After Thursday’s 5-4 overtime victory over the Vegas Golden Knights, the Edmonton Oilers now have a 2-0 series lead, and they haven’t even played a home game.

Overall, Edmonton is 14-1 when they jump out to a 2-0 series lead throughout their history, with many of those series coming in the dynasty days in the 1980s. Since the start of the salary cap era, the Oilers have only been up 2-0 in a playoff series two other times.

In this article, we’ll take a look at those instances. Ironically, both of them are against Corey Perry and the Anaheim Ducks.

Everyone knows the story of the 2006 Edmonton Oilers. Squeaking into the eighth spot in the Western Conference, they upset the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Detroit Red Wings in six games in the first round. In the second round, they lost the first two games against the San Jose Sharks, but came back to win the next four games, with Shawn Horcoff scoring a very important third overtime goal in Game 3. By defeating the Sharks, that set up a Western Conference matchup against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Game 1 was on May 19 in Anaheim. Michael Peca scored a shorthanded goal late in the first period, but the Ducks scored on that same power play to tie the game at one heading into the second period. Aleš Hemský scored on a power play, which was an important goal as it snapped a streak of 34 consecutive penalty kills by the Mighty Ducks. Ironically, the Oilers matched that in the 2024 postseason. That held up as the game-winner, as Todd Harvey scored an empty-netter and Dwayne Roloson saved 31 of 32 shots.

The Oilers picked up another win in California, defeating the Ducks by the same score in Game 2. Chris Pronger opened the scoring with seven minutes left in the first. Jeff Friesen scored the game-tying goal six minutes into the second period, by 2006 postseason hero Fernando Pisani scored the game-winner with three minutes left in the second period. Peca iced the game with an empty-netter, as Roloson saved 33 of 34 shots.

With the series shifting to Alberta for Games 3 and 4, the Oilers pushed the Ducks to the brink thanks to a bunch of goals in the third period. Toby Petersen scored in the first period, the only scoring until the final frame. Peca added his fifth of the season, followed by two power-play goals from Steve Staios and Pronger to give the Oilers a 4-0 lead.

Anaheim made it a close game, scoring three consecutive goals from Sean O’Donnell, Teemu Selänne, and Chris Kunitz. Pisani scored his ninth of the postseason, which held up as the game-winner, as Todd Marchant scored with just under two minutes left. That’s all the Mighty Ducks got, as the Oilers took Game 3 by a score of 5-4 to take a 3-0 series lead.

The last time the Oilers swept a series was all the way back in 1990 during the division final against the Los Angeles Kings. They had a chance to do that in Game 4, but this game belonged to the Ducks. They scored three consecutive goals in the first, two from future Oiler Dustin Penner, as well as Ryan Getzlaf. After Marc-André Bergeron scored to cut the lead to 3-1, Ruslan Salei restored the Ducks’ three-goal lead.

Ryan Smyth and Georges Laraque each scored a goal to get the Oilers to within one, but another future Oiler, Joffrey Lupul, scored to take a 5-3 lead. He iced the game with an empty-netter to keep the Ducks’ hopes alive.

Those hopes didn’t last long. Francois Beauchemin scored on the power play 7:30 into the first period of Game 5. The Oilers’ Ethan Moreau equalized it 3:42 into the second period, and Raffi Torres scored his third of the postseason 8:31 into the second. That’s all the scoring in this game, as Roloson shut the door, saving 32 of 33 shots in the victory.

As you know, Roloson was injured in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. After being down 3-1 in the series, the Oilers stormed back to force Game 7, but fell 3-1 in the deciding game.

The next time the Oilers made the postseason was over ten years later. We know those times around here as The Decade of Darkness.

After a long, painful rebuild, the Oilers finally got back into the playoffs in 2016-17. Led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton lined up against an experienced San Jose Sharks squad in the first round.

As they’ve usually done in the McDrai era, the Oilers fell in Game 1 of the first round to San Jose. They responded well, winning the next two games before being stomped 7-0 in Game 4 to even up the series. David Desharnais scored an overtime winner in Game 5, and the Oilers closed out the series with a 3-1 victory in Game 6. The inexperienced Oilers knocked off a veteran Sharks team that went to the Stanley Cup Final the year before.

