Ducks edge Oilers in OT of Game 4 after lengthy goal review

ANAHEIM — Perhaps nowhere in the Pacific are there rip currents as strong or unpredictable as the ones underlying the Ducks’ first-round series with the Edmonton Oilers.

The Ducks put boot to throat with a 4-3 overtime Game 4 win at Honda Center on Sunday evening, taking a 3-1 lead in the seesaw best-of-seven series against the two-time defending conference champs.

It was particularly important to keep the Oilers on the mat. Of the nine playoff series they’ve won in the past four seasons, they trailed in seven of them, in addition to forcing a Game 7 after falling down 3-0 to the Florida Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.

Each of the first three games had at least three lead changes and Sunday’s match saw the Ducks fall down by a pair, tie the game, slip behind by a goal, equalize once more to force overtime and win it 2:29 into the bonus session on a goal that produced a lengthy review after the puck barely crossed the goal line.

Cutter Gauthier, Mikael Granlund, Jeffrey Viel and Ryan Poehling lit the lamp for the Ducks. Jackson LaCombe had two assists to take sole possession of the playoff scoring lead, and John Carlson matched his output. Lukáš Dostál negated 24 Edmonton bids.

Kasperi Kapanen, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evan Bouchard tallied for the Oilers. Bouchard added an assist and McDavid had two. Tristan Jarry got his first start of the series, repelling 34 pucks.

Poehling’s extra-frame effort was extraordinary as he won a faceoff, took a hit, flung a sharp-angle shot on goal, circled the net and narrowly poked in the loose puck at the opposite post. It was his third goal of the round after a two-goal display in Game 2.

With 4:54 to play, Dostál stoned McDavid on a breakaway with full extension of his left pad. He also denied Matt Savoie in the final minute to preserve the tie.

The Ducks tied it with 6:30 to play, scoring their second equalizer of the game. LaCombe’s pass across set up a Carlson one-timer that deflected off Viel, who dove and knocked in the loose puck for his second postseason goal.

The Ducks killed their first six penalties of the series but have since been touched up shorthanded on three of their past four PKs, with the fourth being truncated by an Edmonton infraction.

Mason McTavish’s hooking minor proved costly as the Oilers scored just four seconds into the penalty. Leon Draisaitl won the draw back to McDavid, who found Bouchard gliding onto the right dot for his first goal of the series.

After being out-skated early, the Ducks settled into their skates, surmounting both shot and goal to deficits to run the shot count to 24-17 and even the score, 2-2, through 40 minutes.

They converted on the power play twice in the second period, at 7:36 and 18:43.

First, LaCombe and Gauthier played the two-man game until Gauthier scored with not-so-delicate precision. He snapped a shot into the top corner of the short side for his third playoff goal and his second with the extra man.

Then Granlund, with assistance from the firm of Carlson and (Leo) Carlsson, netted his second power-play goal in two games, knotting the score from the right hashmarks.

The Oilers enjoyed an auspicious start, scoring just 38 seconds into the tilt and then getting a second goal at the 6:32 mark.

Jason Dickinson, who was healthy enough to play for the first time since his two-goal Game 1, intercepted Pavel Mintyukov in the neutral zone. He zoomed ahead, circling the Ducks’ zone to set up a shot by Jake Walman that generated a rebound goal for Kapanen. The second-generation NHL pro’s four goals are tied for the second most in the postseason.

Then it was Nugent-Hopkins, giving the Oilers their second man-advantage marker in two games. He nearly scored off a Bouchard rebound and this time scored off a Bouchard pass, with a shot that first ricocheted off Dostál and then Mintyukov’s skate.

Game 5, a potential clincher for the Ducks, is in Edmonton on Tuesday.