Silfverberg scores 2, Ducks beat Oilers 6-3 in Game 3

The Oilers won the first two games of their Western Conference second-round series against the Ducks in Anaheim, but the Ducks came back to take game three by a 6-3 count on Edmonton’s home ice on Sunday. “Tonight it found a way to get in”, Letestu said. The Ducks added two more in the third period to pull away – Jakob Silfverberg’s second goal of the night and one by Ryan Kesler. If the Ducks want to win Game 3 they have to stay out of the penalty box. And it’s a fun team to watch with the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Rakell, who snuck in behind Oilers defenseman Andrej Sekera, went in alone on Talbot and scored the fastest goal by a Ducks player from the start of the game in their playoff history. You have to give the Oilers first blood here, (I mean, they won the game, duh) because McDavid’s line was crucial to the victory, even if it was Draisaitl doing the most damage on the scoreboard.

On Friday night, the headliner was clearly Talbot, who stopped 39 of the 40 shots that the desperate Ducks threw at him.

A tightly played game suddenly took flight in the third period.

“For all the good work Cam has done for us this year, we have to pick one up for him”, Letestu said. “We have to make a couple of changes, personnel-wise, for the next game and look at the tape and see what we can do … a little bit better than tonight because it wasn’t good enough”. Anaheim gave the Oilers five opportunities to cash in with the extra man.

Ducks right wing Jakob Silfverberg is so responsible defensively and so willing to perform the tiresome but necessary work to prevent opposing forwards from scoring that his coaches were always happy to slot him into a defensive role and be glad when he scores an occasional goal. He now has one in two appearances as a visitor.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Friday in Anaheim.

“We’re not proud of it but it’s the position we’ve been in before”, Gibson said.

“We had resiliency, but we made a mistake on the winning goal”, said Carlyle. Gibson made five 10-bell stops after two unusual ones beat him- a possible stick over the crossbar by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins before another pinballed around before hitting Shea Theodore and going in. We just needed to get pushing.

Because of that, the Oilers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals over the Ducks. Just like past year, John Gibson was in goal looking tentative, and the rest of the team has looked a step slower than the speedier Oilers.

There wasn’t much to Larsson’s second goal, a centring pass from behind the net struck Ducks defenceman Josh Manson’s skate and went in.

It will be tough for the Ducks, though, if Talbot can continue to play like he did on Friday.

The Ducks are 5-2 in their last 7 road games, 23-9 in their last 32 games playing on 1 days rest and 8-2 in their last 10 vs. Enter Silfverberg. The Swede had a two goal, one assist performance in Anaheim’s 6-3 win. Edmonton also had golden chances, such as McDavid getting alone and untouched in front of Gibson during a power play, but couldn’t cash in.

Silfverberg got his stick on a loose puck to make it 2-0 at 5:33 when Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson failed to clear it away from Talbot. “We just have to keep that in mind and put as much as we can to them”. “We have a bunch of great leaders on this team and can handle those momentum swings”.

While Draisaitl was a constant point-producer this season, the Oilers got an additional boost from an unexpected source in Game 1.