Koskinen makes 33 saves, Oilers defeat Ducks without McDavid

EDMONTON -- Josh Currie scored his first NHL goal to help the Edmonton Oilers to a 2-1 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Saturday.

Currie was recalled from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League on Monday and was playing his third NHL game.
"It's super exciting. Words can't even describe how I am feeling right now," Currie said. "It is obviously even better to get the win. I wouldn't have wanted to get it with a different group of guys. It is awesome."
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Oilers highlights]
Sam Gagner
scored, and Mikko Koskinen made 33 saves for Edmonton (26-29-6), which is seven points behind the Colorado Avalanche for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Carter Rowney scored for Anaheim (24-29-9), which is eight points back of Colorado. Kevin Boyle made 19 saves.
"I thought it was kind of a weird game for me, personally," Boyle said. "For the first 10 or 11 minutes, I only had one shot, and so it was a little hard getting settled into the game. I thought once I got my first few shots under the belt I settled down a bit, especially going into the second and third period.
"The first 11 minutes I thought we dominated, we had some great chances, I thought their goalie played great and made some big saves for them. I thought we had our chances, we just have to bury them."

Oilers center Connor McDavid did not play, serving the first of a two-game suspension for a hit to the head against New York Islanders defenseman Nick Leddy on Thursday in a 4-3 shootout win.
Anaheim appeared to tie the game 2-2 with 45 seconds left in the third period when Corey Perry scored on a scramble in front. The goal was waved off for incidental goaltender interference by Adam Henrique on Koskinen before the puck went into the net. The play was reviewed, and the call stood.
"I haven't seen the whole play to comment too much," Perry said. "I talked to a couple of guys. From what I heard, their guy was holding [Henrique] and he kind of got in there and he got out, the puck squirted through to me, and I put it through the goalie's pads into the open net."
Currie gave the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 16:00 of the first period, scoring on a rebound in front off a shot from Milan Lucic.
Gagner scored 57 seconds into the second period, tipping in a shot from Leon Draisaitl to make it 2-0.
"This was an accumulation of our good play," Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It's starting to turn where we're competing and we're winning and on the other side of the one-goal games."

Rowney cut the lead to 2-1 at 11:43, converting a cross-crease pass from Nick Ritchie. Rowney left at 15:40 of the second after being hit in the face with a point shot from Hampus Lindholm.
"It's kind of one of those years," said Ducks general manager Bob Murray, who took over as interim coach Feb. 10 after he fired Randy Carlyle. "It's kind of hard to keep pushing them, but if they keep working like this, they'll be rewarded in some way. If they keep working, they'll be fine."
Edmonton won two straight for the first time since a 7-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 14 and a 3-2 shootout win at the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 16.
"We believe in here. That was a tight game, and I thought we did some really good things," Gagner said. "Mikko played great for us. Currie getting that first one was a big lift for our team. It is something that we have to continue to build momentum from, to build off and get some wins."

They said it

"I think the way we've been playing that last four, five, six games is a way that this team can play. We're showing great strides." -- Ducks forward Corey Perry
"I feel good, I feel confident. It is exciting for me to get a chance to be back here. I am playing on adrenaline. It is a really good group here. I just want to continue to help out where I can and, hopefully, keep building off what we are doing and get some more wins." -- Oilers forward Sam Gagner

Need to know

Anaheim had a nine-game point streak in Edmonton end (6-0-3). … Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler played his 600th NHL game. … Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. … Draisaitl extended his point streak to six games (four goals, four assists) … Lucic got his 300th NHL assist … The Oilers are 1-1-1 with McDavid out of the lineup this season.

What's next

Ducks:At the Vancouver Canucks on Monday (10 p.m. ET; SNP, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Oilers:At the Nashville Predators on Monday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-TN, SNW, NHL.TV)