ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Four players scored for the Anaheim Ducks, and John Gibson stopped 33 shots and got an assist on one of the goals in a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.
Before an announced crowd of 15,600 at Honda Center, the Ducks (8-6-3) kept Oilers star Connor McDavid quiet and delivered a balanced offensive attack to support Gibson's strong work in goal to open a lengthy homestand.
The result was a 180-degree turn from a 5-0 loss at Nashville to end a brief three-game trip. But the inconsistent Ducks have been that way in the first quarter of the season, trading decisive wins with one-sided defeats.
Nick Ritchie, Cam Fowler, Ryan Kesler and Antoine Vermette all scored while Corey Perry had two assists. Eleven players got on the scoresheet, including Gibson. He was credited with an assist when he made a pad stop on a pass that Fowler inadvertently deflected into him.
Fowler picked up the puck, gave it to Jakob Silfverberg on a rush up ice and then got a drop pass back to fire a low shot past Edmonton goalie Cam Talbot on the far side for his fifth goal of the season, tying his total from all of 2015-16.
Uneven to this point, Gibson maintained a second-period lead by making a number of strong stops. Vermette further quelled any type of comeback by scoring off a pass from linemate Joseph Cramarossa to finish an odd-man break in the third.
The Oilers (9-7-1) were one of the NHL's best surprise stories in the first few weeks as they busted out to a 7-1-0 start. It has been tough sledding for the young team since and the Ducks have joined them at the top of a crowded, muddled Pacific Division.
Ritchie started the scoring when he got a perfectly placed lead pass from Ryan Getzlaf and beat Talbot stick side to cap a pinpoint puck-moving sequence with Perry. Fowler made it 2-0, then Kesler added to that with a power-play conversion 7:51 into the second.
