Kasperi Kapanen’s second goal of the game, scored with under two minutes left in the third period, lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Anaheim Ducks in the opening game of their first-round playoff series on Monday.
Jason Dickinson also scored twice for the Oilers.
The Oilers (41-30-11 in regular-season play) saw star forward Leon Draisaitl return after missing the final 14 regular-season games and pick up a pair of assists, as did Jake Walman.
The Oilers are seeking their third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup final, having lost each of the last two seasons to the Florida Panthers, who missed out on post-season play this year.
Troy Terry had two goals and an assist and Leo Carlsson also scored for the Ducks (43-33-6), who are in the post-season for the first time since 2018.
Connor Ingram made 25 saves, including a doozy in the dying seconds to record the win in Edmonton’s net. Lukas Dostal recorded 30 saves for Anaheim.
The Oilers started the scoring with 2:39 remaining in the first period as Walman made a long stretch pass to Dickinson who undressed Dostal with a great move. The Oilers were 30-5-5 when scoring first this season.
Edmonton scored again exactly a minute later as Kapanen took a feed from Draisaitl and then had two cracks at his own rebound to score his first of the playoffs.
The Oilers outshot the Ducks 14-4 in the first period.
Anaheim only needed 19 seconds into the middle frame to make it 2-1 as Terry scored on a huge rebound off a Leo Carlsson shot.
The Ducks tied the game 4:38 into the second period as Carlsson returned the favour by banging in a Terry rebound.
Anaheim recorded 26 comeback wins this season, tied for the league lead with Montreal. The Ducks won 17 games when trailing by a goal and nine when down by two.
The Ducks took the lead on the power play with 5:31 left in the second as Terry, playing his first career playoff game, sent a shot through traffic in for his second of the contest.
Edmonton knotted the game at 3-3 as Radko Gudas blew a tire as a huge rebound on a Mattias Ekholm shot came to Dickinson for his second goal of the game.
The Oilers went up 4-3 with 1:54 left in the third as Vasily Podkolzin made a great backhand pass from behind the net to set up Kapanen’s second of the game.
Game 2 takes place on Wednesday in Edmonton.
Edmonton Oilers playoff run begins
