3 Things to Watch: Oilers at Ducks, Game 6 of Western Conference 1st Round

ANAHEIM — The Anaheim Ducks have another chance to eliminate the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference First Round, and advance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017. 

The Ducks lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 and can close it out on home ice after failing to clinch in Game 5 in Edmonton on Tuesday, losing 4-1. Anaheim is looking forward to its second opportunity. 

“I think we can learn from the last game knowing that we got an opportunity,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “They came and showed they’re ready to play and I think that the last two starts, we have to be way better, and expect it to be a hard push by them. But we welcome that challenge, it’s going to be fun to play a game that all game long, you’re going to get pushed and challenged and you can control your destiny by doing things the right way and try to move on.” 

Edmonton is trying to stave off elimination for the second consecutive game. If necessary, Game 7 would be in Edmonton on Saturday. 

“It’s a high-pressure game that is an elimination game, but we’ve been in these before and games that are even more high pressure,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “The calm and the ease of our players is pretty remarkable, it’s as if it’s just another game. Obviously, it’s not, there’s a lot riding on it, but there’s a lot of confidence, they feel good and they know what they have to do.”

The Oilers have scored the first goal in each of the first five games. They built a 3-0 lead in Game 5, and held the Ducks to just one goal. Anaheim had 26 comeback wins in the regular season, which was tied for the most with the Montreal Canadiens, and each of its wins in this series has also been in comeback fashion.

“I think we’re very confident playing from behind just because we’ve done it so much,” Ducks forward Mason McTavish said. “It’s not, obviously, ideal, but I think we’ve kind of gathered a lot of confidence from doing that throughout the regular season and coming into the playoffs. Obviously you want to play with the lead as much as you can though.”