{"id":291780,"date":"2026-04-29T18:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291780\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T18:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:42:15","slug":"oilers-experience-pays-off-in-game-5-win-to-save-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291780\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers’ experience pays off in Game 5 win to save season"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2014 It\u2019s still unknown whether the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> have two more wins over these Anaheim Ducks in them this spring. But the Oilers couldn\u2019t settle this series on Tuesday night anyhow.<\/p>\n

They just had to win one to stay alive, and darned if a veteran team didn\u2019t muster up its best game of the series in a tidy 4-1 win on home ice. The win earns Edmonton one more flight to California and one more chance to skirt extinction, down 3-2 to the Ducks in Round 1 of these National Hockey League playoffs, with Game 6 set for The Pond on Thursday night (10 p.m. ET\/ 8 p.m. MT on Sportsnet).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what it is with us,\u201d said Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard<\/a> after a three-assist night. \u201cWhen our backs are against the wall, we play good hockey, and we did that tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows we\u2019re a good team,\u201d he added. \u201cWe know that and we proved it tonight. Good teams find a way to do it multiple times in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the 10:13 mark of the opening period Tuesday, the Oilers had scored three times and sent Anaheim starter Lukas Dostal to the showers. And even though the Ducks outshot them handily the rest of the way, an Anaheim team that averaged five goals a game through the opening four games of the series only put one puck behind goalie Connor Ingram<\/a>, who got his net back after Tristan Jarry got the nod in Game 4.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The coaches) let me know what was going on. I had no problem with it,\u201d Ingram said of losing his gig for a game. \u201cI was frustrated after Game 3, just with myself and what was going on (allowing six goals). So to give myself a little break mentally and physically was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingram made a few game-preserving saves, thwarting Leo Carlsson on a partial breakaway late in Period 1 that held the score at 3-0. A late Ducks goal would have been invaluable heading into the intermission, but instead Ingram gave the Oilers the save that makes a real difference in a game like this one.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Ingram) was timely,\u201d said Connor McDavid<\/a>. \u201cHe didn\u2019t face many shots in the first, so that was a huge save at a big moment. Goaltending, as I\u2019ve said before, is not about saving them all. It\u2019s about saving the right ones, and that was the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Edmonton team that gets goaltending it can believe in is an entirely different animal, one we\u2019ve seldom seen. They\u2019ll need two more of these to have any chance of coming all the way back from a 3-1 series deficit.<\/p>\n

But this was an impressive first step, one that reminded the Ducks who they\u2019re messing with, after a loosely played opening four games.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went to two Cup Finals for a reason: They\u2019re a good hockey team,\u201d said Anaheim winger Troy Terry. \u201cWe believe in this room, but we knew they were going to push.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think we weren\u2019t ready. I just felt like we weren\u2019t necessarily as physical and maybe just executing early. And they played hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were positives in this for Edmonton. Many of them, actually.<\/p>\n

After playing less than 20 minutes and visibly limping through Game 4, McDavid played 24:09 in Game 5 and looked a tad healthier. He\u2019s still not at the top of his form, but had two assists and said there \u201cwas never a doubt\u201d that he\u2019d play Tuesday.<\/p>\n

For the first time this series, Anaheim scored less than three goals \u2014 and none at even strength. That\u2019s a place to start for an Oilers team that\u2019s been on a season-long search for a defensive game it can be proud of.<\/p>\n

Vasily Podkolzin<\/a> was a juggernaut, scoring the game\u2019s first goal and showing up in a big game with an effort that said to his teammates, \u201cFollow me.\u201d And after breaking up the line of Leon Draisaitl<\/a>, Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen \u2014 Edmonton\u2019s best unit thus far in the series \u2014 to put McDavid and Draisaitl together, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins centred a line with Podkolzin and Zach Hyman<\/a> that produced the first two goals of the game.<\/p>\n

Depth scoring, a power play that answered right after Anaheim had made the score 3-1, and only two Ducks power plays allowed are all things that Edmonton requires for success.<\/p>\n

Now, they have to do it again in Anaheim, where the young feisty Ducks will try to close this series out on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will take a big effort. A really, really big effort,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cWe\u2019re still in a tough, tough spot. A really tough spot. We\u2019ve got to find a way to win in a tough building.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were right there in Game 4 and will have another great opportunity in Game 6.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 It\u2019s still unknown whether the Edmonton Oilers have two more wins over these Anaheim Ducks in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-291780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291780","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=291780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}