Sennecke has three points, Ducks withstand late rally from Oilers

EDMONTON -- Beckett Sennecke had two goals and an assist, and the Anaheim Ducks withstood a late rally from the Edmonton Oilers for a 5-4 win at Rogers Place on Thursday.

After Sennecke had given the Ducks a 5-2 lead early in the third period, Kasperi Kapanen began the comeback attempt by scoring a power-play goal with 3:36 remaining.

“We keep finding ways to leave teams in it a little bit in the past couple of games,” Sennecke said. “But a win’s a win.”

Leon Draisaitl then cut it to 5-4 with 45 seconds left in the third, receiving a cross-crease pass through the seam from Connor McDavid and scoring past Laurent Brossoit’s glove with Matt Tomkins on the bench for the extra attacker.

The Oilers then possessed the puck off the ensuing face-off, but they weren't able to find the tying goal.

“The battle level was high,” McDavid, who had a goal and three assists to extend his season-opening point streak to 17 games, said. “Just little mistakes here and there and they found a way to capitalize. We just came up a little short.”

Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist, including his ninth goal in his past four games, and Pavel Mintyukov had two goals and an assist for the Ducks (8-7-1), who have won three straight. Brossoit made 23 saves.

“I thought we worked hard tonight. I thought our momentum shifted a couple times, like our last game,” said Ducks coach Joel Quenneville, whose team was coming off a 5-4 win Tuesday at the Vancouver Canucks. “Up 5-2, looked like they were going away and then, next thing you know, they tie it up.

“Vancouver beat us similarly a week ago (6-5 in overtime Oct. 27), same situation. So, we hung on there at the end, but I thought we had a really good third period going until they made it 5-3. But the guys worked hard and had a lot of positives.”

Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard each had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added two assists for the Oilers (11-3-3), who had their point streak end at five (3-0-2). Tomkins made 16 saves.

“I thought our penalty kill was excellent,” said Oilers coach Mike Babcock, whose team held the Ducks to 2-for-8 on the power play while scoring on two of six chances on their own man-advantage. “It really set us up to win the game, to tell you the truth. It gave us a chance. And then, we didn’t look after it. They won both net fronts. They won our net front and their net front.”

Gauthier put the Ducks on the board 1-0 on the power play at 9:26 of the first period, taking a pass across the slot from Jackson LaCombe and scoring short side underneath Tomkins’ right arm. The goal marked Gauthier's seventh power-play goal in four games after he became the first player in Ducks history to score two on the man-advantage in each of his previous three games.

“They have a good penalty kill, and something we haven’t seen so far this season,” Gauthier said. “A lot of pressure, they don’t give you any time to set up and really make a play, so it’s kind of just road hockey there.

“A 5-on-5 mentality, just trying to get open for your teammates to make a play, and Jackson LaCombe made a great one to me.”

Bouchard tied it 1-1 on the power play with 19 seconds left in the period, taking a McDavid pass from behind the net and scoring on a wrist shot high glove side from the slot. The goal was Bouchard’s third in as many games to extend his scoring streak to three games.

McDavid put Edmonton ahead 2-1 short-handed at 2:34 of the second period, driving in 1-on-1 against Ducks forward Nikita Nesterenko before taking a shot in the slot and batting his own rebound in out of midair past Brossoit for his 10th goal of the season.

“We felt like we had a chance all along, we just had to find a way to keep them at three, four, five,” McDavid said. “Obviously, we needed to keep them at four. As soon as it gets to five, it’s obviously tough.

“We never feel like we are out of games. With our group, we feel like we can come back in any situation. We fell just a little bit short.”

Mintyukov tied it 2-2 at 3:37, sending a shot in off the stick of Oilers forward Mathieu Joseph, and then scored again at 6:15 to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead, cleaning up the rebound past Tomkins’ blocker from in close off a point-blank shot by Judd Caulfield.

Sennecke made it 4-2 with 38 seconds remaining in the period, taking a cross-crease pass from Tristan Luneau and lifting it over the extended left pad of Tomkins.

“It was kind of a bit of an O-zone play there, and then someone got it to the net and I was just trying to slide it next door, and ‘Lunes’ made a great play and kind of shoveled it to the net and he put it on my tape,” Sennecke said. “We’re rolling hot right now. I think we all feel good and we’re confident in our group now, so it’s nice to kind of feel that way after the start we had.”

Sennecke then extended the lead to 5-2 at 1:42 of the third period with a power-play goal, completing a tic-tac-toe play on passes from Gauthier and Carlsson, and then sending the puck in on a one-timer at the right post.

NOTES: The Ducks scored five goals in six consecutive games for the first time in franchise history, and became the ninth team to do so since 1986-87 (excluding shootout-deciding goals). ... Sennecke recorded his 78th career point and passed Mason McTavish (76) for the second-most points by a Ducks player before age 21. He trails only Carlsson (115). ... Sennecke became the youngest player in Ducks history to record consecutive three-point games, besting 21-year-old Paul Kariya (two games in 1995-96). ... With goaltender Tristan Jarry sitting out the game due to illness, the Oilers activated emergency backup goaltender Brett Epp to the roster for the first time to back up Tomkins. ... At 8:06 of the first period, Oilers forward Vasily Podkolzin received a game misconduct after McDavid was checked into the Anaheim net by Ducks defenseman Drew Helleson. ... Combining on two goals, McDavid and Draisaitl (561 times) moved ahead of Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe (560 times) to sit fourth on the list of duos in NHL history to earn a point on the same goal. ... Bouchard (17 games) matched Bobby Orr (17 games in 1973-74 and 1969-70) for the second-fewest games to reach 30 points in a season by a defenseman. Orr also holds the benchmark (14 games in 1974-75). ... McDavid (17 games) required the fewest games to record five four-point outings in a season since Mario Lemieux (11 games in 1995-96). Also with 17 games, he became the fastest player to record a dozen multipoint games in a season since Peter Forsberg (17 games in 2005-06). The last player to reach the mark faster was Kevin Stevens (16 games in 1992-93).