VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Friday night to even their second-round playoff series at one game apiece.

Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid each had a goal and three assists, and Mattias Ekholm also scored for the Oilers. Stuart Skinner finished with 16 saves.

Nikita Zadorov had a goal and an assist, and Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks. Arturs Silovs made 27 saves.

Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday in Edmonton.

In the extra period, Bouchard got the winner with a shot from near the boards that skittered in past Silovs.

McDavid used his speed to tie the score at 3-3 at 5:27 of the third. The elite center picked up a contested puck in the neutral zone, sprinted down the ice ahead of a pair of Canucks defensemen and sent a shot flying under Silovs’ blocker for his second postseason goal.

Edmonton continued to press for the winner late, hemming Vancouver into its own end for extended stretches and outshooting the home side 15-2 across the third period, but had to settle for overtime.

Edmonton and Vancouver both went 1-for-3 on the power play.

The Canucks opened the scoring on an early power play. With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the box for tripping, J.T Miller wound up and looked like he was about to launch a big shot from the faceoff circle. Instead, he sliced a pass across the slot to Pettersson, who fired a quick snap shot past an out-of-position Skinner 4:16 into the game for his first of the playoffs.

Edmonton’s potent power play got to work before the first intermission after Tyler Myers was called for hooking. Stationed at the goal line, McDavid sent a pass in the slot to Draisaitl, who fired it in to tie the score at 1-1 with his sixth goal of the playoffs at 10:56. Draisaitl was listed as a game-time decision earlier in the day due to an undisclosed injury.

Silovs kept the Oilers from taking a lead into the locker room with some last-second heroics at the end of the opening period. Ekholm fired a slap shot from distance and the rookie goalie got a glove on it. He couldn’t contain the puck, however, and Hyman was there to scoop up the rebound. Silovs then dove across the net to stop the sniper from the side of the net.

The ice opened up early in the second after Edmonton’s Derek Ryan was sent to the box for interference and Vancouver’s Nils Hoglander was called for slashing, setting up two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey.

Fifty-three seconds into the period, Carson Soucy fired a shot on net from inside the blue line and Boeser tipped it in past Skinner from the middle of the slot. His fifth goal of the playoffs put the Canucks up 2-1.

The lead lasted 23 seconds.

With both sides still down a man, Draisaitl sent a pass to Ekholm from the blue line and the veteran defenseman sent a shot sailing past Silovs from the high hash marks, knotting the score at 2-2 with his second of the postseason.

Zadorov put the home side up once again with 1:43 left in the second. The bruising defenseman picked up a puck from Miller in the neutral zone, streaked down the ice and unleashed a wrist shot that soared up and under the cross bar to make it 3-2. It was Zadorov’s fourth of the playoffs.

BOSTON — Coach Jim Montgomery took responsibility for the Boston Bruins falling in a 2-1 series hole to the Florida Panthers after a 6-2 Game 3 loss Friday night at TD Garden.

“Our execution in the last two games has just not been good enough and that’s my fault. I’ve got to be better,” Montgomery said.

In particular, the coach accepted blame for the Bruins’ sluggish start in Game 3 that saw them outshot 13-3 in the first period and 24-8 by the time the Panthers had built a 3-0 lead in the second. It was a start that quieted a raucous Boston crowd.

“We’ve had a couple of games where we started slow,” Montgomery said. “We haven’t generated much offense. I have to give the players a better plan. Florida was significantly better than us. I’ve got to come up with a better game plan.”

The Bruins didn’t show any life until the third period, when center Jakub Lauko scored to cut the deficit to 4-1 and break a streak of 10 straight Panthers goals in the series. Boston got to within 4-2, but the Florida defense and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (15 saves) stopped the comeback.

Boston’s late-game rally came after it lost captain Brad Marchand to an upper-body injury. Marchand skated eight shifts in the first period and seven in the second, amassing 10:51 in ice time before departing for good. He didn’t register a shot on goal.

Montgomery said the Bruins will know more about their captain’s status Saturday. But he said Marchand’s absence might have served as inspiration for his players in the third period.

“I thought we rallied because of our captain,” he said. “I thought our players all elevated their games and we started competing like Brad Marchand would have.”

Defenseman Brandon Carlo said that winger David Pastrnak, defenseman Charlie McAvoy and winger Pat Maroon were more vocal than usual in the third period to make up for Marchand’s absence.

“I think we did a good job of generating some stuff, and that’s a key that they brought to the game for us,” he said.

The Panthers took over with the power play. Boston rookie defenseman Mason Lohrei was whistled for a double minor for high sticking at 14:37 of the second period. Vladimir Tarasenko and Carter Verhaeghe scored on the ensuring power plays to make it 3-0.

Just 3:09 into the third period, defenseman Brandon Montour beat Jeremy Swayman (27 saves) for another power-play goal to make it 4-0. The Panthers were 4-for-6 with the man advantage.

“I think they made adjustments. They have lots of really good players. But I still have confidence in our penalty kill,” said forward Jake DeBrusk, one of Boston’s penalty killers. “Honestly, we’ve got to stay out of the [penalty] box. No matter what we think of the refs or what’s going on.”

But DeBrusk didn’t believe the Game 3 loss fell on his coach, no matter how much blame Montgomery shouldered.

