{"id":286077,"date":"2026-04-25T22:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286077\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T22:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T22:53:13","slug":"connor-mcdavid-scores-but-edmonton-oilers-defence-leaky-to-trail-in-playoff-series-against-anaheim-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/286077\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor McDavid scores, but Edmonton Oilers’ defence leaky to trail in playoff series against Anaheim Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM \u2014 Connor McDavid<\/a> scored his first goal and produced his first multi-point game of the playoffs. The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> scored their first power-play goal of the post-season.<\/p>\n

Those benefits were erased by Edmonton\u2019s flailing defence in the face of the speedy, opportunistic Anaheim Ducks<\/a> in a 7-4 loss on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Oilers trail 2-1 in their best-of-seven, first-round series against the Ducks, who won the team\u2019s first home playoff game in eight years at the Honda Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you let in seven, and it\u2019s not a goalie problem, it\u2019s just defending better,\u201d said Oilers forward Zach Hyman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t give ourselves a chance with the amount of goals we gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game 4 is Sunday at the Honda Center before the series returns to Edmonton for Tuesday\u2019s Game 5.<\/p>\n

The Oilers have given up 14 goals to Anaheim \u2014 not counting two empty-netters \u2014 in the first three games of the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t give up very much in the second game. I thought we defended well,\u201d Edmonton\u2019s head coach Kris Knoblauch said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, not so much. Just give them freebies, just not digging in front of the net, giving up odd-man rushes.<\/p>\n

Edmonton reached the Stanley Cup final each of the last two years.<\/p>\n

But the Oilers were particularly leaky in the latter stages of Friday\u2019s Game 3, and allowed 39 shots on goaltender Connor Ingram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Edmonton led 3-2 for seven minutes in the second period.<\/p>\n

Flanked by Edmonton\u2019s top defensive pairing of Mattias Ekholm<\/a> and Evan Bouchard<\/a>, Mikael Granlund<\/a> flipped a rebound over to Alex Killorn<\/a> to shoot into an open net for the equalizer.<\/p>\n

Anaheim then scored twice in 33 seconds early in the third. Leo Carlsson<\/a> made it 5-3 on an odd-man rush off an offensive-zone turnover by the Oilers.<\/p>\n

McDavid, who led the NHL in points three of the last four post-seasons, was held off the scoresheet in the first two games of the series when Edmonton\u2019s power play went 0-for-6.<\/p>\n

McDavid assisted on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins<\/a>\u2019 go-ahead goal in the second period. His power-play goal pulled the visitors within one in the third. <\/p>\n

But the Ducks were quicker on the rush than Edmonton\u2019s defence was at getting organized in its own end when Jeff Viel restored Anaheim\u2019s two-goal lead with just over three minutes to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019re giving them these wins,\u201d said Oilers forward Kasperi Kapanen<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing, but it\u2019s a race to four wins. We\u2019re not going to panic, but we have to learn from our mistakes and just be better next game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to get pucks deep and not be turning pucks over because they counter pretty well. They have a lot of young talent and a lot of speed. We have to keep getting it deep, and our forechecks can be a lot better. Defensively, we have to be quicker, skate more and close our gaps more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bouchard, Ekholm, McDavid and Hyman were a combined minus-12 in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey certainly carried us the previous two years,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cThey absolutely did, and right now to say that it\u2019s all on their shoulders is completely unfair. Everyone needs to step up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to NHL statistics, when a best-of-seven series is tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 holds an all-time series record of 245-124 (. 664). When Game 3 is won at home, it\u2019s 111-67 (. 624).<\/p>\n

The Oilers trailed the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> 0-2 to start their first-round series last year before winning four games in a row to take it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hockey left to be played,\u201d Ekholm said. \u201cThe momentum shifts, the swings, we\u2019ve all been through it in here, so lean on that, take a deep breath knowing that the sun\u2019s going to come up tomorrow and we\u2019ve got a big game coming up in Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what we\u2019ve got to do. We\u2019ve got to execute at a higher level, and we haven\u2019t brought close to our best yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.<\/p>\n

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2014 Connor McDavid scored his first goal and produced his first multi-point game of the playoffs. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,127],"class_list":["post-286077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286077","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=286077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}