Oilers 3 Canucks 2
VANCOUVER — Greg Stewart’s third-period power-play goal gave the Edmonton Oilers a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks Wednesday in an NHL pre-season game.
Stewart, who had six goals in 54 American Hockey League games last season, took a pass through the neutral zone from Ryan Whitney and beat goalie Cory Schneider with a shot over the right shoulder.
It was the third assist of the game for Whitney and came after the Canucks killed off the first penalty of a two-man advantage.
Vancouver had tied the game earlier in the third period on a power-play goal by Daniel Sedin and a short-handed effort by Peter Schaefer.
Schaefer, invited to the Canucks’ training camp on a professional tryout, blasted a rising 40-foot shot off the glove of goalie Devan Dubnyk.
Ben Ondrus and Chris Vande Velde each had a goal and an assist for the Oilers.
Both goals came against netminder Roberto Luongo, who is in the first season of a 12-year, US$64 million contract. He stopped 23 of 25 shots over two periods.
Ondrus capitalized on a bouncing puck and Vande Velde’s goal went in off a Canuck defender.
The Canucks, who dressed a more experienced lineup on Wednesday, opened their exhibition season Tuesday by losing a pair of split-squad games to the Calgary Flames. It was the first pre-season contest for the Oilers who were last in the NHL in 2009-10, winning only 27 games.
Ondrus, who scored seven goals in 56 games last season with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, beat Luongo at 2:20 of the first period with the Oilers’ second shot on goal.
Whitney flipped a bouncing puck on net and Ondrus pounced on the rebound for the young Oilers, who outworked the Canucks and held a 15-9 first-period edge in shots.
Vande Velde, who played NCAA hockey at North Dakota last season, made it 2-0 when his centring attempt went in off the stick of Canuck defender Aaron Volpatti.
Daniel Sedin scored on an early third-period power play when he tipped Henrik Sedin’s centring pass behind Dubnyk, who had replaced starter Martin Gerber.
The Canucks went on their first power play of the game when Oiler Alex Giroux was sent off for kneeing Daniel Sedin.
Notes: Gerber stopped all 14 shots he faced . . . Sergei Shirokov skated with the Sedins . . . Edmonton sat out Taylor Hall, the top choice in the June entry draft . . . He’s expected to play Thursday in Edmonton against the Tampa Bay Lightning . . . Also not in the Oiler lineup was Magnus Paajarvi, another left-winger who was the 10th overall pick in the draft.