It was a do-or-die night for the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place after the Anaheim Ducks put them down 3-1 in their first round series with a controversial goal in overtime on Sunday. I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that the Oilers hadn’t played their best hockey in the first four games, but that needed to change if they were going to live to fight another day. And while I wouldn’t say this was a perfect game by the Oilers, it’s impossible to fault how they started the night, and how that early run of dominance powered them to the win. It’s hard to play perfectly for 60 minutes, but the Oilers weren’t able to cover enough of them en route to a 4-1 win.

If getting a strong start was point number one on the Oilers’ Game 5 to-do list, it’s hard not to think they absolutely crushed it. Not only did the Oilers get a strong start, but they ended up with a field goal on the scoreboard, which was the perfect way to set the tone in a game they needed to have. Three even-strength goals in just under eight minutes put the Oilers in the best spot they’ve been in this whole time. Not only that, but I’d also argue the first period of Game 5 was probably the best they’d played in quite a while. It was the kind of frame that was both fun to watch and also infuriating because it showed how well the team could play when they actually had their feet moving and hearts engaged.

It was fantastically refreshing to see the boys hit the ice with purpose and push the pace of the game rather than letting the Ducks dictate how things went. Over and above the goals from Vasily Podkolzin, Zach Hyman, and Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton was taking care of the details in all three zones. They were just as good in their defensive zone with strong position, good sticks, and plenty of puck support, and that was a marked improvement over the back-and-forth track meet they’ve been happy to participate in before this. I was at Game 6 against Vegas when the Oilers got knocked out in the second round a few years back, and it’s not fun to be in that building for those moments, but you know the way the team started gave the crowd all the juice they needed for what was a fun and mostly stress-free evening. Now we wait and see if the boys can find a way to recreate that mojo on Thursday night in Anaheim.

When you’re staring down a must-win situation, the simple order of things is that you need your big dogs to be ready to play, and the Oilers got that on Tuesday night. They got 10 points between Connor McDavid (2A), Leon Draisaitl (2G), Evan Bouchard (3), Zach Hyman (1G), and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2A), which is exactly what you want in the most important game of the year. As much as it’s been nice to see the depth coming through, exactly like Vasily Podkolzin did with the opening goal, there comes a point when you need the leaders to take the reins and win some games. That’s not to say that any of them haven’t been good at times, but they just haven’t looked nearly as superhuman as we’re used to seeing at this time of year.

My hope is that having a night like this, when most of the top-six saw some success, can be the dose of confidence the Oilers need to steal a win tomorrow at the Honda Center. Everyone is banged up and gassed from playing more hockey than anyone else, but dammit if I’m not still drinking the Kool-Aid that they can find a way to come back. This team has seen and experienced so much weirdness over the last handful of years — we’ve seen plenty of bad starts and eventual winning streaks — that pulling off a 3-1 comeback in the playoffs almost seems like it would fit in nicely with the rest of the set. Call me crazy if you want, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if this group pulled off a miracle even though so many of us already have this season written off. If any team in the NHL can pull off a run out of nowhere when no one sees it coming, it’s probably the Edmonton Oilers. The next step is to go to Anaheim and drag ’em back to Berta for Game 7. We shall see.

With the Oilers down 3-1 in their first round series against the Ducks, we were basically waiting on one of two outcomes. Either the boys lived to fight another day, or they would let Anaheim celebrate the gentleman’s sweep on our home ice. A fun night or a turd sandwich. On this night, it didn’t matter that our side held leads in all four games, but only managed to win one of them. All that mattered was whether they could win the next one. Shift by shift, the Oilers had to prove through urgency and execution that they wanted this game more than the Ducks did, because that sure hasn’t looked like the case for long stretches of this series. But with the series on the line, the Oilers found a way to win more battles than Anaheim could and brought enough of their best to keep the series alive.

Even though there are two still wins and a lot of work to get done before we can celebrate anything, you have to appreciate that the Oilers didn’t go out with a whimper. Even with the odds and series stacked against them, they went out and turned in their best game of the playoffs so far in front of a home crowd that desperately needed something to cheer about. I’m not saying it was a perfect night by any means, because the Ducks were the better team in the back half, but what we can certainly appreciate is how Edmonton was able to bend without breaking. You never want to see the team get outshot the way they were, even if plenty came from the outside of the ice, but no one ever said pulling this off would be pretty. It’s been a rough few days around here with the three straight losses, but I also think that having the boys win the way they did is more than enough to keep hope alive for another couple of days.

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