EDMONTON — No team comes back at you in the third period like the Anaheim Ducks. A franchise that was conceived by a movie has embraced Hollywood comebacks this season, trailing in all 17 games since the Olympic break but still managing 11 wins.
And that includes a whacky, 6-5 win over Edmonton a month ago, where the Ducks trailed 2-0, 4-2 and 5-4 before winning in regulation by a 6-5 score.
So when Anaheim shaved a 3-0 Oilers lead to 3-2 on Saturday afternoon, scoring goals nearly three minutes apart midway through the third period, it was going to go one of two ways:
Either the young, up-and-coming Ducks were going to steal the old boys’ lunch again. Or an Oilers team that’s been to two Stanley Cup Finals was going to remind the team that’s missed the playoffs for seven straight seasons just who’s boss.
“It definitely got a little tighter than it needed to,” said Oilers centreman Jason Dickinson, who found himself on the ice for both Ducks goals — not the role he was brought in here to play. “We were playing such a great game up until those two goals. I wear those on my shoulder. They’re going to bug me.
“But the fact that we were able to stick with it — get back to defending hard and advancing pucks to keep them from sustaining the zone — that’s good.”
Eventually, Zach Hyman provided the empty net goal, giving the Oilers a 4-2 win and just their second three-game winning streak all season long — a metaphor for the kind of year it’s been in Edmonton.
When you can’t win three straight, failing to extend a two-game streak 11 times in 13 attempts this season, it means you’re having trouble putting a solid week of hockey together. In a season that started waaaay back in October, that’s a lot of weeks, you might say.
What you can’t say, however, is that Edmonton isn’t playing its best hockey of the season at the most crucial moment, closing to within three points of the first-place Ducks with eight games left in Edmonton’s schedule. The Ducks have nine games to play, but a slightly tougher collection of opponents.
“The divisional points that were on the line, that was more important than giving up a three-goal lead,” Dickinson said. “Forget that and win the game however you have to. Get it done because those two points make a big difference.”
“It was a good night,” echoed defenceman Darnell Nurse, whose game is really starting to arrive since being paired with big Connor Murphy. “When we had to lock it down, we locked it down. (Connor Ingram) made some good saves, we locked it down defensively, our structure was good.
“It’s hockey, sometimes they’re going to score goals too.”
This one entered the third period as a 1-0 Oilers lead, with a building full of savvy hockey people who knew the Ducks would make their inevitable push. But before that push started, Jack Roslovic and Matt Savoie — who scored for the third straight game — gave Edmonton a 3-0 cushion.
One that, as it turned out, they would need.
“For the first 50 minutes, it was as good as we’ve played all season,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Nothing too fancy — maybe we’d like to have gotten a goal on the power play, if I’m being a bit negative. But five-on-five and on the penalty-kill we were really good, until we scored the third goal.”
Suddenly, first place in the Pacific isn’t the nonstarter it had been up until about a week ago. The reward for first place is a wild-card opponent (likely Utah), rather than facing a Divisional foe like Vegas or Los Angeles in Round 1.
With three points to make up on the Ducks, Edmonton gets Seattle on Tuesday, Chicago Thursday and the final game of the regular season against Vegas on Saturday — all at Rogers Place. Anaheim’s week goes like this: At home to Toronto Monday, in San Jose Wednesday, and home games against St. Louis and Calgary Friday and Saturday.
“We’ve been chipping away at it,” Nurse said of Edmonton’s overall game. “It hasn’t been perfect — we still have a lot of work to do. The race is still tight, there’s nothing guaranteed. So for us, it’s not about just putting a few games together, we’ve got to continue this through the final (eight). It’s the time of year we like to play in.”
Edmonton has travelled this road often over the last five seasons. Anaheim, meanwhile, hasn’t been in a meaningful stretch run in eight years.
We’ll get a look now at how the Ducks operate once they’re hearing footsteps in the Pacific.
“Obviously Edmonton is a great team. They made it to the Stanley Cup Final the last two seasons,” said the Ducks’ Cutter Gauthier. “They have a great team again this year. There’s nine games left in this seasons and we have to focus on the small details that’s going to help us be successful in the playoffs and go from there.”
Get used to the matchup, folks.
The Ducks are going to be around for a while, and the Oilers aren’t going anywhere quite yet.
