Good teams find ways to win even if they aren’t at their best.
Make no mistake, the Edmonton Oilers are a good team, and they defeated a not-so-good team in the Anaheim Ducks by a score of 3-2. However, those Ducks showed some fight as they did last Sunday.
With just over three minutes left in the opening frame, the Oilers scored the opening goal on the power play as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ centring pass bounced off a Duck in front of the net and past the netminder.
The Oilers extended the lead about eight minutes into the second period, as defenceman Darnell Nurse received the puck in the slot and beat the Ducks’ netminder for his fourth of the season.
However, just like on Sunday, the Ducks didn’t go quietly. Late in the second period, Connor Brown threw a grenade of a pass to Evan Bouchard, who whiffed on the puck and allowed a breakaway. While Brett Leason didn’t get all of it, he was able to beat Stuart Skinner.
The Ducks had a power play with 13 minutes left in the period, and defenceman Jackson LaCombe beat Skinner through a screen to tie the game up at two.
Fortunately for the Oilers, they were able to score a late goal, as Leon Draisaitl was able to tuck it over the Ducks netminder’s right shoulder for his league-leading 28th goal of the season. Oilers win!

Takeaways…

Leon Draisaitl waited until the very end of the game to extend his point streak to 13 games, beating Lukáš Dostál to make it a 3-2 game. On top of scoring his league-leading 28th goal of the season, this was also his ninth game-winning goal. The next closest players are John Tavares, Mark Scheifele, Matt Boldy, and Jack Hughes who have six each.
Unfortunately for McDavid, his 12-game point streak came to an end, as he was mere inches away from scoring an empty net goal. Interestingly, he hasn’t scored a goal in a hot minute either, as he’s been held goalless his past six games. Over McDavid’s last 10 games, he has one goal (and 16 points).
Head coach Kris Knoblauch put the lines in a blender for this game, with Zach Hyman moving down to the third line with Mattias Janmark and Kasperi Kapanen while Connor Brown moved to the first line. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work for the Oilers, as McDavid and Draisaitl were deployed with Hyman for almost the entirety of the third period. It worked out though, as Draisaitl scored with just 95 seconds left.
The Oilers have struggled to hold leads since the Christmas break. Last Saturday, they took a 3-2 lead into the third period against the Los Angeles Kings and blew it. The following day, they had a 2-0 and 3-1 lead against the Ducks, but four unanswered goals from the Ducks propelled them to a 5-3 win over the Oilers. On New Year’s Eve, the Oilers were able to hold off the Utah Hockey Club, but Friday’s game saw another blown lead.
Last season, the Oilers absolutely cooked the Ducks like it was Duck season, defeating them 8-2, 7-2, 5-3, and 6-1 in their four meetings. This is evidently a much more competitive Duck team though, as they had a three-game winning streak coming into this game against the Oilers, New Jersey Devils, and the Winnipeg Jets. With the Sharks also looking competitive this season, the Pacific Division will be good again in a few seasons. 
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