Once again, the Oilers faced the Ducks in the postseason, with the first two games coming in California. Game 1 was a 5-3 victory for the Oilers. Ryan Getzlaf opened the scoring for the Ducks, but Mark Letestu answered with his second goal of the game. In the third, Letestu scored another power play goal, and Adam Larsson scored to make it a 3-1 game. Patrick Eaves and Jakob Silfverberg scored to even the game at three. Larsson scored the game-winning goal with 4:40 left, and Leon Draisaitl iced the game with an empty-netter.

It took just a minute and five seconds for the Oilers to open the scoring in Game 2, as Andrej Sekera scored to make it 1-0. Pat Maroon scored a power-play goal 6:41 into the second period, with Silfverberg answering back with just under five minutes left in the second. That’s all the scoring the Oilers needed as they took the first two games on the road.

Then came Game 3. The series shifted to Edmonton, and Rickard Rakell opened the scoring 25 seconds into the game. Silfverberg made it 2-0 five minutes into the period, and Getzlaf added his fifth of the postseason to make it a 3-0 game. Maroon with 10 seconds left in the first to give the Oilers some life. Early in the second period, Anton Slepyshev brought the Oilers to within one, and McDavid had his first taste of playoff excellence, scoring this beautiful goal to tie the game up at three.

Unfortunately, the tie game lasted 48 seconds, as Chris Wagner beat Cam Talbot with a shot from the halfboard. Silfverbeg scored his sixth of the postseason five minutes into the third, and Ryan Kesler put the game away with a goal midway through the third. It got worse, though.

The Oilers opened Game 4 with two goals in the first period, one from Milan Lucic and the other from McDavid. That lead didn’t hold, as the Ducks fired back with three goals in the middle frame, two from Getzlaf and one from Rakell. With just a minute and 42 seconds left in the game, Drake Caggiula scored the game-tying goal to send Game 4 to overtime. It took just 45 seconds for the Ducks to win it thanks to Silfverbeg’s seventh of the postseason.

And then we have Game 5. No, I’m still not over this game. The Oilers scored three goals in the second period from Draisaitl, McDavid, and Caggiula. With under four minutes left in the game, it looked as if the Oilers would coast to a pivotal Game 5 win with a chance to win it at home in Game 6.

Getzlaf scored with 3:16 left in the game to cut the Oilers’ lead to 3-1. Just 35 seconds later, Cam Fowler scored to cut the Oilers’ lead to one. The Oilers held firm for the next couple of minutes, but then, it happened. Darnell Nurse pushed Ryan Kesler into Cam Talbot. It took Kesler a long time to get up, and as he was doing so, he held Talbot’s pad, allowing Rakell to put it five-hole and tie up the game. After a lengthy review, the goal stood, one of the worst calls in recent history.

To make matters worse, the Ducks had all the momentum in the two overtime periods until current Oiler Corey Perry scored the game-winner in double overtime. Overall, Talbot saved 60 of 64 shots.

Game 6 wasn’t even close, as the Oilers thumped the Ducks 7-1 thanks to five first period goals and Draisaitl’s first career post-season hat-trick. Cam Talbot had a good game, saving 34 of 35 shots to set up a decisive Game 7.

It took 3:31 for the Oilers to take a 1-0 lead in Game 7, as Caggiula scored his third of the postseason. That lead didn’t last, as former Oiler Andrew Cogliano scored midway through the second to tie it up. Early in the third period, Nick Ritchie scored the game-winner, as the Oilers were unable to find the game-tying goal in the last 16:39 of the game.

That kick-started four consecutive seasons of unhappiness. Not quite as bad as the decade of darkness, but the Oilers missed the postseason in 2018 and 2019, fell in four games to the Chicago Blackhawks in the qualifying round in 2020, and were swept by the Winnipeg Jets in the 2021 postseason.

Hopefully, the Oilers can close out the 2-0 series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights, as they are far more experienced and a lot better than they were in 2017.