ANAHEIM, Calif. – There were plenty of nerves in the crowd at Honda Center after the Anaheim Ducks were forced to come back following a season-saving effort by the Oilers in Edmonton.
However, as Tim Washe shared from an old coach’s adage earlier in the series, “nerves are for the unprepared,” and the young Ducks looked plenty prepped to move this franchise forward on Thursday.
Anaheim burst out with a three-goal first period and held off the back-to-back Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers, 5-2, to take Game 6 and their first-round series on Thursday at Honda Center.
The Ducks won their first Stanley Cup Playoff series since their 2017 seven-game, second-round win over Edmonton, and Anaheim now awaits its second round opponent from the Vegas-Utah series.
Vegas takes a 3-2 series lead to Utah on Friday, with a potential Game 7 on Sunday. If the Golden Knights win, Anaheim will travel to Vegas to open the second round next week. If the Mammoth come back to take the series, the Ducks will host Utah to begin the next series.
Ryan Poehling, Chris Kreider, Cutter Gauthier, Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson all scored for Anaheim, with Gauthier netting the Ducks’ seventh power play goal of the series. Leo Carlsson registered two assists.
Connor Murphy and Vasily Podkolzin pulled in Edmonton’s goals. Leon Draisaitl posted his playoff-leading 10th point.
After being pulled in the first period of Game 5, Lukas Dostal bounced back with a controlled 21 saves for the series clinching win. Connor Ingram made 25 saves in the season-ending loss for Edmonton.
After Game 5 in Edmonton, Anaheim said to a man they didn’t match the Oilers’ desperate energy in the opening period, which resulted in a flat Ducks performance being rolled over and sending the series back to Honda Center.
Anaheim was determined to start Game 6 differently, and for the first time in this series, the Ducks scored the opening goal.
“It’s a new day,” Gauthier said at morning skate on Thursday. “We have a 3-2 series lead right now, and we have an opportunity to win the series tonight. We’re going to do everything we can to try and get that done.”
Gauthier pulled a puck out of corner battle and fed John Carlson at the point, who shot through Mason McTavish traffic. The shot deflected off an Oilers stick and off Poehling in the slot to trickle over the goal line, 1-0, just under 10 minutes into the game.
Poehling’s fourth goal of the series opened up the game flow, and the Ducks got in gear.
Roughly four minutes later, Carlsson and Terry battled up ice on the rush, and Carlsson flipped the puck to Kreider on right wing for the one-timer. The birthday boy blasted it by Ingram for a two-goal Anaheim lead, 2-0.
Edmonton clawed one back two minutes later, as Josh Samanski kept a puck alive at the net. Murphy drifted down from the point to pot the loose puck into the open cage and halve the deficit, 2-1.
The Oilers took a penalty 13 seconds later, and the Anaheim power play continued its electric run with its seventh strike in six games.
Jackson LaCombe fed Gauthier for the one-time blast, which hit an Oiler stick and knuckled over Ingram to regain the two-goal lead, 3-1. That was Gauthier’s fourth goal of the series, and LaCombe’s playoff-leading eighth assist. LaCombe’s nine points are tied for second in the first round.
Anaheim kept up the pressure into the second period, where they proved to be faster than Edmonton at nearly every turn. The Ducks played as they wanted to with quick rushes followed by extended possessions. Anaheim earned 56% of shot attempts at five-on-five and 56% of the expected goals at five-on-five in the middle frame, per Natural Stat Trick.
The Ducks were finally rewarded in the last minute of the second period, as Carlsson stripped Evan Bouchard for a two-on-one. Carlsson fed Terry, and Terry buried it five-hole on a sliding Ingram, 4-1.
Edmonton again scratched back a goal 74 seconds into the third period, as Kasperi Kapanen’s wide shot hit Podkolzin in the Ducks’ crease and deflected in, 4-2. That was Podkolzin’s third goal of the series, and Kapanen’s sixth point.