VIDEO: Ducks Edge Oilers 4-3
By Michael Walters
The Anaheim Ducks continued their road trip against the Edmonton Oilers. The Ducks with a similar 7-11 lineup that produced a 5-2 win over Montreal on Thursday. The only change was Colton White drawing in for Nathan Beaulieu. Lukas Dostal was in net again and faced Stuart Skinner.
Recap
Darnell Nurse opened up the scoring just over five minutes into the game. He took a point shot through traffic that was deflected and eventually went past Dostal into the net.
The Ducks would answer back with a pair of goals towards the end of the period. The Oilers tried to clear the puck up the boards and Jayson Megna had pinched against the boards keeping the puck in the zone. He then made a quick pass to Mason McTavish who skated into the slot drawing the attention of the Oilers defenders. He found Sam Carrick near the side of the net for an easy tap in goal.
Anaheim would then go on the power play just over two minutes later. The Ducks would work the puck around in the offensive zone and eventually Cam Fowler would take a blast from the point beating Skinner glove side.
The Oilers were awarded a power play with 1:47 left. The Ducks kept the Oilers off the board and took a 2-1 to the locker room.
Ryan Strome would make it a 3-1 game in favor of the Ducks with a great individual effort. He stripped the puck from Evan Bouchard at the blue line and then had a breakaway from center ice. He then beat Skinner glove side for the score.
The Oilers would pull within one score in the final minute of the second period. While on the power play Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would score off a broken play in front. Connor McDavid tried to make a pass to Zach Hyman and the puck was deflected and eventually came to Nugent-Hopkins, who scored with a partially open net.
To start the third period, the Ducks took two early penalties giving the Oilers a 5-on-3 power play. McDavid would score on a cross ice pass to tie up the game at three.
Edmonton appeared to score again with the time still remaining on the second penalty. The goalie was waived off by the officials because Dostal was interfered with by being pushed into the back of the net.
John Klingberg would give the Ducks a 4-3 lead minutes later in the game. The Oilers turned over the puck in their defensive zone and eventually Klingberg got the puck along the boards and just threw it at the net. Skinner was screened by his own player and the puck ended up in the net.
The Oilers applied all kinds of pressure at the end of this contest. Trevor Zegras took a tripping penalty late in the game, but the Ducks were able to kill it off. Edmonton also pulled their goalie in the final moments of this game, but Anaheim was able to hold on for the 4-3 win.
Analysis:
For the first time this season the Ducks earned back-to-back wins. The Ducks were able to build a two goal lead like they did in Montreal, but then again gave up the lead this time to the Oilers. Anaheim was able to respond with a goal by Klingberg, but then had to hang on for deal life in the third period. The Oilers had a whooping 38 shot attempts in the third period and the only goal scored was during a 5-on-3 power play.
This was a tale of two games for Anaheim. The Strome goal came at almost halfway through the game with 31 minutes and 29 seconds left in the game. Anaheim had 29 shot attempts at that point in the game. They would only make 9 shot attempts for the rest of the game. Edmonton also had 29 shots attempts at the time of Strome’s goal and then made 53 shots attempts in the rest of the game. Dostal had to play amazing especially in the second half for Anaheim to win this game. The Oilers had a 5.8 goals expected for this game and Dostal kept them at three.
The Ducks still need to work on their discipline and penalty kill. Anaheim was called for six penalties and gave up two power play goals. They nearly gave up a third one if not for the refs making the correct call of goalie interference. Thankfully Anaheim’s power play has been producing and did get one goal in this contest. It was great to see the Ducks win back-to-back games, but it wasn’t pretty.
Team Stats/News:
Lukas Dostal made 46, which is the second highest in team history. Frederik Andersen holds the record with 49.
This season only two other rookie goalies, Stuart Skinner(47) and Daniil Tarasov(47), have made more saves in a regular season game than Dostal.
Sam Carrick scored his first goal of the season.
What’s Next?
The Ducks play the Kings on Tuesday night.
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December 18th, 2022