Edmonton, AB – Nail Yakupov notched his first career hat trick as the Edmonton Oilers finished off the regular season with a 7-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Edmonton (19-22-7) scored five times in a span of 3:35 late in the third period to finish off the season with two straight wins and a 12th place finish in the Western Conference.
Vancouver (26-15-7) lost its final two games of the regular season, but won the Northwest Division and as the third seed in the Western Conference will host San Jose when the playoffs start.
Justin Schultz had a goal and three assists, Jordan Eberle lit the lamp twice and Jerred Smithson also notched a goal for the Oilers, who got 28 saves from Devan Dubnyk.
"This was a fun game to get tonight and it's nice to win these last two here," said Schultz. "Obviously it comes a little too late, but we'll head into the offseason with this and build on it next year."
Tom Sestito and Derek Roy scored for the Canucks, while Roberto Luongo was victimized for all seven goals on 37 shots.
The score was tied when Edmonton went up by a goal in the third when Schultz tied it with a one-timer in front off a short pass from Taylor Hall at the 13:17 mark for a 3-2 lead.
That opened the floodgates as Yakupov scored his second of the game 59 seconds later and Eberle made it a 5-2 game just 21 seconds after that.
Yakupov capped the hat trick with 4:13 showing on the clock as he banged home a rebound from the right side for his 17th of the year and a slap shot from Smithson was 3:08 to play capped the scoring in the game.
"They just took the game over there," said Vancouver head coach Alain Vigneault. "They grabbed all the momentum and had all the tempo and we just couldn't get it back."
Roy got the Canucks on the board with 2:44 left in the first on the power play, but the Oilers tied the game with just 1:20 to play in the second period as a wrist shot by Schultz was tipped in by Eberle.
Yakupov shot home a rebound off the glove of Luongo from the right side on the power play 2:21 into the final frame, but Sestito got a rebound goal of his own off a rush play 1:20 later to tie the game at 2-2.
Game Notes
Edmonton snapped a franchise-record six-game home losing streak ... The Oilers won three of five from the Canucks this season and won the season series for the first time since 2005-06 ... Vancouver went 11-9-4 on the road this season ... Edmonton posted a 9-11-4 mark as the hosts this season.
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