ANAHEIM, Calif._Corey Perry's season-long scoring struggles melted away Friday in the wake of a goal that put the Ducks in the driver's seat of their second-round playoff series against he Edmonton Oilers.
Perry lifted the puck over the left of goaltender Cam Talbot six minutes and 57 seconds into the second overtime Friday to give the Ducks a 4-3 victory and complete a remarkable rally. In becoming the first home team to win a game in this series, the Ducks took a 3-2 lead in the series and can advance to the Western Conference finals with a win on Sunday at Edmonton.
It was an unlikely finish to a game that appeared bound to be a loss for the Ducks.
Down by three goals with slightly more than three minutes left in the third period, victims of their own inability to capitalize on some golden breaks early in the game, the Ducks on Friday used the experience and the poise they have so carefully cultivated this season to take the game to overtime and to prevail on their 64th shot on goal.
The Ducks had been flat for much of regulation time. But goals by Ryan Getzlaf with 3 minutes 16 seconds left in the third period, Cam Fowler with 2:41 left and Rickard Rakell with 15 seconds left in the third period brought them to even footing with the young Oilers, who were unable to handle this late and potent pushback.
Until then, the Oilers had been dominant. Precocious but not playoff-tested, down a couple of defensemen because of injuries and put on the defensive by two penalties and a penalty shot that was awarded to hot-scoring Getzlaf, the Oilers could have folded in the first period Friday. Instead they took a 3-0 lead into the third period, silencing the sold-out crowd at Honda Center.
"Playoffs are a funny thing. You can never really predict it," Oilers center and NHL scoring champion Connor McDavid said after his team's morning skate Friday, and that had a ring of prescience.
No one could have predicted that the Ducks' offense, which had produced 10 goals in the previous two games, would be stifled until Getzlaf, Fowler and Rakell brought the Ducks even so late in regulation time. All things little and big that the Ducks had done right to win the previous two games at Edmonton they did wrong in a nightmarish second period Friday, and the Oilers jumped on them.
Game 6 will be played on Sunday at Edmonton; a seventh game, if necessary, would be played Wednesday at Honda Center. The winner of this series will face the winner of the Nashville-St. Louis series in the Western Conference finals.
The Oilers won Games 1 and 2 at Anaheim and they're grasping the concept that a higher price must be paid to win playoff games than to win regular-season exercises. The Oilers don't always get it right for entire games but they were in control on Friday until they became worn down physically and couldn't fend off the more experienced Ducks.
"Both teams are comfortable playing on the road, and they certainly have a little more experience with it but we're gaining as we go," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said Friday morning, another sentiment that proved to be true.
The Ducks did win the third and fourth games last week in Edmonton to regain home-ice advantage, but they made poor use of their familiar surroundings in the early going on Friday. However, their late scoring spree brought roars from the crowd and fans watched the waning seconds on their feet, too nervous to sit.
The Ducks couldn't have asked for more breaks at the start: they took three shots at Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot before the game was 25 seconds old and they got two power plays and Getzlaf's penalty shot in the first period.
They were gifted a golden opportunity at 9:12 when Milan Lucic impeded Getzlaf on a breakaway and Getzlaf was awarded a penalty shot, only the second in the Ducks' playoff history. Getzlaf, who scored two goals in Game 4, missed the net high and wide.
The Ducks then squandered two power plays, missing crucial chances to put pressure on the undermanned Oilers. Edmonton defensemen Andrej Sekera, Matt Benning and Oscar Klefbom missed shifts during the first period and Sekera didn't return after being helped off the ice following a hit delivered by Getzlaf. Short on manpower, the Oilers were long on resilience. They won key faceoffs and finished their few scoring chances, stunning the Ducks with two goals in the first three minutes of the second period and adding a third goal that was abetted by the Ducks' defensive confusion.
The Ducks have relied all season on the leadership of Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler, and on the bench-management skills of Coach Randy Carlyle. Those assets got them a fifth consecutive Pacific division title, a sweep of the Calgary Flames in the first round, and two road victories against Edmonton. They will need that leadership and poise and some luck to keep moving on, but they showed their resilience on Friday, and that's a huge asset, too.
