My god, was anybody expecting this? I’ve been sweating buckets all day waiting for this game to start and the boys didn’t disappoint. Final Score: 7-1 Oilers.

I’m pretty sure I blacked out for the whole first period so I’m going to try my best to recap this. The game started on a horrible note… finding out that not only is Andrej Sekera out of the lineup due to injury (for the rest of the series), but ALSO Oscar Klefbom and his abs. Klef tested out his mysterious injury in warm up, but no dice. This drew AHL defenceman, Grifffin Reinhart in to play his first game of the NHL this season.

An important stat to note coming into tonights game is in each of the last four years Anaheim has lead 3-2 in a series, they’ve lost game six on the road and game seven at home EVERY TIME. The first period began with Milan Lucic and Leon Draisaitl throwing some big hits. The boys looked pumped up to play and the crowd was 100% behind them. It pretty much a blur to me cause I was standing on top of my couch screaming the whole time. Leon Neon kicked off the goal scoring frenzy with a huge breakaway goal, followed with a strong backhand to put us up by two. It is an understatement to say that we weren’t getting ahead of ourselves at this point in the game, as we’ve been ahead in a 2-0 game many times before.

Unlike all the other times we’ve been up 2-0 in this series, the Oilers persisted. Zack Kassian wanted in on the fun and scored himself a beauty breakaway goal. He topped it off with an intense celly at the glass with the fans which ended up being the dagger in Gibson’s game. Bernier was forced to jump into play and we didn’t give him a chance to get comfortable. Two consecutive goals from Mark Letestu later and the Oilers are up 5-0 after the first period and Rogers Place’s roof has been blown apart from the fans.

The second period picks up right where it ended with another Oilers goal. This time it was Anton Slepyshev who finished off a two on one. As expected, the Ducks came out much harder than they did in the first. Cam Talbot quietly played a really solid period preventing Anaheim from even sticking their foot in the door. Unfortunately Rickard Rakell got left alone in the slot where he buried one past Talbot. It didn’t take much longer after that for a frustrated Ryan Kesler to take a dumb penalty against our Captain. There’s nothing I like seeing more in this life than an angry Ryan Kelser. To kick him while he’s down, Draisaitl potted his third of the night. A surprising amount of hats came flooding down on the ice in Rogers Place as well as the living room floors of everyone watching at home. My only concern is that there would be no hats left if Letestu ever scored his third!

After the craziness that were the first two periods, no goals were scored in the third. This was probably a good thing because my heart couldn’t take any more excitement. McLellan continued to roll all the lines, making sure everyone saw ice time. As expected, things got a little rowdy with a little mini line brawl happening at the end of the third. Not only was it great to see us score seven goals tonight, it was great to see the boys not take their foot off the pedal, including after the whistles. Lucic and Maroon didn’t take crap from anyone, and now the story is set for Wednesday night in Anaheim. What an unbelievable adventure this series has been, somebody pinch me!

On a parting note I’d like to ask everyone to please remember EVERYTHING you wore on this day, and to wear it again proudly and unwashed for game seven on Wednesday. Let’s wrap it up.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Draisaitl opened the scoring with a HUGE breakaway goal in the first three minutes of the game. He ended up fanning on the shot after being hooked (probably would have been a penalty shot) but it all worked out and fooled Gibson anyways.
• After his breakaway goal, Drai went right back to work getting open in front after a nice feed from Lucic to put the Oil up by two goals.
• The goals didn’t end! Kassian breaks loose on another breakaway and finds an open five-hole on Gibson putting the Oilers up by three. This was a really smart goal by Kassian, stretching Gibson out while sliding it five-hole. His 10/10 celly against the class topped off an amazing moment.
• Besides Ryan Kesler, John Gibson was the next most annoying Duck to play against. We finally lit him up early tonight getting him the ol’ hook after three goals.
• MOAR GOALS!!! After Bernier caught a puck in his chest, for some reason he thought he didn’t have it and continued to stand up (LOL!) leaving the rebound open for Letestu to pot one home.
• MOARE LETESTU GOALLLS! After two consecutive power plays, the Oilers finally made the Ducks pay after some solid puck possession time and many shots on net. Our power play specialist, Mark Letestu didn’t disappoint.
• The Oilers gave the Ducks absolutely 0 space to work with in the first period. They were forechecking and hitting like nobody’s business and really had the Ducks on their heels.
• Drake Caggiula didn’t take any sass from Andrew Cogliano and got a good couple of punches in before they both fell to the ground. You show ’em, Drake!
• Nice to see the refs FINALLY give Kesler a penalty for his shady stick work. He cross-checked Nuge about three times before he got sent to the sin bin in the first period.
• Talbot’s game was not easy. Our defense got a little loosey goosey, forcing him to make some big plays and stay focussed throughout the whole night. It is nice to see an offesnive explosion tonight instead of the Cam Talbot show instead though.
• A MASSIVE problem the Oilers have been facing this series has been in the face off circle. They ended up winning 60% of the draws in the first period. A huge improvement.
• The Oilers wasted no time in the second period capitalizing on a two on one in the first minute. Slepyshev has been great almost every game he’s played this season. Looking forward to more Sleps in the years to come.
• There’s nothing I love seeing more in life than a frustrated Ryan Kesler. He looked awful tonight and took a couple bad penalties… one including his attempt to rough up Connor. NOBODY TOUCHES OUR CAPTAIN
• NEON LEON HAT TRICK! McDavid starts the rush, and Leon finishes it after a nice dish from Lucic. Life is beautiful! His hatty makes it the first Oilers playoff hat trick in 17 years. Also we have to talk about the amazing amount of hats that were thrown on the ice tonight… it’s like EVERY person in Rogers Place wore one.
• Mark Letestu recorded his first career 4-point game tonight. He currently sits 2nd in team playoff points. #BO$$
• The hockey gods were definitely on Team Oilers tonight finally. The penalties appeared to be on our side (for the most part… not sure why Maroon got his penalty) and the posts were also. The Ducks hit two posts in a row in the third period… hearing that PING felt so good to my ear holes. BLESS YOU POST!

THE FACE PALMERS

• Klefbom did a little twirl in warm-up but that didn’t end up lasting long. Thankfully we had the goal scorers working tonight and didn’t need him as much. Whatever injury he’s facing, hopefully two days of rest will help him out. Also, shoutout to Griffin Reinhart for being thrown in the deep end tonight in his first game all season.
• A minor defensive hiccup leaves Rickard Rakell wide open in front of the net potting the Ducks’ first goal of the game.
• Nuge and Eberle go ANOTHER game without scoring a goal. Scoring seven goals tonight was great and all… but these two really need to get their game going offensively.
• I’m not sure if this is a bright side or a face palmer… but Connor McDavid was left completely off the score sheet tonight. Do I care after a 7-1 win? Absolutely not. I think it’s great to show the haters who was inept all season that Connor is winning all our games for us. How about tonight? Seven goals, no McPoints.
• The Ducks got dirty near the end of the game tonight and were cheating all over the ice. Lindholm was one of the cheaters who hit Caggiula from behind. Not cool, Anaheim… not cool.

SCORING SUMMARY