VANCOUVER - Radim Vrbata scored the eventual winner and Henrik Sedin had two assists as the Vancouver Canucks closed out their pre-season with a 3-2 victory against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night at Rogers Arena.
Chris Higgins and Daniel Sedin also scored for the Canucks, who finished their pre-season 5-2-0, including a 2-1 victory last Thursday in Edmonton. Starting goalie Ryan Miller went the distance with 27 saves as he prepares for his first season in Vancouver.
Nail Yakupov and Will Acton replied for the Oilers (4-4-0), who wrapped their pre-season by icing a young lineup of prospects and were without stars like Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and David Perron.
The Canucks, starting a more experienced lineup, jumped on the Oilers early as Alex Burrows fired a long pass to the speedy Higgins, who smoothly collected the puck and shovelled it over Ben Scrivens's left shoulder 1:19 into the first. It was Vancouver's first shot of the game.
Just over two minutes later Henrik Sedin found his twin brother behind the net and Daniel banked it in off Scrivens's back for a 2-0 lead. Vancouver finished the opening period looking firmly in control with a 8-3 shot advantage.
Vancouver got back in it at 5:07 of the second when Canucks defenceman Luca Sbisa turned it over in his zone and Yakupov took advantage with a blazing wrist shot that beat Miller.
The Canucks restored their two-goal lead at 11:33 of the second as Vrbata, with a crowd in front of Scrivens, found the loose puck and squeaked it through the goalie's legs for his third goal of the pre-season.
Edmonton cut the deficit back down to one goal again near the end of the second as Lander dished it to Acton at the face-off circle and the centre slapped it past Miller at 18:03.
The Oilers had a chance to tie it early in the third when Leon Draisaitl got his cage rattled by Alex Edler resulting in an elbowing penalty to the Canucks defenceman. Edmonton couldn't capitalize, however, and finished the game with a 29-18 shots-on-goal advantage.
Scrivens finished with 15 saves.
The Oilers were using their last pre-season game to get another look at a number of their young talent, including Edmonton's third overall pick in this year's draft Leon Draisaitl, centre Bogdan Yakimov, and top blue-line prospects Darnell Nurse and Oscar Klefbom.
Draisaitl had a golden scoring chance in the second, going one-on-one with Miller, but the veteran netminer made a solid glove save to deny the youngster.
The Canucks open their season on Wednesday in Calgary, while Edmonton hosts the Flames the next day for their season opener.
Notes: The Canucks and Oilers will face each other fives times in the regular season. Their first meeting will be next Saturday, Oct. 11 in Vancouver. ... Before the game the Canucks assigned centre Cal O'Reilly to Utica. ... The Oilers dressed seven centres in the game.