“I think that it goes both ways. We’re the ones that are out there. We’re the ones that are playing the game. He can put any plan that he thinks it’s going to help us out, but we’ve got to execute,” DeBrusk said. “It’s about making the right one or making the right decisions and obviously we didn’t do that. Against a team like that, you have to play a pretty perfect game. And the last two games you’ve seen what happens when we don’t.”

Game 4 is Sunday night in Boston.

Montgomery, who said it’s back to the drawing board to find a way to knot the series, again pinned the loss on himself.

“It’s too early to be able to talk about changes,” he said. “We got to do our due diligence and look at the game again and see who is executing and who’s playing with the effort. But it’s not good enough. We didn’t play well enough. That’s why I take the responsibility.”

Another disappointing end for the Toronto Maple Leafs could — and should — be a catalyst in a potentially painful new beginning for the organization.

That was the message from Leafs’ management on Friday in the wake of Toronto bowing out in a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series for the sixth time in seven full seasons. The Leafs already axed head coach Sheldon Keefe on Thursday, and attention turns now to how Toronto will handle expectations for its expensive core of players who failed to deliver when it matters most.

Toronto’s president Brendan Shanahan didn’t immediately have all the answers but pledged — again — to try finding them.

“It’s not our intention to single out any one individual or any one small group of this team out,” said Shanahan. “We’re talking about the whole team. What we are saying is that it is certainly becoming evident that we have to assess all of those things and assess whether or not we have to make some very difficult decisions this summer to make the team better. There’s a time where you look at the age and the development of players and you talk about patience. And then there comes a time where you see certain patterns and trends repeat themselves, and results repeat themselves.”

The Leafs have invested over $40 million in four forwards — Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares — with the return of a single playoff series win last season when Toronto bested Tampa in six games. The Leafs promptly lost to Florida in the second round.

When players spoke with media earlier in the week, there was a sentiment of belief in the core to eventually push Toronto over the line. Shanahan agreed that he wanted the Leafs to be confident in themselves, but the “unacceptable” outcomes piling up year after year remained a glaring issue.

“I don’t question their dedication,” said Shanahan. “But I do question just our ability as a group to get it done in those difficult times. And that’s why we have to make some changes and we’ll continue to look at changes with a goal in mind of what makes the Maple Leafs better not just in the regular season but come playoff time.”

The Leafs had a strong regular season, wielding the league’s second-best offense, which averaged 3.63 goals per game and finished with 102 points to put them third in the Atlantic Division. The Leafs were matched with Boston in the first round and swiftly fell behind 3-1, only to force a Game 7 where they lost in overtime.

For all Toronto’s scoring success through the regular season, the Leafs averaged the fewest goals per game (1.71) of any team in the playoff field. It’s a problem that’s hampered the Leafs repeatedly.

“That [lack of scoring] is the question that we have to ask ourselves,” said Shanahan. “It happens too often. It’s a question of coaching. It’s a question of messaging. And it’s also a question of personnel. We haven’t gotten those results. So that’s something we have to work on.”

In the NHL’s hard salary cap world, having a majority of space eaten up by a handful of players isn’t necessarily a recipe for winning championships — or, in the Leafs’ case — more than one playoff round.

“You can have a viewpoint and say we’ve invested in four players; you’ve got X percent of your salary cap tied up there, and if we spread it all around, you’re going to have more depth,” said GM Brad Treliving. “But we are where we are. This is the situation we are in right now. Those are really good players. We’ve got to dig into why we’re ending up with the same result, year after year after year. And adjust accordingly.

Both Matthews and Nylander inked long-term deals with the Leafs through 2028 and 2032 respectively, but Marner and Tavares are both entering the final seasons of their deals, which include no-move clauses. Toronto isn’t ruling out asking one or both to rescind those and facilitate a move.

“Everything is on the table,” said Shanahan. “We will discuss everything. I don’t think it serves the Toronto Maple Leafs in any fashion to discuss those things prematurely, to discuss those individuals prematurely. Our focus right now is on finding a new head coach and certainly that new head coach will have an important voice as part of our decisions going forward.”

Treliving wouldn’t discuss who the Leafs were eyeing in the coaching search but said the club would be “thorough” in exploring its options. The sting of what Toronto had just been through in its postseason failure was clearly still top of mind in how Treliving and Shanahan were approaching their next steps.

“I don’t believe you throw a body on the tarmac just to say we’ve done something,” said Treliving. “The meetings that we have with the players, they understand that we’ve fallen short. I think we’re at a point where we see this repeatable, that we’ve got to dig into it. The results and sitting here today, when we think we should still be playing, isn’t acceptable.”

One thing Toronto did provide clarity on was Shanahan’s status moving forward. The three-time Stanley Cup champion took over his role in 2014 and is believed to have one year remaining on his current contract, though Shanahan declined to confirm his status in that respect on Friday.

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley gave Shanahan his full backing.

“Brendan Shanahan is the president of the Toronto Maple Leafs,” said Pelley. “He’s a champion.”

But will the Leafs ever be ones under him? That’s the only goal for management to accomplish now. The looming months will determine whether they’ve finally given the Leafs’ core long enough to make that a reality.

“I don’t have regret showing faith in people,” said Shanahan. “You don’t want to let [fans] down; you want to deliver. And if I felt that the players felt differently than that, in spite of the fact that they haven’t delivered, I might feel differently about them as well. So, we have to give them all the tools and we have to make changes where we think changes are going to help our team. You want to help them see things through.”