Ducks tie series

Anaheim beat Edmonton 6-4 in Game 2 on Wednesday night, leveling the Western Conference first-round series at 1-1 before the matchup shifts to Anaheim for Game 3. (apnews.com) Cutter Gauthier scored his first two Stanley Cup Playoff goals, including the tiebreaker with 4:52 left in the third period at Rogers Place. Alex Killorn added three points for the Ducks in the win. (nhl.com) Anaheim had opened the series with a 4-3 loss in Edmonton on Monday, April 20. The split means the Ducks took one of the first two road games against the Pacific Division’s No. 2 seed. (espn.com, nhl.com) Game 3 is scheduled for Friday, April 24, at Honda Center in Anaheim, with Game 4 set for Sunday, April 26, in the same building. In a best-of-seven series, home ice flips after the first two games, and the next team to win twice takes control of the round. (nhl.com, nhl.com) The matchup carries extra weight for Anaheim because this is the club’s first playoff appearance since the 2017-18 season. The Ducks last won a playoff series in 2017, also against Edmonton. (aol.com) Edmonton entered the series with 93 points, one more than Anaheim’s 92, and had reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the previous two seasons. That made the Oilers the higher seed and gave them home ice to start the round. (nhl.com) The Ducks announced that every first-round game will air locally on KCOP-13 and stream on Victory+ in the Los Angeles market. Nationally, Game 3 is listed for TNT and truTV. (nhl.com, espn.com) The series now returns to Southern California with Anaheim holding the split it needed on the road and Edmonton needing to answer in a building that has not hosted a Ducks playoff game in eight years. (nhl.com, aol.com)