In Anaheim Friday night, it was a case of just enough offense to go with a good defensive effort as the Ducks edged the Edmonton Oilers, 2-1, in extra time.
Rickard Rakell scored with 1:24 gone in the extra session to give the Ducks the win and two points they needed to keep pace with the Los Angeles Kings.
“Probably one of my better ones,” Rakell said. “In overtime, winning the game. It was a good feeling.”
Frederik Andersen had 17 saves in OT win over Oilers – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Rakell has three goals and three assists in the past six games. He said he’s become more comfortable in his top-six role, and his intensity on the ice has increased with his playing time.
“That was a pretty goal,” said Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf, who had the secondary assist. “Those are the things that Ricky can do at a high level. He’s being doing it a lot lately and it’s been pretty to watch.”
Cam Talbot surrendered the game-winner and took the loss for the Oilers on 32 saves and has not won a game since early February.
The Oilers have lost six straight.
“We’re stepping into the ring against Muhammad Ali right now with some of these teams and we’re able to stay in it until the late rounds,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “That’s not good enough. We’ve got to find ways to win. Just to hanging with teams isn’t good enough, but we needed to re-establish the input part and I think we’ve done that to this point.”
Ryan Getzlaf scored early in the third period for the Ducks to give Anaheim a 1-0 lead.
“I thought we did a lot of good things,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We held them to under 20 shots, gave them six chances, and we had 34 shots. That team played really hard against us tonight, and I thought we matched them pretty good.”
Jordan Eberle tied the score at one just over a minute after Getzlaf’s goal.
Frederik Andersen made 17 saves for the win and is now 11-0-1 in his last 12 games.
“We’ve become a pretty scrappy team,” McLellan said. “I have no complaints about the work ethic or the input into the win. Obviously we’d like better results, we’d like to find a way to give our goaltender who played extremely well again tonight some run support.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.