Oilers and Connor McDavid crush the Canucks to force a Game 7

The Edmonton Oilers forced Game 7 of their Western Conference second-round playoff series on Saturday night thanks to the actions of two players who were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

While goalkeeper Stuart Skinner saved 14 of 15 shots in goal, Connor McDavid was the most dominant player on the ice and contributed three assists in the Oilers’ 5-1 victory against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 6 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Game 7 is scheduled for Monday at Rogers Arena in Vancouver at 9 p.m. ET.

With the exception of Game 2, McDavid only had an assist in the series coming into Saturday night. He was held pointless in all three of  Edmonton’s losses.

Skinner was back in goal after Calvin Pickard started in Games 4 and 5.

Coach Kris Knoblauch had earlier in series replaced Skinner with Pickard to start the third period in Game 3, after Skinner allowed four goals on 15 shots. To that point in the series, he had given up 12 goals on 58 shots for a .793 save percentage and 4.40 goals-against average.

Despite Skinner’s light workload on Saturday, he made several key saves.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and defenseman Evan Bouchard had a goal and two assists each and Dylan Holloway, Zach Hyman and Evander Kane also scored for the Oilers. Leon Draisaitl had two assists.

With those two assists, Draisaitl reached 100 career playoff points.  His 60 postseason games to that milestone are the third-fewest in NHL history. Only Wayne Gretzky (46) and Mario Lemieux (50) have reached it faster.

Holloway gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead 8:18 into the game. Looking very much like McDavid, Holloway took a pass from Draisaitl, cut through three Vancouver players, went in, made a move and put a forehand shot past Silovs. It was Holloway’s third goal of the playoffs.

Just 1:45 later, Nils Hoglander of the Canucks leveled the score with a rebound from in front after receiving a feed from Elias Pettersson.

At 7:14 of the second, Hyman gave Edmonton the lead for good, 2-1. Hyman had taken McDavid’s pass off his skate when his shot from the slot rebounded in off goaltender Arturs Silovs’ glove. Hyman’s 10th goal of the playoffs led the team.

The Oilers had actually appeared to take a 2-1 lead with around a second left in the first but  Bouchard’s apparent goal was immediately waved of McDavid’s goaltender interference on Silovs.

With 8:40 remaining in the half, Bouchard tied the score at 1 via a slap shot from the right point after receiving a feed from McDavid. Bouchard scored his sixth postseason goal with that one.

3:24 into the third period, Nugent-Hopkins would increase the lead to 4-1 when he tapped in a feed from McDavid, who had cut in on goal from the right side to set him up for his third goal of the playoffs.

With 6:56 left in the third quarter, Kane would then complete the comeback, scoring just after Draisaitl won a face-off to give the Oilers a 5-1 advantage that would hold.

Vancouver, on the other hand, had just nine shots in the opening two frames.