VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Brock Boeser scored a career-high four goals and the Vancouver Canucks routed the Edmonton Oilers 8-1 on Wednesday night to start a home-and-home opening set.
āI kind of got to that mindset in the summer where Iāve got to be a better hockey player and really work hard,ā Boeser said. āI came back and it continues each and every day, Iāve got to have that same mindset. Tomorrow, the next practice, the morning skate, Iāve got to keep it going.ā
The teams will meet again Saturday night in Edmonton.
Conor Garland, Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Dakota Joshua also scored for the Canucks, with Miller adding four assists and Pettersson three. Quinn Hughes also had three assists.
Thatcher Demko started in goal for Vancouver and stopped 21 of 22 shots in 48 minutes. Casey DeSmith made five saves the rest of the way.
Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton, with Connor McDavid assisting. Draisaitl extended his points streak against the Canucks to 19 games.
āThereās lots of lessons there for us,ā McDavid said. āIt sucks that this happens in the first game of the year. These nights happen. It sucks thatās the first one, obviously.ā
Oilers starter Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner each allowed four goals.
āWe laid an egg tonight,ā Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. āWe all own it. Weāre all in this one together and the bottom line is we were at a preseason level of work ethic and a preseason level of execution, all of us, and we got a lesson in regular-season work ethic and regular-season battle level.ā
After Garland opened the scoring, Boeser scored three straight goals for a natural hat trick and 4-0 lead. He made it 6-1 early in the third period. The Minnesotan had 18 goals in 74 games last season.
āI know he did some different training this year, heās had a good camp, and he knows that heās got to keep going,ā Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. "He had four goals, a couple screens, he was a big part of the game tonight.ā
Demko was pulled because of dehydration, with the netminder throwing up in his mask.
āHe didnāt really want to come out but then when he puked in his mask I said, `Youāve got to come out,'ā Tocchet said.
UP NEXT
Oilers: Host Vancouver on Saturday night.
Canucks: At Edmonton on Saturday night.
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