OILERS FALL SECONDS INTO O.T.
Anaheim forward capitalizes on host team’s gaffe 45 seconds into extra frame
The Oilers’ Connor McDavid and Ryan Kesler of the Anaheim Ducks mix it up at Rogers Place during Game 4 of their Stanley Cup series Wednesday night. The Ducks won the game 4-3 in overtime to knot the series at two games apiece.
DUCKS 4, OILERS 3 OT
The Edmonton Oilers had the game and the series in a stranglehold, but somehow they were the ones who got choked out.
They were up 2-0 at home and seemingly in control, with a chance to go up 3-1 in their second-round series with the Anaheim Ducks, only to let everything slip away in a crushing 4-3 overtime defeat.
They fought back to force overtime on Drake Caggiula’s goal with 1:42 left in the third period, but the Ducks landed the kill shot just 45 seconds into the extra period when Jakob Silfverberg scored on a onetimer.
Ryan Getzlaf ran Anaheim’s show all night, scoring two goals and adding two assists in the win.
The Ducks took both games in Edmonton after losing the first two at home, and have now turned the best-of-seven into a best-of-three, with Anaheim controlling all of the momentum.
The Oilers still haven’t played a full 60 minutes of their best hockey in this series, and the time to start is well past due.
“We have to show that we can play with them and dominate them,” said Connor McDavid, well aware of what was at stake. “There is a huge difference between 2-2 and 3-1.”
This was a pivotal game in the series and when the game began the Oilers responded with their best period of the series, delivering intense pressure, two clutch penalty kills and a pair of late goals from Milan Lucic and McDavid to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
A day after Ducks coach Randy Carlyle complained that McDavid was getting the “white-glove treatment” from the referees, Anaheim got the first two power plays of the game after Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got two for tripping at 4:35 and Lucic took an interference penalty away from the play at 11:03.
The penalties slowed Edmonton’s momentum a bit, but they regained it quickly and went up 1-0 on their first power play of the game when Lucic jammed one in from the side of the net at 15:30.
Just two minutes after that, McDavid scored his fourth of the playoffs on a two-on-one with Leon Draisaitl.
The Oilers were simply dominant.
But as good as Edmonton was in the first, Anaheim was better in the second. They outshot Edmonton 21-5 and outscored them 3-0.
Getzlaf, who’s been a man on a mission in this series, put the team on his back with two goals and an assist in a span of 12:48 to turn an 0-2 deficit into a 3-2 Ducks lead.
Getzlaf cut the lead to 2-1 at 1:37 (after a long and very close goaltender interference challenge on Corey Perry didn’t go Edmonton’s way), set up Rickard Rakell at 5:35 and silenced the crowd with the go-ahead goal at 14:25.
The Oilers launched a push back in the third period, and had their best opportunity to pull even with 3:46 left when Antoine Vermette gloved a puck off the faceoff to give Edmonton a last chance power play.
Seconds after the penalty expired, and with Cam Talbot on the bench for the extra attacker, Caggiula roofed a rebound from the Anaheim doorstep to send it to overtime.
LATE HITS: Jordan Eberle got busted down to the fourth line, replaced on the second line by Anton Slepyshev, for his part in Anaheim’s first goal of the period. Eberle had two chances to get the puck out of the defensive zone and didn’t … Getzlaf already has seven goals and five assists in the playoffs and has moved past Ducks great Teemu Selanne for the all-time lead in post-season goals with 36.