Oilers strike first against Ducks
Unheralded Larsson’s three-point night gets Edmonton through a rough third
OK, how many people jumped on Adam Larsson in their playoff pool?
The Edmonton Oilers defenceman — who’s paid to handcuff shooters, not to be a scoring hero — only had one career playoff goal before Wednesday. Amazingly, he had two in the third period at the Honda Center as the Oilers held off the Anaheim Ducks 5-3 in a wild Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series.
With 4:40 to play, Larsson bolted down the right side, circled the net and his pass into the slot bounced off the skate of Josh Manson and past Ducks goaltender John Gibson for what would be the gamewinning goal.
While Larsson scored two after having just one in his previous 11 playoff games, Leon Draisaitl finished it off with an empty-netter with 1:05 remaining to go with three helpers, continuing a terrific run against the Ducks. He’s got seven goals in six games against Anaheim this season and in his career against the Ducks, Draisaitl has 17 points in 13 games.
The Oilers scored two in a 1:40 span in the third as Mark Letestu got his second power-play goal of the night after a hook on Connor McDavid. Larsson banged one home on the next shift, but the Ducks refused to go quietly into the night, getting two in one minute and 24 seconds to tie it.
Ryan Getzlaf, the best player on the ice, beat McDavid cleanly on a draw and Patrick Eaves flipped home a Brandon Montour shot. Then Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot bobbled a Jakob Silfverberg shot and he followed it up to slide it home.
In the second, Getzlaf made the Oilers pay for a lazy hook on Anton Slepyshev late in the first when he ripped a wrister past Talbot on the blocker side 30 seconds into the period for a 1-0 Ducks lead. It was Getzlaf ’s 105th point in 109 playoff games.
“He’s the heart of their team, the head of their snake … tough task to play him for seven games,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said after the morning skate.
The Oilers got that Getzlaf goal back on a power play of their own. It was a five-on-three, technically, with Nick Ritchie off for a hold on Oscar Klefbom and defenceman Hampus Lindholm for a highstick on Draisaitl, but it was more of a three-man advantage because Getzlaf had broken his stick on the draw.
Letestu one-timed one home to complement his 11 power play goals in the regular season.
Slepyshev atoned for his bad penalty with two strong rushes around Shea Theodore in the second, with Gibson robbing him once and again just as the Russian winger bowled him over and into the net. An obvious penalty — only not, according to another member of the goalie lodge.
“Crap call,” former Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr wrote on Twitter as he watched on TV, probably harkening back to all those nights in the Battle of Alberta when he was run over.
Talbot made one great catch off a Lindholm slapper from the high slot with 83 seconds left in the second off an Andrew Cogliano feed to keep it tied going to the third. That was vintage Fuhr mitt, flying in the face of teams who seem to feel Talbot’s glove might be one of his weak links.
It was a nasty piece of business off the opening faceoff — way different than the fairly calm first series against the San Jose Sharks, where there were no real villains.
“They like to engage physically and the Sharks didn’t want to get our big guys emotional and into the game,” McDavid said.
The Oilers captain, far less noticeable than Getzlaf in this one with no shots through 40 minutes, took his usual array of whacks and hacks — not just from Kesler, but from Lindholm, too. He drew a penalty on Kesler and his linemate Draisaitl got them for another on a Logan Shaw trip. But they only had two shots on their two power play tries in the scoreless first frame.
“Connor understands he’s a target for their checkers and he’ll have to play through that stuff. We’re not getting away with it, but we’ll have to play through out,” said McLellan, who watched McDavid draw two penalties on the night.
Gibson, 4-1-2 lifetime against the Oilers, made a couple of good stops, one off his helmet from a Zack Kassian shot while Talbot made a strong screened leg save on Lindholm in a period with 19 shots and 29 hits — 20 by the home side.
The Ducks lost defenceman Kevin Bieksa for the third period. He limped off with a left leg injury four minutes into the game and while the tough blue-liner came back to play seven minutes total, he left the Ducks with five defencemen in the third. Bieksa lost a couple of teeth in a late-season game against the Oilers when he was high-sticked by Darnell Nurse, so he’s no stranger to medical distress against Edmonton.
And no surprise: The NHL’s best faceoff team won 12 of the 16 draws against the league’s worst. McDavid only took one and lost it, and Draisaitl took one and won his. Antoine Vermette, the NHL’s secondbest faceoff guy after the Colorado Avalanche’s Matt Duchene, was 4-1 and Ryan Getzlaf was 4-1.
On the bench: The Oilers had Eric Gryba out for warm-up, but stuck with Matt Benning on defence with Darnell Nurse. Matt Hendricks also was scratched … The Ducks didn’t have Sami Vatanen, out with a shoulder injury, and sat defenceman Korbinian Holzer and winger Jared Boll.