Ducks force Game 3
- The Anaheim Ducks tied their first-round series with the Edmonton Oilers via a 3-2 overtime road win. - Cutter Gauthier and Victor Poehling scored in the victory that evened the series 1-1. - Anaheim will return home with momentum as the matchup heads back to SoCal. (x.com) (x.com)
Anaheim didn’t steal a low-scoring grinder in Edmonton. The Ducks beat the Oilers 6-4 on Wednesday night in Game 2, tying the first-round series at 1-1 before it shifts to Southern California. (nhl.com) Cutter Gauthier scored his first two Stanley Cup Playoff goals, including the tiebreaker at 15:07 of the third period, and Alex Killorn had a goal and two assists. Lukas Dostal made 28 saves for Anaheim at Rogers Place. (nhl.com) Edmonton got a goal and an assist from Leon Draisaitl, plus goals from Connor McDavid, Mattias Janmark and Kasperi Kapanen. The Oilers erased deficits twice, but Jackson LaCombe’s empty-netter with 1:10 left sealed it. (apnews.com) The win changed the shape of the series after Edmonton took Game 1 by a 4-3 score on Monday, with Kapanen scoring the winner with 1:54 remaining in the third period. Instead of a 2-0 Oilers lead, Anaheim goes home with the matchup even. (espn.com) That matters for a Ducks team back in the playoffs after a long rebuild. Anaheim finished the regular season 43-33-6 for 92 points, while Edmonton finished 41-30-11 for 93 points, making this a close first-round pairing from the start. (espn.com) Game 2 also turned on Anaheim’s young core showing up in a hostile building. Gauthier is 22, LaCombe is 25, and Beckett Sennecke assisted on Gauthier’s late winner for his first National Hockey League playoff point. (nhl.com) Edmonton had its own injury scare when McDavid went down awkwardly in the second period after contact with Trouba, then returned and scored later in the game. AP reported McDavid said afterward that he was “all right.” (apnews.com) The series now heads to Anaheim for Game 3 on Friday, April 24, with the Ducks’ team site listing a 7 p.m. PDT start at Honda Center. After two games in Edmonton, home ice has already changed hands. (nhl.com)
