EDMONTON, Alberta _ The Anaheim Ducks left for Kelowna, British Columbia, shortly after Sunday's postseason game in Edmonton. But before they did, they made sure they'd be taking the second-round playoff series back to Anaheim by beating the Oilers 6-3.
Edmonton won the first two games last week in Southern California and leads the series, 2 to 1. But with Sunday's victory, the Ducks guaranteed there would be a Game 5 on Friday at the Honda Center.
It wasn't easy, though, with the Ducks going ahead 3-0 in the first period before scoring three more unanswered goals late in the game, going ahead for good on Chris Wagner's first score of the playoffs midway through the second period. In between, the Oilers tied the score, 3-3.
Richard Rakell, Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg also scored for the Ducks, with Silfverberg getting two goals. The six goals tied a franchise record for a playoff game.
Edmonton got goals from Patrick Maroon, Anton Slepyshev and Connor McDavid.
The best-of-seven series resumes Wednesday at Rogers Place, although the Ducks will spend their two off days practicing an hour away in British Columbia rather than staying in Edmonton.
The Ducks wasted no time in getting started Sunday, with Rakell scoring 25 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Getzlaf started the sequence with a pass from deep in the Ducks' end that launched Rakell on a breakaway at the Oilers' blue line. Rakell then skated in alone on Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot, beating him with a snap shot high to his glove side for his third goal of the postseason.
It was also the quickest playoff goal in franchise history.
The Ducks doubled the lead five minutes later when Silfverberg gathered the deflection of a Hampus Lindholm shot at the left post and poked it in. After stopping 39 of 40 shots in Game 2 on Friday, Talbot gave up goals on two of the first three he saw Sunday.
And his night quickly got worse with Getzlaf making it 3-0 on a wrister from the center of the right faceoff circle. For the Ducks, the three goals in the first 12 minutes were just one fewer than they scored in the first two games of the series combined. It also marked the first time the Ducks scored three times in the first period of road playoff game since April 2008.
But Edmonton got two of those back in a two-minute span sandwiched after the first intermission. Maroon scored the first with less than 40 seconds left in the opening period, crashing the crease to redirect a shot past Ducks goalie John Gibson. Slepyshev then made it a one-goal game 88 seconds after the break, batting in a loose puck off the shoulder of Ducks defender Shea Theodore.
McDavid tied the score at 8:40 of the second period, spinning away from Ducks defender Sami Vatanen at the top of the left faceoff circle and scoring on a left-handed wrister for his first goal of the series.
The tie lasted less than a minute, though, before Wagner drove a slap shot through Talbot from a sharp angle near the right boards.
The Ducks then caught a pair of breaks to put the game away.
The first came into the final two minutes of the second period when Leon Draisaitl beat Gibson cleanly on a power play, only to see the shot ricochet harmlessly off the far post. The Ducks, who gave up at least one power-play goal in each of their first six postseason games, killed four penalties Sunday.
The second break came early in the final period when a wide-open Silfverberg took a deft pass from Josh Manson between the circles and drove the puck past Talbot. Replays appeared to show Silfverberg was offside on the play but after a lengthy review, the goal stood.
Silfverberg then set up Kesler's goal, which closed out the scoring halfway into the final 20 minutes.
In addition to Silfverberg's two goals and an assist, Manson and Theodore both had a pair of helpers.
