VANCOUVER, BC – The Young Guns came out firing against a strong Canucks squad.
And they were the last ones standing.
Backstopped by a 25-save performance from Tristan Jarry, the Edmonton Oilers received tallies from Isaac Howard & Quinn Hutson in a 2-1 victory over a near full-strength Vancouver Canucks on Thursday at Rogers Arena in pre-season action.
Howard finished with a goal & an assist, opening the scoring 3:58 into the first period before picking up the primary helper on Hutson’s tally that doubled Edmonton’s advantage before the five-minute mark of the middle frame.
The Canucks cut the lead to 2-1 on the power play only 1:33 later, but that would be all the hosts could muster against a resilient Jarry between the pipes for the Oilers and some terrific penalty-killing and defending over the final 40 minutes of regulation.
Forward Viljami Marjala and defenceman Tomas Cibulka both picked up assists.
The Oilers improve to 3-0-0 in the preseason and will wrap up their exhibition schedule on Saturday with their final tune-up against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Place.