Getzlaf carries Ducks to 4-3 win in OT Ducks captain scores twice adds two assists in series-tying win

In Edmonton Wednesday night, the Oilers could not stop Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks who struck for two goals and four points in a 4-3 overtime win for Anaheim.

The Oilers faced their own demons as well as with weak stick handling in their own zone and giveaways, especially on the game-winner.

Jakob Silfverberg scored on a quick snap shot with just 45 seconds gone in the extra session.  His goal came off a take away by Getzlaf from Adam Larsson in the zone.

“It’s remarkable. He’s one of the best players in the League, and when he plays like he did tonight, that aggressiveness and that physicality, he just pushes the whole team to move forward with him,” Silfverberg said of Getzlaf. “If you want to be a team that goes far, it’s him that’s going to have to keep playing like that and he obviously showed the right way tonight.”

After falling behind 2-0 in the opening frame, Getzlaf appeared to be on a mission to carry the Ducks to a series tie.

“I was really disappointed with the way we played in the first period,” Getzlaf said. “Our [penalty kill] has to find a way to get the job done a little bit and we have to find a way to dig in. I thought we lost a lot of battles in that period. I’ve always said that I can say anything I want in the dressing room, but I have to go out and live it and tried to do that in the second period, and the group went along with it and we kept playing.”

Milan Lucic and Connor McDavid made it look easy in the first period as they scored off redirected pucks to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead.

“We had our swings,” McDavid said. “We carried the pace in the first period, and that’s a good sign. We found a way to score a huge goal to send it into overtime, and that’s a positive.”

John Gibson who was victimized by the bouncing puck in the first recovered and made 29 saves to get the win.

Rickard Rakell also scored for the Ducks who went up 3-2 on a Getzlaf goal in the second period.

“It’s just another exclamation point on the type of player [Ryan Getzlaf] has been for our hockey club. He’s our captain, he’s our leader, he’s done a lot of things that go unnoticed. Now, in these situations in the playoffs, he’s been a guy who’s stepped to the forefront, ready to take the bull by the horns,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said of Getzlaf’s night.

With an extra skater on the ice, the Oilers’ Drake Caggiula snapped home a goal to tie it 3-3 with 1:42 left in regulation.

“It’s playoffs. Momentum can change at any given point in time. It’s one simple play that can change the whole momentum of the game. We’ve figured out that momentum doesn’t carry from game to game necessarily. We’ll have a fresh start for Game 5 in Anaheim and it’s a 2-2 series,” Caggiula said of the game coming up in Anaheim.

[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Oilers highlights | RELATED: Complete Anaheim vs. Edmonton series coverage]

Cam Talbot made 35 saves in taking the loss. He faced 21 shots in the second period alone.

Leave a Comment