Anaheim – A year ago, the Ducks facing the Edmonton Oilers meant a track meeting in which the Oilers were the sprinters and the ducks were the track.
However, with the 3-2 triumph on Monday evening at the Honda Center, the Ducks took three of the four games in a season series which they legitimately worn against the title champions of the Western Conference.
Although the Ducks remain a eyelash lower than a percentage of 0,500 points while the oilers are intended for their sixth consecutive playoffs, they took three of the four EDMONTON meetings. Last season, Edmonton swept away the Ducks and dominated them 26-8, and the Ducks had not won the majority of the matches of the series of the season since 2015-16, the year before the captain of Edmonton Connor McDavid entered the NHL.
The Ducks won the 3-1 series of this year in matches and 16-10 in purposes, sweeping it almost without a Herculean effort from Leon Draisaitl to win a 3-2 victory in Edmonton.
Cutter Gauthier scored twice for the Ducks before Mason MCTAVISH buried a goal of escape. Lukáš Dostál faced a heavy rubber but made a summit of 47 stops. It was his fifth match of 40 league stops this season, and they came against five different opponents.
Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner found the back of the net for Edmonton, who missed a chance to gain ground on the kings of second place in the Pacific division and stay four points with five games to play in the regular season. Olivier Rodrigue made 18 stops during his first departure in the NHL.
Edmonton was without crowd of players, including two championship MVPs in McDavid and Draisaitl, but also their best defender Mattias Ekholm, the starting goalkeeper Stuart Skinner and others. This included the physical striker Trent Frederic, whose beginnings of the oilers against the Kings were mainly used to worsen his injury. They played with only 11 attackers and, in turn, 17 skaters.
During the four meetings, the Ducks sold the first goal – and twice abandoned the first two – but three times the Ducks rallied to win and in the fourth confrontation, it took a vulgar demonstration of Draisaitl power to break a dead end from the end 2-2.
Edmonton struck again on the first Monday.
The two teams equaled the progress early, but visitors took control over the period, ending with an advantage of 13-6. Their crescendo reached its peak with 2:09 to play in the first period.
After storming the Ducks net and almost obtained a goal from the missed attempt by Connor Brown, the Oilers recovered, with the former winner of the Ducks Hart trophy, Corey Perry, stabilizing the washer near the wall and sending it high for the pick-up to the commercial didline Jake Walman. His point shot was tilted by another unique duck, Henrique.
The second period saw a makeshift reversal for the Ducks, thanks to the same shine from the end of the period and two goals on which Gauthier humiliated Evan Bouchard.
He knotted the scoring after Bouchard delivered a pizza in 30 minutes or less – in this case, he took 22:20 of the match – sliding the puck of his reverse and directly to Leo Carlsson. Carlsson’s pass with timing, a touch and precise placement found Gauthier for a single animated. It is now fourth of the two goals and the points of a recruit of the NHL during a season with an unusually strong first year class.
The Ducks did before 2-1 at 7:10 am. Gauthier took the pass of Drew Helleson and patinated the left wall, directly in Bouchard. He caught Bouchard flat, blowing near him to cut himself inside, dancing through the goal of the goal and a gunshot in his reverse. His second goal of the match was his 17th in the campaign and his eighth since the break of the 4 nations.
During the third period, the penalty of the Ducks Kill and Dostál obtained two points, while MCTAVISH scored its fourth goal and its fifth point in the series of the season to refine the advantage of the Ducks.
The Ducks killed four penalties in the final frame and six in total, including two to start the third.
MCTAVISH’s goal of escaping to amortize the head became the winner of the match after Skinner tilted Bouchard’s shot at home with 3:31 to play.
At 5:33 a.m., the Ducks had increased when MCTAVISH and ZEGRAS combined to strip Kasperi Kapanen near the defensive blue line – Kapanen, Bouchard and the Ducks of the Ryan Strome Ducks had been at the center of the crashes which allowed 22 total minutes at the end of the second period – to send MCTAVISH to the races. He had daylight and chose to shoot Rodrigue on his glove for goal n ° 21 of 2024-25.
The period overflowed with tight calls for Edmonton. Dostál committed a flight on the former Ducks Max Jones, Viktor Arvidsson sounded the post during a power game and Bouchard almost marked in the dying embers, his shot sticking the post and almost in a bank near the last session of Edmonton.
The Ducks are 14-6-1 in their last 21 games at home, and they have six players with at least 17 goals for the first time since their Stanley Cup championship season in 2007.
More to come to this story.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
