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Mikael Granlund contributed a goal and two assists as the Anaheim Ducks celebrated their first home playoff game in eight years with a 7-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers. The victory gives the Ducks a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven opening-round series.
Edmonton’s Connor McDavid scored his first goal of the playoffs and recorded his first multi-point game. The Oilers also netted their first power-play goal of the postseason. Still, those positives were overshadowed by Edmonton’s struggling defence against the fast and opportunistic Ducks.
“Any time you let in seven, and it’s not a goalie problem, it’s just defending better,” said Oilers forward Zach Hyman. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance with the amount of goals we gave up.”
Game 4 is set for Sunday at Anaheim’s Honda Center before the series returns to Edmonton for Game 5 on Tuesday.
The Oilers have surrendered 14 goals to Anaheim — excluding two empty-net goals — over the first three games. “We didn’t give up very much in the second game. I thought we defended well,” Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Tonight, not so much. Just give them freebies, not digging in front of the net, giving up odd-man rushes.”
Edmonton, which reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past two seasons, appeared especially vulnerable late in Friday’s matchup. The Ducks applied sustained pressure, firing 39 shots at goalie Connor Ingram.
After Edmonton held a 3-2 lead for seven minutes in the second period, Granlund passed a rebound to Alex Killorn, who scored into an open net to tie the game.
Anaheim then surged ahead with two quick goals early in the third. Leo Carlsson stretched the lead to 5-3 on an odd-man rush following an Oilers turnover.
McDavid, who led the NHL in postseason points three of the last four years, was scoreless in the series’ first two games while Edmonton’s power play went 0-for-6. On Friday, he assisted Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ go-ahead goal in the second period and scored on the power play in the third to cut the Ducks’ lead to one.
But Edmonton’s defence couldn’t keep pace. Jeff Viel restored Anaheim’s two-goal advantage with just over three minutes remaining.
“I feel like we’re giving them these wins,” Oilers forward Kasperi Kapanen admitted. “It’s disappointing, but it’s a race to four wins. We’re not going to panic, but we have to learn from our mistakes and just be better next game.”
Kapanen added that the Oilers need to dump the puck deeper, avoid turnovers, improve their forecheck, and tighten their defensive gaps against the Ducks’ speed and young talent.
The Oilers’ top defensive pairing of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard, along with McDavid and Hyman, combined for a minus-12 rating in the game.
“They certainly carried us the previous two years,” coach Knoblauch said. “Right now to say that it’s all on their shoulders is completely unfair. Everyone needs to step up a little bit.”
According to NHL stats, the winner of a Game 3 in a tied 1-1 series holds a strong 245-124 all-time record. When that Game 3 win is on home ice, the record is 111-67.
Last year, after trailing 0-2 against the Los Angeles Kings, the Oilers rallied to win four straight and take the series.
“There’s a lot of hockey left to be played,” Ekholm said. “The momentum shifts, the swings, we’ve all been through it here, so lean on that. Take a deep breath knowing the sun’s going to come up tomorrow, and we’ve got a big Game 4 coming.”
“We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to execute at a higher level, and we haven’t brought close to our best yet.”
