GAME RECAP: Ducks 7, Oilers 4 (Game 3)

EDMONTON, AB – A 'fowl' result.

Despite the first goal of the playoffs from Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, including one on the power play, the Anaheim Ducks received goals from seven different players on Friday at Honda Center to earn a 7-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 and take a two games to one lead in their first-round series.

"It's a 2-1 series," Mattias Ekholm said. "It's first to four, so there's a lot of hockey left to be played. The momentum shifts and the swings, we've all been through it in here, so we'll lean on that and just take a deep breath, knowing that the sun's going to come up tomorrow again, and we've got a big game coming up here in Game 4."

Vasily Podkolzin opened the scoring for the Oilers, but the Ducks were the better team in the first period, outshooting the Oilers 20-7 in the frame and ultimately taking a 2-1 lead after Mason McTavish's deflection and Mikael Granlund's tap-in on the power play came 1:28 apart before the intermission.

After the Oilers had been thoroughly outplayed in the second period of Games 1 & 2, Kasperi Kapanen's third goal of the series and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' first goal 1:42 apart early in the frame gave the Oilers their first lead until it was tied up through 40 minutes by Killorn to set up the all-important third period.

But the mistakes kept piling up for the Oilers in the final frame, where despite Connor McDavid and the power play scoring their first goal of the series off a lucky deflection, back-to-back goals from Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson 37 seconds apart early in the period wound up being the difference in the Ducks taking a 2-1 series lead.

Jeffrey Viel ended Edmonton's comeback hopes by making it 6-4 with 3:03 left in regulation before Jackson LaCombe rounded out the scoring with an empty-netter.

"Give them credit, they're doing a good job," Ekholm said. "They're on top of us. They're forechecking hard. They're winning a lot of pucks, and we just gotta win more battles. That's what it starts with. We've got an experienced group in here.  We've been through this before. You look at two years ago and last year, we were down again in the first round, so it's nothing new to us.  We just gotta bring it."

The Oilers will look to respond and avoid returning to Oil Country facing elimination when they rematch the Ducks on Sunday in Game 4 of the series back at Honda Center.

FIRST PERIOD

Not how we wanted to start on the road.

Right from the opening draw, the Ducks were prepared to come out with a shot-first mentality in Game 3 and outshot the Oilers 20-7 in the first period, taking a 2-1 lead into the break behind an energetic crowd inside Honda Center that was excited to be hosting their first home playoff game in eight seasons.

The fans helped the Ducks jump on the Oilers early with six of the first seven shots, but Connor Ingram was ultimately the reason why their team's early pressure didn't lead to a breakthrough and more goals in the opening frame despite a couple of high-value giveaways by his teammates producing a couple of dangerous chances for the hosts.

The Oilers needed a big early penalty kill to slow Anaheim's fast start 10:42 into the frame on a high stick called against Jake Walman after having conceded four goals on seven opportunities in the opening two games of the series, and it proved vital before Vasily Podkolzin scored unassisted 30 seconds after the penalty expired to give his side a 1-0 lead against the run of play.

The Ducks were the first to make a mistake that led directly to a goal, when Jackson LacCombe's attempt at clearing a loose puck away from danger off a zone entry started by Podkolzin led to it being poked back in the direction of the Russian to turn and fire a short-side snipe over the left pad of Lukas Dostal with 6:48 left in the frame.

Podkolzin has now put up four points (1G, 3A) over a three-game point streak to open this postseason, and dating back to last year's Stanley Cup Final, the 24-year-old has seven points (3G, 4A) over his last six postseason games.

But the opening tally didn't take anything out of the Ducks' energetic start, with the equalizer coming 3:06 later on a Mason McTavish deflection from the slot that went in off the near post behind Ingram after Drew Helleson put it on goal from the point.

Then, an untimely high-sticking call against Josh Samanski just over a minute later on Jacob Trouba after he lined up Jack Roslovic for a big hit at the Oilers' blueline wound up getting the Ducks' power play on the board for the third straight game.

Anaheim notched its fifth power-play goal of the series with 2:15 left in the period, taking a 2-1 lead into the intermission after Mikael Granlund converted an easy rebound in front of the low shot from Chris Kreider near the right face-off dot.

The Ducks would go 1-for-3 on the power play Friday to increase their efficiency rate to 4-for-8 in the series, while not taking a penalty as a team until the third period, when eventually McDavid and their man advantage cashed in for the first time this series.

"Every playoff series, special teams are going to be huge," Ekholm said. "We've got to do a better job on the kill than we have in the last three games, but it's nice to see our power play get rewarded today.  Hopefully, they can keep going, because we know that's one of the best units of all time."

SECOND PERIOD

The response from the Oilers came during a 1:42 span of the second period, with Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scoring less than two minutes apart before the Ducks made it 3-3 past the midway mark to give the Blue & Orange their first positive second period of the series.

