{"id":283625,"date":"2026-04-24T10:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/283625\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:48:11","slug":"young-ducks-matching-up-well-with-oilers-as-series-moves-to-anaheim-field-level-media-professional-sports-content-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/283625\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Ducks matching up well with Oilers as series moves to Anaheim – Field Level Media – Professional sports content solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers and superstar captain Connor McDavid are looking for a rebound as their Western Conference first-round playoff series shifts to Anaheim for Game 3 against the Ducks on Friday.<\/p>\n

Not only did the Ducks even the best-of-seven series at one win apiece with Wednesday\u2019s 6-4 victory, but they held McDavid \u2014 the regular-season scoring champ for the sixth time \u2014 off the sheet for a second consecutive outing.<\/p>\n

McDavid, who has racked up 150 points in 98 career Stanley Cup playoff games, is not the type to admit whether his personal struggles are an issue, but it is a concern for the Oilers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s putting a lot of pressure on himself,\u201d coach Kris Knoblauch said. \u201cHe wants the team to do well. He\u2019s a leader and usually when we have success, he\u2019s a big part of that. \u2026 I\u2019m certain that he\u2019s going to find his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDavid also left the game briefly after tangling feet with teammate Mattias Ekholm, but returned. He said it was \u201cfine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers were the favorites going into the series against the up-and-coming Ducks, but have found themselves in a dogfight. Edmonton opened the scoring in both outings, but Anaheim led each of them going into the third period. It took a third-period comeback for the Oilers to claim the opener 4-3.<\/p>\n

So far, the Ducks have cashed in thanks to the special-teams battle. While Edmonton has become known for its lethal power play, the Oilers have not scored with six man-advantages, while the Ducks have tallied three times on the power play, and also boast a short-handed tally.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Oilers, they have plenty of playoff experience to lean upon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been in this situation a lot, 1-1 going on the road,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cWe\u2019re comfortable on the road, we like playing on the road. Obviously, we\u2019d like a better outcome (Wednesday), but we\u2019re comfortable going on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anaheim returns full of confidence and not just because it claimed the franchise\u2019s first playoff victory since facing the Nashville Predators in the 2017 Western Conference finals.<\/p>\n

The Ducks, who snapped a seven-year playoff drought by reaching the second season, have shown they can go head-to-head against the two-time Western Conference playoff champs.<\/p>\n

Plus, they showed their mettle by regrouping after seeing a 4-2 lead turn into a tie game past the midway point of the third period. The situation was eerily close to what transpired in the series opener, but this time Anaheim recovered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the confidence,\u201d said Cutter Gauthier, whose second goal of the game broke the 4-4 tie with less than five minutes remaining in regulation. \u201cAll season long \u2026 we\u2019ve been in some high-pressure moments. We knew they were going to come back with a great push and obviously scoring that goal and tying things up with eight minutes to go. Nothing was said on the bench\u2026 and I\u2019m happy with how we reacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

That response has the Ducks looking forward to returning to Southern California with home-ice advantage, more experience and more belief in themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cGame 1 we kind of sat back a little bit,\u201d said forward Alex Killorn, who scored once in a three-point outing. \u201cNo one was sitting back (Wednesday), I think that\u2019s why we ended up getting that goal with Cutter. We\u2019re going to learn as we go on here and continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers and superstar captain Connor McDavid are looking for a rebound as their Western Conference first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-283625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}