The Anaheim Ducks made quick work of their match with the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night in a 5-1 win that had Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau more relaxed as the Ducks clinched their third straight Pacific Division crown.
“I’ll be happy, believe me, if we win our last playoff game,” Boudreau said.
“Not taking anything away, but we’ve had a fairly good lead for a while now. It would be more surprising if we didn’t get the division. Business as usual.”
Simon Despres scored first goal as a Duck in win over Oilers – file photo by Brent Clark
Five different Ducks scored including Jakob Silfverberg, Corey Perry, Andrew Cogliano (penalty shot), Simon Despres, and Francois Beauchemin.
“I think it’s an achievement in terms of the League is tough, and there’s obviously a ton of good teams and it’s a very hard league to win in, and to be able to be in our spot speaks to the team we have and how well we’ve played,” Cogliano said. “But I don’t think anyone cares too much. We accepted it tonight and we’ll go from here, and now focus on what’s really important.”
Frederik Andersen made 22 saves to get the win.
“I feel like the last couple of games I’ve been playing pretty good, it’s just not showing up in the score sheet and obviously tonight I felt pretty good,” Silfverberg said. “I got some good chances and managed to set up a few others too, and obviously that helps out a lot with the confidence. Tonight was a fun night.”
Andersen’s shutout bid was ended by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who scored in the second.
“We just weren’t sharp right off the bat,” Nugent-Hopkins said “I mean, we know that these guys jump up hard with their defensemen and for whatever reason we weren’t prepared for that. Mentally, I don’t think we were picking guys up. They’re a good team. You can see where they are in the standings and how many points they have. If you’re not sharp against a team like this, they’re going to take advantage of that.”
For the Oilers, the loss snapped a three-game win streak and for coach Todd Nelson it was step back for his club which played poorly including over-skating pucks and errant, ill-advised passes.
“Tonight felt like a game that maybe we played two-and-half months ago, where we shoot ourselves in the foot,” Nelson said. “Against a good hockey team like this, when you have a bad line change or you turn the puck [over] in key areas, they’ll make you pay, and that’s what they did tonight.”
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