EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Vancouver Canucks came to Edmonton on a five-game losing streak and were 18 points behind the Oilers in the standings, but it didn't seem to matter much when the puck dropped.

They gave the Oilers all they could handle and then some but still fell to Edmonton 2-0 Saturday at Rogers Place.

It was too close for comfort for fans in Edmonton, even after Connor McDavid broke open a scoreless tie late in the second period. They couldn't exhale until Mark Letestu scored on a power play with 4:38 left in the game.

Cam Talbot, appearing in his 11th straight game, posted his sixth shutout of the season on a night where the Oilers were outshot 33-22, including 14-6 in the final 20 minutes.

"Talbs was great, as he is most nights," said McDavid, who scored the only goal his team would need. "Tonight he stole the show and we needed that, we weren't very good, especially in the third period. All credit to him."

The win lifted Edmonton (38-24-9) out of the first wild-card spot and past the Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division playoff race.

"A win with our B game I didn't think we were where we needed to be," said Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. "In large part I thought they outworked us in some areas, they out-executed us and were a little harder on the forecheck.

"But our goaltender hung in there and gave us a chance to win. Our leading scorer and captain got us a goal and power play bailed us out.

"But at this time of the year some of the games are going to be really frustrating, that's how the playoffs will be, tight-checking. So the fact we got a win and got to play in that type of game was good for us."

Vancouver coach Wille Desjardins liked his team's spirit and determination considering the Canucks used an injury-depleted lineup and are so deep in the standings they don't have much to play for. But he said moral victories are never good enough.

"You still have to find ways to win," he said. "It's one thing to have an effort, but we don't just want the effort, we want to find ways to win games.

"(The Oilers) are a good team. They have played well at home and have lots of speed. They are a hard team to handle and I thought we did a good job containing them as much as we did. But it is still disappointing not to get some points."

After scoring 14 goals in their two previous wins -- 7-1 over the Dallas Stars and 7-4 over the Boston Bruins -- the Oilers were hoping the offense would continue to flow against one of the worst teams in the NHL.

That was not the case in the first period as Vancouver didn't give the Oilers anything. The Canucks held the home team to three shots on goal in the first 15 minutes and took a 0-0 tie into the first intermission.

"Obviously a different type of game," said winger Leon Draisaitl. "They're a gritty group and they have a lot of pride in that room. I think they played really good again tonight.

"We knew we weren't going to score seven again tonight. This is a tight-checking group that took the best out of us tonight."

It was more scoreless frustration for Edmonton in the second period until McDavid finally took matters into his hands with 3:18 to go, stepping around Alex Edler and putting his 25th score of the season past Canucks goalie Richard Bachman.

McDavid jumped past Boston's Brad Marchand into first place in the NHL scoring race with 80 points.

The Canucks outshot Edmonton 11-1 in the first 10 minutes of the third period and hit their second post of the game, but couldn't find the equalizer.

"The Oilers have a good team and they can score goals at any given time," said Vancouver center Henrik Sedin. "We have to battle more to get our goals and that was the difference tonight.

"We played hard tonight and if you do that and stick to your systems, you are going to be in a lot of close games. We hit a lot of posts. Their goalie played well, but I thought we deserved to score at least a couple."

NOTES: The Oilers have nine power-play goals in the last nine games. ... Vancouver is winless in its last five games. ... Twelve Oilers have scored in the last three games. ... Edmonton LW Milan Lucic has two goals and three assists in the last five games. ... Edmonton D Darnell Nurse has a goal and two assists and is plus-seven in his last three games. ... G Cam Talbot has appeared in 38 of the Oilers' last 42 games. ... Canucks C Henrik Sedin has 81 points in 90 games against the Oilers, his highest total against any team. ... Canucks G Richard Bachman played nine games over two seasons with the Oilers. ... Daniel and Henrik Sedin have been in on the same goal 702 times in their careers, the second-highest total in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky and Jarri Kurri are first at 764.