{"id":288707,"date":"2026-04-27T21:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/288707\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:53:07","slug":"ducks-take-3-1-series-lead-and-momentum-to-edmonton-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/288707\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks take 3-1 series lead and momentum to Edmonton \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM \u2013\u2013 After a Game 4 that the Ducks never led until Ryan Poehling\u2019s sudden-death goal to win it in overtime<\/a>, two teams that were separated by an eyelash on the ice and in the standings seemed a galaxy apart in their respective dressing rooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a hole, no doubt about it,\u201d said Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid as his club faced elimination ahead of Tuesday\u2019s Game 5 in Alberta. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a way to win at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

When McDavid, whose NHL-topping 138 regular-season points have given to a tepid series with four points and a -6 rating, was asked about his health, he demurred at the query.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all doing the best we can, we\u2019re all working and trying to get better,\u201d the six-time Art Ross Trophy winner responded.<\/p>\n

The playoff scoring lead has instead gone to an unlikely aspirant, Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe. His eight points gave him sole possession of the league lead through Sunday\u2019s games. When asked how it felt, he deferred to his teammates and the group effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels great. Our team is just doing so many good things that are leading to individual success,\u201d LaCombe said. \u201cWe\u2019re all just feeling great and competing to the best of our ability. It\u2019s paying off right now and we\u2019ve just got to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet LaCombe has been both a difference-maker for the Ducks and a standout among his contemporaries on the blue line. In 5-on-5 minutes, the Ducks have outscored Edmonton 7-4 and out-shot the Oilers 55-30 with him on the ice. With LaCombe on the bench, those figures tilt to 8-4 and 71-46 disadvantages.<\/p>\n

Per Stathletes, LaCombe ranks second among playoff defensemen in shots, assists, stretch passes and defensive-zone recoveries, also placing third in possession time and fourth in overall puck recoveries.<\/p>\n

LaCombe, an emergent force developed by the Ducks, has been complemented effectively by trade-deadline acquisition and veteran rearguard John Carlson, who has been a point-per-game producer in the series. He won the Stanley Cup as a Washington Capital in 2018 and has spent all but two seasons of his 17-year career in the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always confident in each other, but we know the opponent we\u2019re up against. The spot right now is where we wanna be, but there\u2019s a lot more work to do,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n

Not only do the Oilers boast superlative performers on paper \u2013 even in a slow stretch, McDavid has matched Carlson\u2019s pace while Leon Draisaitl is on LaCombe\u2019s heels for the postseason scoring title \u2013 they have come from behind in six of the nine series they have won in the past four years, the most series victories in the Western Conference. That included overcoming a 2-0 deficit to the Kings in last year\u2019s first round as well as surmounting three different disadvantages against Vancouver a year earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of belief within that room. They\u2019ve been in some pretty poor situations, and this team never quits,\u201d Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. \u201cThat\u2019s when we\u2019ve seen the best out of them. We don\u2019t have much room for error right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers have reached three conference finals in four years, advanced at least one round in each of those postseasons and been to each of the last two Stanley Cup Final series, including in 2024 when they were down 3-0 and managed to force a Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

For the Ducks, Carlson and Alex Killorn, who won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay, are basically the extent of their high-level playoff experience on the roster. That hasn\u2019t stopped them from pushing the Oilers to the brink.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing free and loose. There was very little pressure on them going into the playoffs. Obviously, this is a team that\u2019s going to be here quite regularly in the future with the group of players that they have,\u201d Knoblauch said. \u201cNow that they\u2019re up in the series comfortably, hopefully they feel a little bit of the pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

NHL FIRST ROUND GAME 5<\/p>\n

Who: Ducks (up 3-1) at Edmonton<\/p>\n

When: 7 p.m. PT Tuesday<\/p>\n

Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n

TV: TNT, truTV, HBO Max, Victory+, KCOP (Ch. 13)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM \u2013\u2013 After a Game 4 that the Ducks never led until Ryan Poehling\u2019s sudden-death goal to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,404,9900,127],"class_list":["post-288707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288707","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=288707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}