The Day After 74.0: Oilers close gap in Pacific Division with regulation win over Ducks<\/p>\n
For just the second time this season, the Oilers<\/a> are on a three-game winning streak.This stretch has come at an ideal time for Edmonton. Their win in Vegas earlier this week kept them ahead of the Golden Knights in the Pacific Division standings<\/a>, and Saturday\u2019s win over the Ducks cut Anaheim\u2019s lead for first place to just three points.The game remained scoreless until seven minutes into the second period when Connor McDavid<\/a> buried his 42nd goal of the season. Jack Roslovic scored his 20th of the year five minutes into the third to make it 2-0 for the Oilers, and Matt Savoie added some insurance a couple of minutes later, extending his goal streak to three games.<\/p>\n The Ducks didn\u2019t let the game get away easily. Beckett Sennecke scored 43 seconds after Savoie to get Anaheim on the board, and Cutter Gauthier cut the lead to one with just over ten minutes left in the third.<\/p>\n Edmonton was able to close the door from there, and Zach Hyman scored into the empty net with 17 seconds left to seal the win.<\/p>\n Connor McDavid led the way offensively with three points, giving him eight during this three-game winning streak<\/a>. Evan Bouchard added two assists and now has seven points over that same stretch. Connor Ingram turned aside 29 of 31 shots for his second consecutive win.What they said\u2026<\/p>\n Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch on the Oilers rounding into form defensively in recent games\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe last few games, I think we\u2019ve done a pretty good job of that. Usually, if you\u2019re winning, you need to check. You need to play good defensive hockey. \u00a0But even backing up to the Tampa game, I know we gave up five with a couple of special teams goals and an empty net there, but over the last four games, five on five, we\u2019ve played the right brand of hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse on shutting down the Ducks in the latter part of the third period\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good night. They\u2019re going to have their pushes, they\u2019re going to capitalize on opportunities. They\u2019re a good team, too.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we had to lock it down, we locked it down. [Connor Ingram] made some good saves, we locked it down defensively, and our structure was good. It\u2019s hockey, sometimes they\u2019re going to score goals, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Oilers forward Jason Dickinson on Anaheim nearly climbing back from a 3-0 deficit with two quick goals\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt definitely got a little tighter than it needed to; we were playing such a great game up until those two goals. I wear those on my shoulder. They\u2019re going to bug me. But the fact that we were able to stick with it and just get back to defending hard and advancing pucks to keep them from sustaining the zone, that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n \u201cI think guys can feel that\u2019s a recipe for success, sticking with the process and just keep pouring it on them. It creates a feeling of rhythm for the group that you can keep going instead of getting into a rush game where it\u2019s back and forth with turnovers at each blue line, and you\u2019re not getting any flow to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Edmonton forward Matt Savoie on his three-game goal streak since getting moved to the top line\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMy confidence is definitely high right now. It helps seeing the puck go in, and I\u2019m getting lots of opportunities right now with some pretty good players, obviously. A really good play by [McDavid] to get that to [Podkolzin], and Podz makes an unbelievable play to get me open net. So, I\u2019m just trying to capitalize and get myself in good spots.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re playing an intense style right now, closing quickly in the defensive zone, and not giving them easy looks inside. I think it\u2019s just the intensity that we\u2019re playing with right now, and that\u2019s playoff style.\u201d<\/p>\n Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville on what went wrong for the Ducks in their loss to the Oilers\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThe game opened up a little bit when we got behind. There was a lot of meaning to [Saturday\u2019s] game, but now we\u2019ll move forward and continue to watch what\u2019s going on around us.\u201d<\/p>\n Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier on what Anaheim has to do to protect their Pacific Division lead\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re first in the Pacific right now, but not by much, and those little details and stuff like that can get kind of overlooked and can cost you a game and a playoff series. So, we\u2019re doing our due diligence to tighten up all those things and be ready to go, firing on all cylinders going into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n Up next\u2026<\/p>\n With three consecutive wins in the bag, the Oilers have a prime opportunity to make a late-season push for the Pacific Division crown.<\/p>\n Edmonton continues its homestand<\/a> next week with games against Seattle, Chicago, and Vegas before heading out for a final road trip<\/a> through Utah, San Jose, and Los Angeles. The regular season wraps up the following week with home games against Colorado and Vancouver.<\/p>\n Aside from the NHL-leading Avs, every remaining opponent is currently below the Oilers in the standings. Even without another head-to-head opportunity against Anaheim, taking care of business in these games would put real pressure on a young Ducks team down the stretch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Day After 74.0: Oilers close gap in Pacific Division with regulation win over Ducks For just the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-569097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}