In Anaheim Friday, the Ducks fell into an 0-2 hole as Cam Talbot stopped 39 shots in a 2-1 win for the Edmonton Oilers.
Talbot heard the pinging of iron in the third period but that was a good sound for him as the Ducks were unable to find that fraction of an inch left or right to get the puck into twine.
“The guys are doing a great job in front of me,” Talbot said. “I’m finding some of those pucks that maybe I wouldn’t have found before. That’s what you need in the playoffs. You’re not going to win without goaltending.”
Andrej Sekera scored with just 1:05 gone in the first period and Patrick Maroon scuck early in the middle frame to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead, all the while Talbot was stoning the Ducks.
“He’s a good goaltender,” Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “He’s battled all year for those guys. We’ve got to do a better job getting in front of him … the one’s he couldn’t see, a lot of them hit the post.”
Jakob Silfverberg scored on the power play to give the Ducks some hope but it was fleeting as Oilers’ net was impenetrable.
“He (Talbot) was stellar for us,” Sekera said. “He won us the game. He made huge saves when we needed him. He was being Cam, as he has the whole season. We are happy he’s in the net.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Ducks highlights | RELATED: Complete Anaheim vs. Edmonton series coverage]
John Gibson made 21 saves in the loss.
“Nick Ritchie had the flu before the game and kind of set us back. We put [Jared Boll] in, and he did OK for his short tenure, drew a penalty in the offensive zone. We score on that power play. All those things are positives, but we’re going to need 20 guys, again, to play closer to what we played tonight, and if we can add 10 percent more, I think that would make the difference, collectively,” Anaheim head coach Randy Carlyle said after the loss.
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