Ryan Poehling scored the winning goal to give the host Anaheim Ducks a 4-3 overtime victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday and put them one win away from advancing in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Cutter Gauthier, Mikael Granlund and Jeffery Viel also scored for the Ducks in the comeback victory that has them up 3-1 in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series. Defensemen John Carlson and Jackson Lacombe each had two assists and Lukas Dostal made 24 saves.
“We’re so confident with our team. I think we’ve grown so much throughout the year,” Mason McTavish, who assisted on the winning goal, told Sportsnet. “You’ve seen Edmonton the last two years go to the Cup Final — they’re so good, (Connor) McDavid, (Leon) Draisaitl, their whole team — subconsciously you kind of know maybe they’re the favorite, but I like how we’ve grown each game.”
Game 5 is Tuesday in Edmonton.
The Oilers’ Evan Bouchard notched a goal and an assist, Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each scored a goal, while McDavid collected two assists, his 50th multi-point performance in 100 career playoff games. Tristan Jarry stopped 34 shots in his first start of this year’s playoffs.
“We’re in a hole, no doubt about it,” McDavid said. “Gotta find a way to get a win at home.”
Poehling sent a pass to the front of the net, and it ricocheted off Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse’s skate before squirting through Jarry’s legs just over the line at 2:29 of overtime. Poehling has three goals in the series.
“A huge win for us and a huge goal,” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said.
A lengthy video review ruled it was a good goal.
“I’m sure you could go either way with it,” Jarry said. “You could say it’s a goal, say it’s no goal. There’s going to be opinions about it and obviously on the losing side of it, we didn’t think it went in, but it’s tough.”
The Oilers have scored first in every game of the series and continued that trend when Kapanen tallied just 38 seconds into the clash by pouncing on a loose puck in the slot for his fourth goal of the series.
Nugent-Hopkins doubled the lead on the power play six minutes later. His shot from the left circle was stopped, but the puck bounced off the skate of defenseman Pavel Mintyukov and into the net.
Gauthier provided the Ducks a huge jolt when he put them on the board with a short-side, top-corner wrist shot from the right faceoff dot at 12:24 of the second period.
Granlund scored Anaheim’s second power-play goal of the game — and sixth of the series — with 77 seconds remaining in the period by converting a give-and-go with Leo Carlsson to tie the clash 2-2.
Bouchard restored Edmonton’s lead with his team’s second power-play goal of the affair, finding the mark with a high shot at 3:27 of the third period.
However, Viel again pulled Anaheim even by sliding into the net a loose puck with 6:29 remaining in regulation.
“This group has done it before,” Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “It’s not a position we want to be in, obviously, but here we are. I’ve got all the confidence in the world we can go home, win one game and then put them on their heels.”
–Field Level Media
