EDMONTON \u2014 Have the Edmonton Oilers turned the tide?<\/p>\n
A 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday to avoid elimination from the playoffs was the Oilers\u2019 most complete game yet in the first-round series.<\/p>\n
Edmonton still trails the best-of-seven affair 3-2 heading to Anaheim for Thursday\u2019s Game 6 at the Honda Center, where the Oilers have yet to win in this series.<\/p>\n
The Oilers can hope they planted a seed of doubt in the speedy young Ducks side, with a dozen players under the age of 25, and 14 who have made their playoff debuts in the series. A Game 7 would be back in Edmonton on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still in a tough, tough spot, a really tough spot,\u201d said Edmonton\u2019s captain Connor McDavid, who had two assists and played 24 minutes after coach Kris Knoblauch had said McDavid\u2019s participation was a game-time decision. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to win in a tough building.\u201d <\/p>\n
McDavid, who rolled his ankle in the second game of the series and didn\u2019t participate in the morning skate, said there wasn\u2019t any suspense that he would play in an elimination game.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, there was never a doubt,\u201d the captain said.<\/p>\n
Despite a suspect ankle, the NHL\u2019s points leader in the regular season was more mobile than in Game 4 when he was seen wincing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked like he was skating better tonight,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cI really think he\u2019s played his best in the last four periods. The third period in Game 4, I thought he played better \u2014 that he had some really good scoring chances, drove the net two or three times late in the game. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe just continuing to get better, so that\u2019s a good sign for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton reached the Stanley Cup final each of the last two years before bowing out to the Florida Panthers both times. <\/p>\n
But after winning the series opener against the Ducks, three straight losses put Edmonton in a precarious playoff hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we did is survive one more day,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cThe pressure\u2019s on us, but it\u2019s a big game for them too. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be feeling that too. Closeout games are tough.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re not going to want to come back to Edmonton, so pressure on them, but we\u2019ve got to find a way to survive another day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unable to protect leads of one or two goals in the series, the Oilers scored three in Tuesday\u2019s first period to chase Lukas Dostal from Anaheim\u2019s net. <\/p>\n
Edmonton maintained control in the face of an expected pushback from a Ducks team that led the league in comeback wins. When Anaheim\u2019s Alex Killorn scored a power-play goal early in the second period, Leon Draisaitl countered with one for the Oilers before the midway point. <\/p>\n
\u201cA game like that gives us a little bit of fresh air, a little bit of a fresh start,\u201d said Vasily Podkolzin, who scored Edmonton\u2019s first goal.<\/p>\n
Goalie Connor Ingram stopped 23 or 24 shots in the last 40 minutes of the game for 29 saves overall in his return to the net. He started the first three games of the series before Tristan Jarry\u2019s 34 saves in a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 4 in Anaheim.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was frustrated after Game 3 just with myself and what was going on, so to give myself a little break mentally and physically was huge,\u201d Ingram said.<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s top players lived up to their billing Tuesday with Draisaitl scoring twice. One more playoff goal and the centre will surpass Wayne Gretzky\u2019s 23 for the most in franchise history. <\/p>\n
Knoblauch paired McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line for several minutes in the game.<\/p>\n
Defenceman Evan Bouchard played his best game of the series with savvy passes for three assists and a plus-2 rating.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to need more of that because he\u2019s our best defenceman,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cHe plays 25 to 30 nights every game and we need that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edmonton heads to Anaheim with momentum and needs to make the most of it to extend the series again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is with us,\u201d Bouchard said. \u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard this a thousand times. When our backs are against the wall, we play good hockey.\u201d <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Have the Edmonton Oilers turned the tide? A 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,82],"class_list":["post-636280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636280","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=636280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}