Anaheim has been one of the best stories in the Western Conference since the Olympic break. The Ducks have trailed in all 17 games since February and still found a way to win 11 of them. A month ago in this same building, they were down 5-4 in the third period and won 6-5 in regulation.
So when Edmonton’s 3-0 lead became 3-2 with the period half gone, two Ducks goals in under three minutes, the question wasn’t whether Anaheim was capable of completing the comeback. They’d already proven that. The question was whether this Oilers group was going to let them.
They weren’t.
Connor Ingram shut the door. The penalty kill held. Zach Hyman added an empty netter to close it out 4-2, and Edmonton walked away with two points and only their second three-game winning streak of the entire season. For as minuscule as it sounds, that’s what passes as progress these days in Edmonton.
So yah, call it progress.
The Pacific Division lead is three points with eight games left on Edmonton’s schedule. That’s a race.
Getting ahead in the Pacific is a little more important this year, or more accurately, not being a wild-card team. The division winner draws a wild-card opponent in the first round, most likely Utah, instead of having to navigate Vegas or Los Angeles in a short series.
The Oilers have been to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. They understand what a favourable bracket is worth, and they understand what it costs to draw the wrong opponent.
Edmonton closes the regular season at home against Seattle, Chicago, and Vegas. Two of those three opponents have no meaningful stake in the outcome. The schedule sets up about as well as it possibly could for a team trying to chase down a division lead with a week and a half to play.
Anaheim has nine games left and a harder road. The Ducks close with St. Louis and Calgary, neither of which will be rolling over for a team that is threatening their own playoff positioning. The margin for error is tightening on both sides, but it’s tightening faster for the team currently in first place.
For the better part of 50 minutes Saturday, the Oilers looked like the more experienced team in every meaningful way. Jack Roslovic scored. Matt Savoie extended his goal streak to three straight games, continuing a run that has made him one of the more important players in Edmonton’s lineup over the past week. The structure was sound, the compete level was high, and the Ducks were being held to the perimeter.
Then the third period got complicated. It always does with Anaheim. Two goals, three minutes, one-goal game, and suddenly the Rogers Place crowd that had been celebrating a comfortable afternoon was watching the Ducks try to do what they have done to nearly every team they have faced since the Olympics.
Edmonton didn’t let it happen. Ingram was good when he had to be. The group defended. Hyman scored into the empty net and the final horn arrived without further drama.
Three points back with eight to play is not an insurmountable deficit. It is also not a comfortable one. The Oilers need wins and they need help, and there is no guarantee of either. What there is, heading into the final stretch of the regular season, is an Edmonton team playing its best hockey at exactly the right time. Saturday was proof of that.
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