Oilers snap slide by beating Ducks in OT

EDMONTON -- Goaltender Ben Scrivens picked an appropriate night to have another outstanding game for the Edmonton Oilers.

After former Oilers goalie Curtis Joseph was honored prior to the game, Scrivens made 48 saves and set the stage for defenseman Andrew Ference to score 3:51 into overtime to give Edmonton a 4-3 victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.

With the teams playing 3-on-3 in OT, Ference picked off a pass at center ice, raced into the Anaheim zone, used Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf as a screen and beat goaltender Jonas Hiller with a blast from the high slot for the win.

"I've seen Ben do this so many times, I have a great history with this young man," said Oilers coach Dallas Eakins, who coached Scrivens with the AHL Toronto Marlies. "That's Ben. It's not great right off the bat, but then he finds a way to battle through it and settle in. I loved his leadership with our bench, on the timeouts, he's always talking. And he's a massive reason why we were able to grab those points."

Scrivens' best save of the night resembled a famous stop made by Joseph in the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Dallas Stars. In the second period, with Anaheim pressing, Scrivens dove across his net to rob Ducks right wing Jakob Silfverberg with the paddle of his goalie stick.

"Scrivens bailed us out a lot; it wasn't a complete game by us," Ference said. "They had some really good chances, but they're a good team and they drove us back, especially that top line. That's why we have a good goalie for, so it's nice to see him come up big."

Scrivens survived a barrage of 51 shots, including seven in overtime, to help the Oilers (26-39-9) end a three-game losing skid.

The single point left the Ducks (47-18-8) one behind the San Jose Sharks in the race for first place in the Pacific Division. Anaheim has two games in hand.

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau wasn't happy to leave a point on the table.

"You have a chance to put these teams away and you don't, and when that happens, you're not going to get what you want," he said.

Sam Gagner, Jordan Eberle and Oscar Klefbom, with his first NHL goal, also scored for the Oilers. Nick Bonino, Patrick Maroon and Mathieu Perreault scored for Anaheim, with Perreault's goal at 15:30 of the third period forcing overtime. Hiller stopped 19 shots.

"He made some great saves in the second period," Maroon said of Scrivens. "He had one on Jakob Silfverberg that was out of control. He played really good. We had our chances on the power play and didn't capitalize on that. We let them hang around. We couldn't find a way to keep going at them and they get that goal in overtime.

"We have to play hard for 60 minutes every night. We can't just play 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off. We had them. It was there. Our effort was there, but we just didn't finish it out."

Bonino opened the scoring 35 seconds into the game on the first shot of the night. He took a pass from Getzlaf in front and snapped a shot over the shoulder of Scrivens.

Gagner tied the game at 4:43 with the 100th goal of his career. Sent in by David Perron, Gagner went in on Hiller and lifted a backhand over the goaltender, giving the Oilers a goal on their first shot of the game.

The Ducks had a number of quality chances to take the lead early in the second period, but were unable to beat Scrivens, who got a little help from the post and his teammates.

Oilers left wing Taylor Hall was first to a puck that squeezed through Scrivens, just in time to knock it off the goal line. Just over three minutes later, Ducks left wing Matt Beleskey fired a shot that rang off the post.

"We certainly had our chances," Beleskey said. "We had pucks lying around in the crease, we were hitting posts and crossbars. He [Scrivens] was pretty good. Anytime you get over 50 shots on goal and you lose, you have to tip your hat a little bit to the goalie."

Despite their territorial advantage in the period, the Ducks found themselves down 2-1 after Eberle took a pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in front and snapped a shot past Hiller at 10:22. But Anaheim tied the game at 15:23 when Maroon had a rebound bounce towards him and was able to bat it past Scrivens.

Klefbom put the Oilers up 3-2 at 8:26 of the third period, jumping into the play and firing a shot past Hiller from the slot. Klefbom, playing his ninth NHL game, was called up by the Oilers from their AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City on March 5.

"I just shot it and hoped for the best," Klefbom said. "It was an incredible feeling. There are a lot of emotions right now. I don't remember the goal, it was a little bit of a blackout. I'll take a little bit of time to sink it. But it was fun to do it [Friday] when we won the game too, it feels amazing."

Perreault tied the game with 4:30 left in regulation when he took a pass from Maroon in front, got a fortunate deflection off Hall's stick and lifted the puck over Scrivens.

In overtime, Anaheim had a rare 5-on-3 power play but could not take advantage. Ference took a hooking penalty to give the Ducks a 4-on-3 advantage, and with 21 seconds left in that penalty, Jeff Petry was sent off for delay of game after he batted the puck over the glass. The Oilers killed off both penalties.

They were set to go on a power play of their own when Ference scored.

"It's always fun to win in overtime," Scrivens said. "I'm really happy for Oscar to get his first NHL goal. He should be very proud of that and for our captain to step up and bring it home, it was huge."

The Oilers conclude their six-game homestand Sunday against the New York Rangers. The Ducks continue their three-game Western Canada trip against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.