VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist as Edmonton scored three times in the second period and held on to beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 on Monday night to advance to the Western Conference final.

Zach Hyman and Cody Ceci also scored, and Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner finished with 15 saves.

Edmonton, back in the conference finals for the second time in three years, will next Dallas with Game 1 of that series on Thursday night.

Conor Garland and Filip Hronek scored in the third period for Vancouver, and Arturs Silovs had 26 saves.

After learning leading goal-scorer Brock Boeser was sidelined due to a reported blood-clotting issue, the Canucks were forced to juggle their forward lines on Monday. Sam Lafferty and Ilya Mikheyev drew in for Game 7 after a two-game absence, while Vasily Podkolzin was scratched.

Silovs was the story of the first period, stopping all 13 shots he faced. Though the Canucks were awarded the first power play of the game late in the opening period, Skinner needed to make just two saves in the period.

Ceci opened the scoring on his team’s first shot of the second period, with a slap shot from the right point that beat Silovs high to the glove side at 1:16. The Oilers then went on their first power play, and Hyman scored his playoff-leading 11th goal by tipping Evan Bouchard's point shot to Silovs’ stick side at 5:20.

Nugent-Hopkins extended the lead to 3-0 with a sharp-angle shot with 4:38 left. It was Edmonton’s first power-play goal in three games.

Garland ended Skinner’s shutout bid at 8:33 of the third periodwith an unassisted shot from the slot. The Canucks amped up the pressure, and Hronek got the home side within one with his first goal of the playoffs, with 4:36 left in the third.

The Canucks couldn’t score again.

Vancouver was 0 for 3 on the power play, while Edmonton was 1 for 2.

The Oilers improved to 8-4 all time in Game 7s, while the Canucks fell to 6-7.

The Canucks were making their first playoff appearance in front of fans since 2015. Despite losing Vezina Trophy nominee Thatcher Demko to injury after the first game of the first round, the Canucks advanced for the first time since the 2020 playoff bubble.

The Oilers, the first road team to win a Game 7 this year, hold down the top three spots in the playoff scoring race through two rounds. Leon Draisaitl leads the way with 24 points in 12 games, Connor McDavid has 21 and Evan Bouchard leads all defensemen with 20 points.

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