04/25/26 01:01:00
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04/25 00:59 CDT Ducks blast Oilers 7-4 in Game 3 in Anaheim's first home
playoff game in 8 years
Ducks blast Oilers 7-4 in Game 3 in Anaheim's first home playoff game in 8 years
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) --- Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson scored 42 seconds
apart in the third period, Mikael Granlund had a goal and two assists, and the
Anaheim Ducks celebrated their first home playoff game in eight years with a
7-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers and a 2-1 series lead on Friday night.
Jeffrey Viel and Jackson LaCombe also scored in the third and Lukas Dostal made
20 saves for the upstart Ducks, who have poured in 16 goals in three games to
take an early lead in this first-round series against the two-time Western
Conference champion Oilers. Mason McTavish and Alex Killorn scored early goals
to the soundtrack of a raucous sellout crowd hungry for Orange County's first
postseason hockey since 2018.
"It sounded like an army out there almost," Sennecke said. "They've been
waiting eight years for this, nine years for a win, so it was pretty special."
Just as they've done so many times over their first season under coach Joel
Quenneville, the Ducks overcame their clear defensive shortcomings by simply
outscoring the powerhouse Oilers, thriving even after Connor McDavid recorded
his first points of the series.
"I thought we had a great start to the game (and) did a lot of good things most
of the night," Quenneville said. "It was nice to see the crowd get rewarded
with a win. Been a long time coming."
Game 4 is Sunday night in Anaheim.
McDavid had a power-play goal in the third period and an assist, although the
NHL scoring champion still doesn't appear to be at full health. Vasily
Podkolzin, Kasperi Kapanen and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored, and Connor
Ingram stopped 32 shots.
"You look at the goals against, and just some stuff that shouldn't happen,
especially at this time of year," Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. "There
was lost coverage in front of the net. Couple of times we were careless with
the puck. Early on, they were much more intense. They definitely looked like
they wanted it more in the first period. We were able to find our legs. We
started skating later in the game."
Appropriately for a defense-deficient series, the Ducks capitalized on two
transition sequences early in the third to take control.
Moments after Sennecke ripped a wrist shot for the tiebreaking goal and the
precocious rookie's first playoff point, Carlsson clinically finished a
textbook 2-on-1 rush with Troy Terry.
McDavid trimmed the Oilers' deficit with a fortunate deflection off Pavel
Mintyukov's stick, but the superstar short-circuited another power play later
in the third by cross-checking Tyson Hinds.
Viel then flipped home a backhand with 3:03 left to cap a strong game by the
Ducks' fourth line, and LaCombe lofted an empty-net goal all the way from the
Ducks' goal line to seal Anaheim's first home playoff victory since May 14,
2017, in the conference finals against Nashville.
"We couldn't even hear ourselves out there," Viel said. "Definitely got us
going right from the start."
The clubs split the series' first two games in Edmonton, but the Ducks
demonstrated they could stay with the playoff-tested Oilers despite the obvious
deficiencies of an inexperienced group that allowed more goals this season than
any other playoff team.
Anaheim rode the wave of crowd energy and dominated play early in Game 3,
putting 20 shots on Ingram in the first period. The Oilers surged to a 3-2 lead
early in the second, but Killorn tied it with his 39th career playoff goal.
Oilers forwards Adam Henrique and Jason Dickinson missed Game 3 with injuries.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
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