GAME RECAP: Ducks 6, Oilers 5

ANAHEIM, CA – Cutter Gauthier's goal with 74 seconds left in the third period gave the Anaheim Ducks their first lead of the night and a 6-5 victory over the Oilers on Wednesday as NHL action resumed after the Olympic break.

The Oilers either led or were tied for nearly 59 minutes, but the Ducks hung around all game and grabbed the two points with the late tally, moving ahead of Edmonton in the Pacific Division standings.

The Blue & Orange will look to get back in the win column and end their four-game winless skid when their California road trip continues on Thursday against the Kings in Los Angeles.

"It was a hard-fought game, trading chances," said Matt Savoie, who led the Oilers with a goal and two assists on the night. "Both sides just gave up a little too much and they were able to capitalize."

FIRST PERIOD

You'd never have known the team was off for three weeks based on the way they started the game as Jack Roslovic scored his 16th of the season just 13 seconds after the opening puck-drop.

Savoie, who was recalled from AHL Bakersfield earlier in the day, made a perfect pass through the neutral zone along the boards to spring Roslovic in alone on Lukas Dostal and the crafty winger rifled a wrist shot under the glove of the Czechia Olympic netminder to put the Oilers up 1-0.

Roslovic's opener is the fastest Edmonton goal to start a game this season and the 12th time in franchise history the team has scored in the first 13 seconds. Roslovic also had the previous fastest goal by the Oilers to start a game this season, lighting the lamp in 25 seconds against the Panthers in Florida on Nov. 22.

Mattias Ekholm was called for tripping a minute later to give the Ducks an opportunity to net the equalizer, but the Oilers PK crew did their job and maintained the lead, paving the way for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to put the visitors up by a pair.

At the 9:03 mark of the frame, Savoie picked up another assist by getting the puck to Connor McDavid behind the Ducks net, and the MVP of the Milano Cortina 2026 tournament found Nugent-Hopkins in front for a chip shot over Dostal for his 14th tally of the season.

Anaheim cut the Oilers lead in half 1:27 later when Ian Moore stepped into a slapshot along the half-wall that surprised Tristan Jarry and beat him up high. The Edmonton netminder was quick to redeem himself, though, making a point-blank stop on Jacob Trouba shortly thereafter to keep it 2-1.

The Oilers killed off an Adam Henrique hooking minor as the PK went two-for-two in the first, and Edmonton earned its first PP of the night with 18 seconds left in the frame to carry over the man advantage into the second period.

SECOND PERIOD

The Oilers were unable to take advantage of their PP to start the period, and the Ducks got their third opportunity of the night on a Roslovic hooking minor that resulted in Alex Killorn converting a rebound to tie the game at 2-2 at the 3:01 mark.

Dostal denied two prime Edmonton opportunities to regain the lead when Trent Frederic was foiled with a pad save in tight and Vasily Podkolzin had his hard wrist shot snared by the netminder's glove.

Anaheim earned its fourth PP of the opening 40 minutes when Ty Emberson took out Beckett Sennecke and prevented the Ducks young gun from potentially giving the home team its first lead. The Oilers rewarded Emberson's effort by killing the penalty and surged with a pair of late goals to take a 4-2 advantage into the third.

With 1:15 to go in the period, Ekholm found Zach Hyman cutting to the net for a brilliantly-executed redirect to give the winger his 23rd tally of the season. Just 35 seconds later, Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid executed a give-and-go that allowed RNH to set up Evan Bouchard creeping down the right side for a sharp-angle deposit and his 16th of the season.

Hyman now has 21 goals over his last 29 games since Dec. 11, which is the most in the NHL over that span. Bouchard, meanwhile, bumped up to 65 points on the season to lead all defencemen across the league.

THIRD PERIOD

The Oilers had their two-goal flurry late in the second period and the Ducks started the third with one of their own, getting quick tallies from two of their top young talents, Leo Carlsson and Olen Zellweger, to knot the game back up at 4-4.

Carlsson knocked in a rebound off a Trouba shot 1:30 into the period and Zellweger lifted a seeing-eye point shot through traffic past Jarry for the equalizer.

Savoie's stellar night continued when he put the Oilers back up by one with three seconds left on a power play that resulted from McDavid getting hauled down by Moore on a partial breakaway. The 22-year-old added the goal to his two assists to record the first three-point game of his young NHL career.

"That's one of his strongest games this year," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said of Savoie. "He scores on the power play, and five on five he's creating a lot of chances."

The lead was once again short-lived, though, as Sennecke toe-dragged and tallied a five-hole shot past Jarry just 46 seconds after Savoie's goal to make it 5-5. The Oilers replaced Jarry with Connor Ingram after the fifth goal against before Gauthier tallied the eventual winner.

"I wasn't happy with the goaltending," Knoblauch said of the swap. "The goals that we gave up, especially in the third period, yeah I didn't like those. Definitely there were other mistakes, but part of it is you need better goaltending and tonight wasn't one of his best games."

"It's tough," Jarry said. "The game's kind of going back and forth, but obviously if I make an extra save here or there, the game could be different."