Oilers score early and often in series-tying 7-1 win Five-goal first period sends series back to Anaheim

In Edmonton Sunday night, there was no rally from the Anaheim Ducks.

The Oilers made sure of that in the fist period with an avalanche of goals, five in total, in the first period.

Edmonton buried the Ducks in a 7-1 win and sent the series back to Anaheim for a decisive Game 7.

Leon Draisaitl struck for a hat trick and collected five points n the win.

“[Draisaitl] stepped up big,” the Oilers’ Milan Lucic said. “We needed someone to step up and he’s stepped up like he has all season long. He came up huge for us when we needed it the most.”

Mark Letestu scored twice and picked up four points in the win.

“We’re better than people give us credit for,” Letestu said. “We had a tough game in San Jose where we lost 7-0 (in the first round) and we came back and won the next two games in that series. I don’t think there is anything that we’re going to come across that we can’t bounce back from. We proved that to each other tonight.”

Zack Kassian and Anton Slepyshev also scored for the Oilers.

“A first period like that, you give yourself such a big lead, and I thought all four lines were very dangerous tonight,” Draisaitl said. “Obviously, the season was on the line and we all had to step it up a notch and I thought the whole group did.”

Cam Talbot made 34 saves to pick up the win.

Rickard Rakell scored the lone Ducks goal.

“You give up two breakaways in the first 10 minutes, I don’t think you deserve to win the game,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said. “It could have been 20-1, really. It doesn’t matter. I know it’s fun for the fans and it’s probably fun for them, beating us pretty bad, but we’ll just figure out what we did wrong and move on.”

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

John Gibson got the hook after yielding three goals on just six shots.

Gibson was relieved by Jonathan Bernier who made 25 saves.

“I wasn’t very good, I have to come up with a couple of saves and maybe it’s different, maybe it’s not,” Gibson said. “As it went on they kind of took it to us, it wasn’t our best. I wasn’t as good as I wanted to be and I kind of let [my teammates] down.”