Oilers score seven to defeat Ducks, win fourth straight under Woodcroft

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Oilers won their fourth consecutive game since hiring Jay Woodcroft as coach, 7-3 against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Thursday.

Woodcroft took over Feb. 10 when Dave Tippett was fired.
Leon Draisaitl scored two goals, and Mike Smith made 27 saves for the Oilers (27-18-3). Evander Kane, Derek Ryan, Zach Hyman, and Warren Foegele each had a goal and assist. Draisaitl leads the NHL with 35 goals.
"I feel like we feel that everyone is getting a chance and an opportunity to provide help," Ryan said. "Obviously, we can't rely on Leon and Connor [McDavid] to do everything. We need support for those guys and for everyone in the top six. I think it has been good for myself to get some confidence built up to play more and to get more of an opportunity offensively. I think that has helped a lot in my game."
Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano each had a goal and assist, and John Gibson made 34 saves for the Ducks (23-19-9), who are 0-3-1 in their past four games.
"We were simply outmatched," Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. "We're coming on a back to back and we were not prepared depth-wise to take on a team like that. There's not a team in this League that has three guys down the middle like that. We all know about McDavid and Draisaitl, but Ryan Nugent-Hopkins might be the most underrated player in this league."

Adam Henrique gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead on the power play at 4:39 of the first period.
Milano made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 14:14, redirecting in a shot from Zegras.
Kane made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 18:46, converting a cross-ice pass from Ryan McLeod.
"I thought we came out and did a great job in the first period and got a couple on the power play, but then other areas we were lacking as the game went on," Henrique said. "Certainly, at this time of year and down the stretch we have to be able to play 60 minutes and have to be able to keep it a tight game and to play our game and not get away from that."

Ryan tied it 2-2 at 4:12 of the second period, redirecting in a point shot from Cody Ceci.
Jesse Puljujarvi scored at 7:26 to make it 3-2, converting a pass from McDavid in front. Puljujarvi left the game before the end of the period with a lower-body injury.
Draisaitl made it 4-2 at 10:21, tapping in a cross-crease pass from McLeod.
"We did a lot of good things in the first period," Woodcroft said. "We weren't as clean as we wanted to be; we can clean some stuff up on the penalty kill.
"We liked the way we were playing the game. I really liked how calm our bench was, they showed a little bit of push back and resiliency and found a big goal at the end of the first period and then took that into the second period."
Foegele scored at 4:21 of the third period for a 5-2 lead, one-timing a shot on a pass from Nugent-Hopkins.
"I think we did a really good job of fighting off their storm there on the power play with a couple of goals," Kane said. "We didn't get discouraged, we battled back, set ourselves up with the second period to go into the third, and I thought we did a great job finishing."

Zegras made it 5-3 at 9:17, banking a sharp-angle shot in off Smith.
Draisaitl scored at 10:19 for a 6-3 lead, intercepting a pass from Hampus Lindholm and shooting from the slot. Hyman made it 7-3 at 11:37 on a backhand shot from the slot.
The Ducks were without captain Ryan Getzlaf, who was a late scratch with a lower-body injury.
"He's had something that's nagging, and he was more than prepared to play, but we just saw it as there is a lot of hockey left, this is going to be an important stretch for our team and just to risk it on a back-to-back, I didn't feel it was a very good plan," Eakins said. "So we just hesitated on that and hopefully, he'll be ready to go on Saturday [at Vancouver Canucks]."