Ducks win Game 6, eliminate Oilers in Western 1st Round

ANAHEIM — Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry and Chris Kreider each had a goal and two assists, and the Anaheim Ducks eliminated the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 win in Game 6 of the Western Conference First Round at Honda Center on Thursday.

Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist, and Lukas Dostal made 25 saves for the Ducks, who won their first Stanley Cup Playoff series since eliminating the Oilers in seven games in the 2017 Western Conference Second Round.

"It's been a long time," said Terry, the longest tenured Anaheim player at nine seasons. "We've had fans that have been super loyal. They've always showed up for us. They deserved this. A lot of us live in the Newport (Beach) area and, all of a sudden, you're seeing cars with Ducks flags everywhere. You really start to see what this means to Orange County."

The Ducks, who are the No. 3 seed from the Pacific Division, will face either the Vegas Golden Knights or Utah Mammoth in the second round. Vegas leads that series 3-2 with Game 6 on Friday.

Connor Murphy and Vasily Podkolzin scored, and Connor Ingram made 26 saves for the Oilers, the No. 2 seed from the Pacific who reached the Stanley Cup Final the previous two seasons.

"We were an average team all year," Edmonton captain Connor McDavid said. "When you're an average team with high expectations, you're going to be disappointed."

The Ducks scored first for the first time in the series when John Carlson took a slap shot from above the right face-off circle that went off the stick of Oilers defenseman Jake Walman, bounced off the ice and glanced off Ryan Poehling before trickling across the goal line for a 1-0 lead at 9:56 of the first period.

"There was a couple of bad bounces that ended up in our net," Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. "Obviously, the game could go different if those don’t go in, but at the end of the day, they’re good at getting those pucks there and they know how to play the right way."

Carlsson led a 4-on-3 rush through the neutral zone, got the puck back and then fed Kreider, who turned 35 on Thursday, for a one-timer from the right circle and a 2-0 lead at 13:43.

"Pretty much the story for most of the year was we didn't defend well enough," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. "Usually, you win or lose on your defensive play and it wasn't good enough."

Dostal couldn't control a rebound and Josh Samanski passed the puck through the crease to Murphy, who flipped it into the top of the net with a backhand to cut it to 2-1 at 15:14.

Anaheim, which came into the game 7-for-14 on the power play in the series, scored on its first man-advantage when Gauthier's one-timer from the right circle went off the stick blade of Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and fluttered over Ingram's right shoulder for a 3-1 lead at 16:50.

"Our power play scored a very timely goal for us," Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. "The special teams were special in the series and it made a big impact."

Dostal, who was removed in the first period of Game 5 after giving up three goals on nine shots in the 4-1 loss, stopped Zach Hyman on a partial breakaway at 4:36 of the second period, and Hyman put the puck in the net at 18:28, but it was quickly determined he used a kicking motion.

Terry then finished off a 2-on-1 rush with Carlsson to extend the lead to 4-1 with 47 seconds left in the second period.

“There’s been a lot of talk about their speed and skill, but there’s a lot of size," Knoblauch said of the Ducks. "They forecheck hard and win battles. … They have a lot of ingredients to be a good team.”

Edmonton cut it to 4-2 at 1:13 of the third period when a shot by Kasperi Kapanen hit the backside of Podkolzin as he stood in the crease and caromed across the goal line.

Carlsson scored into an empty net at 17:26 for the 5-2 final.

"It could have been our best game of the year," Quenneville said. "A lot of things went well tonight. We didn't have to play catch-up. We had a good start. We might not have scored right away, but still thought we had good pace, good possession."

NOTES: Draisaitl assisted on Podkolzin's goal to make him the first Edmonton player with points in the first six games of the playoffs (three goals, seven assists). His 10 points led the Oilers in the series. ... McDavid, who led the NHL with 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) during the regular season, was held without a point for the third time in the series. He had six points (one goal, five assists) in the series. ... The Oilers did not have a power play. ... The Ducks are 12-4 in potential series-clinching games at home, and 7-0 at home in Game 6s. ... Anaheim went 8-for-16 on the power play in the series and has scored a power-play goal in 10 straight games dating to the regular season. ... Anaheim defenseman Jackson LaCombe had nine points in this series (one goal, eight assists), one shy of the team record held by Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.