Ducks withstand Oilers rally, pull back into series

It was the kind of attention Oilers goalie Cam Talbot has earned but hasn’t necessarily received during a statement-making season.

The Ducks are a veteran team now getting pushed around by a young team on the rise, with all of their playoff experience the Ducks need to be smart and push back, they’ll need to avoid taking penalties and it’s time for veterans like Perry to start finding the net. He plays in correct positions, which means he stops plays before they even start. Kesler was able to get in the way of the ice-level camera and made life miserable for the linsemen during the review. He isn’t the stealth bomber. Coach Randy Carlyle’s charges face the mountainous task of solving Cam Talbot and the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday when the Western Conference series shifts to Alberta for Game 3. Sometimes there are too many holes in the boat to plug. I thought had we come in here (to the locker room) with a three-goal lead, everybody’s feeling good and doing the same thing. The Ducks are listed with a money line of +110 to prevail tonight, while the over/under total is set at 5 goals. With their backs against the wall, the Ducks from two weeks ago showed up, winning Game 3 by a 6-3 score.

Defenseman Kevin Bieksa isn’t expected back in the Ducks’ lineup until late in the second-round series, if it gets that far. Andrej Sekera has joined fellow defenseman Adam Larsson and forwards Zack Kassian, David Desharnais and Anton Slepyshev in providing offense in the playoffs for the Oilers.

As the second round took flight last week, Perry and the Ducks lost both home games to the Edmonton Oilers and will head on the road to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive.

And even though they roared to a three-goal lead after 12 minutes on Sunday, only to let the Oilers tie it eight minutes into the second, they packed a 6-3 victory in their bags as they flew to Kelowna, B.C., for two days before Wednesday’s Game 4. “Down the stretch, we bent but we didn’t break, and that’s the sign of a good team”. “We just didn’t deliver and they found a way to capitalize”. McDavid drew the game’s first power play when he was tripped up by Kesler following an uncalled high-sticking, only for Draisaitl to give away the advantage with a slash.

There were virtually no odd-man rushes in those first two periods. The Oilers won 5-3.

Then the reins came off, and it’s hard to beat Edmonton end-to-end. Louis and Edmonton-Anaheim is on Friday night. Again, there’s a limit to what numbers tell you.

Jakob Silfverberg, Ducks – Silfverberg came through in a big way for the Ducks with two goals in recording the first multi-goal playoff game of his career. Rinne blanked the Blues after Alexander Steen scored with about seven minutes left in the second period.

“Every player has a team he likes to play”, Draisaitl said.

“We had an opportunity to get up mid-series against San Jose, and we obviously didn’t perform very well”, McLellan said. Injuries happen and situations happen that you just got to be prepared for.

But then there are some players, such as Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, that are just purely more physically gifted than anyone else on the ice at any given time, and he produces spectacular plays such as the one you can see above.

It will be tough for the Ducks, though, if Talbot can continue to play like he did on Friday. Both were minus-2 in this one. “Our penalty kill has to get a little bit better, has to work together better”. Our neutral zone isn’t real good.