Draisaitl’s five-point outburst roasts Ducks
EDMONTON, Alberta — The Edmonton Oilers bounced back from a tough loss with a resounding win on Sunday to knot their NHL Western Conference semifinal with the Anaheim Ducks at three games apiece.
Leon Draisaitl fired three goals and two assists and Mark Letestu added two goals and two helpers as the Oilers cruised to a 7-1 victory, forcing a decisive Game 7 on Wednesday night in Anaheim.
The winner will face the Nashville Predators in the Western final.
“Obviously the season was on the line and we all had to step it up a notch,” Draisaitl said.
Edmonton coach Todd McLellan agreed, adding: “The big test is still to come. We’re going to have to park this one quickly and get ready for a big battle down there.”
The Ducks are heading back to southern California looking to end a four-year streak of Game 7 losses at home.
Anaheim was eliminated in the first round of 2013 (Detroit) and 2016 (Nashville), the second round in 2014 (Los Angeles), and the conference final in 2015 (Chicago) in Game 7s at the Honda Center.
The Ducks led each of those series 3-2 before back-to-back losses bounced them.
“Half of the guys in here were not here for that stuff,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said.
“We’re going back with the preparation to be ready for a big game. It doesn’t really matter what the situation is ... it still comes down to win or go home.”
The Oilers won twice in Anaheim to open this series and narrowly lost Game 5 there in double overtime — but only after blowing a 3-0 lead with less than four minutes left in regulation time.
Zach Kassian and Anton Slepychev also scored and Cam Talbot stopped 34 shots for the Oilers, who led 5-0 after the first period on Sunday.
Rickard Rakell scored midway through the second period for Anaheim. John Gibson was pulled after giving up three goals on six shots less than 10 into the game.
Jonathan Bernier came on and finished with 25 saves.
“I wasn’t very good,” Gibson said.
“I have to come up with a couple of saves and maybe it’s different, maybe it’s not. As it went on they kind of took it to us, it wasn’t our best. I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be and I kind of let the boys down.”
Slepychev extended the Oilers’ lead to 6-0 in the opening minute of the second period before Richard Rakell got the Ducks on the scoreboard.
“For us to come out in the second period and get that sixth goal, that was big,” Letestu said.
“It showed we weren’t going to get back on our heels and possibly let them get back into the game.”