Oilers vs. Ducks Game 2: Key takeaways as Edmonton briefly loses McDavid, then fades late

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Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier beat Edmonton goalie Connor Ingram for the game-winner, Gauthier’s second goal of the game, with 4:52 remaining in the third period. Ryan Poehling added a late empty-net goal. The Oilers had tied the game with 6:09 remaining on Josh Samanski’s goal. Special teams played a huge part, with Anaheim getting goals from Gauthier and Alex Killorn on the power play and another from Poehling while killing a second-period penalty. The Oilers went scoreless on four power-play attempts. One bright spot for the Oilers: superstar Connor McDavid briefly left the game with an apparent injury to his right leg but returned late in the second period. McDavid was held without a point for a second straight game to open these playoffs — something that only happened once during the regular season, in games on Jan. 20 vs. New Jersey and Jan. 22 vs. Pittsburgh. It also didn’t happen at any point throughout last year’s playoffs. Still, it was an eventful night for the Oilers captain. He spent a few minutes in the dressing room during the second period after getting his right leg and ankle tangled up awkwardly with teammate Mattias Ekholm before returning to the game. McDavid did not seem to be at 100 percent in the second half of the game — he could be seen wincing on the bench between shifts — and he turned the puck over in his own zone immediately before a short-handed goal by Poehling that gave Anaheim a 4-2 lead. Credit the Ducks for the work they’ve done on No. 97 so far. The way they’ve limited McDavid’s free ice with aggressive stick checks is a major reason why he’s had such a quiet start to the series. Gauthier had a quiet Game 1. Too quiet for him. He had just one shot on goal and one other missed attempt. Perhaps as a result, Ducks coach Joel Quenneville only gave him a little more than 13 minutes of ice time. It was not the kind of game Anaheim has been accustomed to seeing from Gauthier, who led the Ducks with 41 goals along with 286 shots on 559 attempts. Gauthier called it a “learning experience” and put that lesson into practice for Game 2. Anaheim’s move to replace Chris Kreider on the top line, and pair Gauthier with Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry, clearly worked. Gauthier scored early in the second period, with the help of an effective Beckett Sennecke screen. He’d also factor in the next goal, battling to keep possession inside the Edmonton zone on a power play and getting the puck down to Alex Killorn. Killorn finished on a second chance at the net for a 3-1 lead. Then, after the Oilers tied the game 4-4 in the third period, Gauthier gave them the lead again with 4:52 remaining with a finish as the Ducks created enough chaos in front of Ingram to create the extra chance. Leon Draisaitl wasn’t ineffective on Monday night — he certainly wasn’t skating like a guy who’d missed more than a month of games because of a lower-body injury — but from a timing standpoint, he wasn’t quite himself, either. The expectation was that he’d knock off that rust in a hurry, and that’s exactly what was seen in Game 2. Draisaitl, after taking a pass along the goal line on a slick net-front look by Vasily Podkolzin, banked a shot off Ducks defenseman Drew Helleson for Edmonton’s first goal 8:58 into the game. Then, in the second period, with the Ducks up 3-1, Draisaitl absorbed contact from Killorn, circled back on Jacob Trouba to create space and fired a pinpoint backhand pass to teammate Connor Murphy in the high slot. Murphy buried it for his first career playoff goal. Plenty of Oilers had rough evenings, but Draisaitl was not among them. He’s up to four points in the series, and he, Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen have been Edmonton’s only consistently effective line. Heading into the series, the Oilers were thought to have a major advantage in special-teams play. Not only did Edmonton’s power play click at 30.6 percent to lead the NHL, but its penalty kill was better than Anaheim’s, even if a 77.8 percent success rate for 20th place wasn’t exactly airtight. Instead, the Ducks are flourishing in both aspects over the first two games. After Anaheim got a Troy Terry goal in two power-play chances in Game 1, Gauthier and Killorn delivered on the power play in Game 2. More shocking is how effective the Ducks have been in killing their penalties. They were disciplined in only allowing Edmonton two power-play chances in Game 1. But even with more trips to the penalty box in Game 2, Anaheim not only frustrated the Oilers but put something on the scoreboard short-handed, with Poehling redirecting Killorn’s shot-pass after McDavid threw a puck into an area with no teammates around. During the season, Anaheim was 23rd on the power play (18.6 percent) and 27th on the penalty kill (76.4 percent). Both were disappointing figures considering the talent in their available units at each discipline. They’ve become a strength at the right time. Not only did Josh Samanski draw into his first career Stanley Cup playoff game, replacing the injured Adam Henrique on Edmonton’s fourth line, he scored the first goal of his NHL career in which he actually shot the puck past a goaltender. Samanski finished off a nice Matt Savoie pass to tie the game 4-4 at 13:51 of the third period, sending the Oilers’ bench and Rogers Place crowd into a wild celebration. The 24-year-old German did score twice in the 24 NHL games he played during his rookie season, but both were the result of opponents accidentally shooting the puck into their own goal. Samanski has earned coach Kris Knoblauch’s trust through his defensive reliability – “Nothing bad seems to happen when he’s on the ice,” McDavid said before Game 2. “That’s a great way to get into the league” – but he made no mistake when Savoie found him for an open look in the slot. Samanski stepped into a shot that flew over Lukáš Dostál’s left shoulder. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms