looked like," Quinn said. "But four seconds, it is in the net."

Vancouver drops to 3-5-0 with the loss, while Edmonton improves to 5-2-1 on the season. Edmonton's next game will be Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets at home before leaving for a two-game road trip in Calgary and Vancouver.