Anaheim's main approach through Games 1 & 2 was to take away the time and space of McDavid and Draisaitl, so when the German found three Ducks closing in on him along the boards in the offensive zone under four minutes into the second, he was quickly able to find Kapanen wide open coming into the left circle.

With time and space, Kapanen picked his spot low glove on Dostal for his third goal of the series and 10th career post-season point (6G, 4A) in his 14th playoff game for the Oilers.

Before they knew it, the Oilers found themselves ahead 3-2 when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid got on the scoresheet for the first time this series 1:42 later.

McDavid's drop pass coming over the Ducks' blueline fell to Bouchard, whose blast from the point created a scramble in front that saw Nugent-Hopkins find the puck first to put it past Dostal for Edmonton's first lead of the night.

Across the regular season and playoffs, McDavid has yet to go three games without a point since November 2023, while Nugent-Hopkins' first tally and point of this year's playoffs came after being reunited with McDavid and Hyman on the top line.

However, the Oilers weren't able to get their lead to the intermission.

Killorn converted into an open net with 7:23 to go after Granlund pushed the puck into the blue paint and had it go off the skate of Bouchard to land right on the forward's tape.

Before the intermission, McDavid missed the mark on two separate two-on-ones when the captain had the first one broken up before his one-timer attempt off the feed from Roslovic flashed just wide of the net, continuing his search for his first goal.

The Ducks would've taken the lead prior to the buzzer if it weren't for an incredible sprawling blocker save by Ingram to deny Killorn his second of the game, and the Oilers' netminder was far from the reason why his team was tagged for seven goals in Game 3.

"Anytime you let in seven, it's not a goalie problem; it's just defending better," Hyman said. "We didn't give ourselves a chance with the number of goals we gave up.

THIRD PERIOD

After a short lapse was rectified by the Ducks late in the second, the hosts scored two quick and crucial goals on their way to a two-games-to-one lead in this series.

"Those two goals that they scored in the third period kind of took a little wind out of our sails," Kasperi Kapanen said. "It's just disappointing, because I truly feel like we kind of gave them this win tonight. But like I'm going to say again, we're just going to look forward to Game 4 and trying to stay positive."

The Oilers continued to struggle to put together passes, with a couple more giveaways in the final 20 minutes resulting in quick goals from the Ducks, starting with Bouchard's missed pass to McDavid that was intercepted for an odd-man rush and converted low glove by Beckett Sennecke for his first goal of the series.

Just 37 seconds later, Bouchard's attempted feed to Roslovic was tipped into the neutral zone for Troy Terry to pick up to start another two-on-one that was eventually slid home by Leo Carlsson to put Anaheim ahead 5-3 with 16:25 left in regulation.

"I think you can help their speed and you can deter their speed depending on how you play, and we're helping their speed right now," Hyman said. "So we gotta do a better job with all the little things holding guys up. When you make them defend the full length of the ice so it's a lot harder for them to use their speed. We gotta be better at getting above guys. I think we can do better in a lot of areas on the defensive side of things."

If the Oilers were going to get back into this one, they needed to convert at least one of their three power plays in the final frame, and they received some help in scoring their first on the man advantage – and first from their captain – when his shot clipped off the stick of LaCombe to nestle into the top corner of Anaheim's net from the left side.

"He had some great scoring chances, some odd man rushes, and he got a goal and an assist tonight," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "We got a goal on the power play, which is good for us, but I think he's getting better and that's what we need."

With over three minutes to go, Edmonton's hopes of a late comeback were dashed by another defensive error after Mattias Ekholm tracked back and lost his coverage when the puck bounced off the back boards and onto the tape of Jeffrey Viel, who had space in front to backhand it short side under the blocker of Ingram.

"Obviously, not good enough from us tonight," Ekholm said. "We scrambled to at least have a chance going into third, but mistakes are mistakes, and we'll have to take responsibility for that. It starts with me. It starts with the guys that I'm out there with, and it goes on. We just gotta make sure we value the defensive side of the puck. It's gonna be hard to win games when you let in six or seven."

LaCombe added an empty-netter to seal the 7-4 victory for the Ducks before rough stuff ensued in the final minutes with a fight between Viel and Podkolzin, as the Russian tried to spark some momentum for them to carry over.

Ultimately, it was the Ducks' run-and-gun game that got the best of the Oilers again, compounding their mistakes to saddle them with a 2-1 series deficit heading into Game 4 on Sunday back at Honda Center.

"I don't think that's what we want to be doing," Kapanen said. "And certainly, I think defensively we can be better. I felt like tonight and Game 2, we kind of kept shooting ourselves in the foot. I feel like we're giving them these wins, so it's disappointing, but it's a race to four wins, so we're not going to panic. We have to learn from our mistakes and just be better in the next game."