ANAHEIM — A year ago, the Ducks facing the Edmonton Oilers signified a track meet in which the Oilers were the sprinters and the Ducks were the track.
Yet with Monday night’s 3-2 triumph at Honda Center, the Ducks took three of four games in a season series that they legitimately carried against the defending Western Conference champions.
Though the Ducks remain an eyelash below a .500 points percentage while the Oilers are bound for their sixth straight postseason, they took three of four meetings from Edmonton. Last season, Edmonton swept the Ducks and outscored them 26-8, and the Ducks hadn’t won a majority of games in the season series since 2015-16, the year before Edmonton captain Connor McDavid entered the NHL.
The Ducks won this year’s series 3-1 in games and 16-10 in goals, nearly sweeping it if not for a Herculean effort by Leon Draisaitl to cap a 3-2 win in Edmonton.
Cutter Gauthier scored twice for the Ducks before Mason McTavish buried a breakaway goal. Lukáš Dostál faced heavy rubber but made a season-high 47 saves. It was his league-leading fifth game of 40 saves or more this season, and they came against five different opponents.
Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner found the back of the net for Edmonton, which missed a chance to gain ground on the second-place Kings in the Pacific Division and remain four points back with five games left in the regular season. Olivier Rodrigue made 18 saves in his first NHL start.
Edmonton was without a host of players, most notably two league MVPs in McDavid and Draisaitl, but also their top defender Mattias Ekholm, starting goalie Stuart Skinner and others. That included physical forward Trent Frederic, whose Oilers debut against the Kings served mostly to aggravate his injury. They played with just 11 forwards and, in turn, 17 skaters.
In all four meetings, the Ducks ceded the first goal – and twice gave up the first two – but three times the Ducks rallied to win and in the fourth clash it took a vulgar display of power by Draisaitl to break a late 2-2 deadlock.
Edmonton struck first again Monday.
The two teams matched strides early but the visitors took control as the period progressed, ending with a 13-6 shot advantage. Their crescendo reached its peak with 2:09 to play in the first period.
After they’d stormed the Ducks net and nearly gotten a goal from Connor Brown’s missed attempt, the Oilers recovered, with former Ducks Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry steadying the puck near the wall and sending it high for trade-deadline pickup Jake Walman. His point shot was tipped by another one-time Duck, Henrique.
The second period saw a reversal of fortune for the Ducks, thanks to same late-period brilliance and two goals on which Gauthier humiliated Evan Bouchard.
He knotted the score after Bouchard delivered a pizza in 30 minutes or less – in this case, it took 22:20 of the match – sliding the puck off his backhand and directly to Leo Carlsson. Carlsson’s pass with precise timing, touch and placement found Gauthier for a one-timer. He now sits fourth in both goals and points by an NHL rookie during a season with an uncharacteristically strong freshman class.
The Ducks went ahead 2-1 at the 7:10 mark. Gauthier took Drew Helleson’s pass and skated up the left-wing wall, directly at Bouchard. He caught Bouchard flat-footed, blowing by him to cut to the inside, dance across the goal crease and roof a shot off his backhand. His second goal of the game was his 17th of the campaign and his eighth since the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
In the third period, the Ducks’ penalty kill and Dostál secured two points, while McTavish scored his fourth goal and fifth point of the season series to sharpen the Ducks’ edge.
The Ducks killed four penalties in the final frame and six overall, including two to start the third.
McTavish’s breakaway goal to cushion the lead became the game-winner after Skinner tipped Bouchard’s shot home with 3:31 to play.
At 5:33, the Ducks had gone up when McTavish and Zegras combined to strip Kasperi Kapanen near the defensive blue line – Kapanen, Bouchard and the Ducks’ Ryan Strome had been at the center of a fracas that netted 22 total penalty minutes at the end of the second period – to send McTavish off to the races. He had daylight and elected to shoot, beating Rodrigue over his glove for goal No. 21 of 2024-25.
The period was brimming with close calls for Edmonton. Dostál committed larceny on former Ducks Max Jones’ one-timer, Viktor Arvidsson rang the post during a power play and Bouchard nearly scored in the dying embers, his shot pinging the post and nearly banking in near as Edmonton’s final gasp.
The Ducks are 14-6-1 in their last 21 home games, and they’ve got six players with at least 17 goals for the first time since their Stanley Cup championship season in 2007.
More to come on this story.
Originally Published: April 7, 2025 at 10:47 PM PDT
