Gauthier breaks late tie as the Ducks beat the Oilers 6-4 in Game 2 to even series
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12:54 AM on Thursday, April 23
The Associated Press
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Cutter Gauthier broke a tie off a rebound with 4:52 left and the Anaheim Ducks beat Edmonton 6-4 on Wednesday night in Game 2 to even the first-round series, with Oilers star Connor McDavid escaping a leg injury.
McDavid caught an edge with his skate blade early in the second period after getting tangled up with teammate Mattias Ekholm and the Ducks’ Ian Moore. McDavid briefly left the game before returning, playing just over 24 minutes.
“It's fine,” McDavid said. "I just rolled up on it a little bit.”
Game 3 is Friday night in Anaheim. Edmonton opened the series Monday night with a 4-3 victory.
“We’ve been in this situation a lot, 1-1 going on the road,” McDavid said. “We’re comfortable on the road, we like playing on the road. Obviously, we’d like a better outcome tonight and a better product tonight, but we’re comfortable going on the road.”
Gauthier put the Ducks back in front after Josh Samanski — making his playoff debut — tied it at 4 with 6:09 to go. Ryan Poehling put it away with an empty-netter with 1:10 left, his second goal of the game. He scored short-handed in the second.
“We have the confidence,” Gauthier said. “All season long when games have been tied and we’ve been down goals, we’ve been in some high-pressure moments.”
Gauthier also scored on a first-period power play and set up Alex Killorn's second-period goal on a man advantage. Killorn added two assists.
“That’s kind of been the way we’ve been the entire year,” Killorn said. “It’s stressful playing that way. I think we’re getting used to it, but I think we’d like to be a little bit better with the lead and hold on to some of those leads. But the resiliency in this group is pretty phenomenal.”
Jacob Trouba added a goal, fellow defenseman Jackson LaCombe had three assists and Lukas Dostal stopped 33 shots.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and an assist for Edmonton. He returned for Game 1 from a lower-body injury against Nashville on March 15.
Connor Murphy and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers, and Connor Ingram made 22 saves.
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