Mark Letestu of the Edmonton Oilers tries to get by two Anaheim Ducks players during Game 1 of their second-round NHL playoff series at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Wednesday.Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
The Oilers' postseason joyride continued on Wednesday night a couple of kilometres from the main gate at Disneyland.
Adam Larsson and Mark Letestu each scored two goals and Leon Draisaitl added an empty netter as Edmonton defeated Anaheim 5-3 at the Honda Center.
Larsson, who scored only four times all season, tucked the winner around Ducks goalie John Gibson with 4:40 remaining as the Oilers won the first game of the second-round Western Conference playoff series.
The loss was the first in regulation time for Anaheim since March 10 at St. Louis, where they lost on a goal in the last 20 seconds. They entered the night 15-0-3 over their last 18 games, including a sweep of Calgary in the opening round of the Stanley Cup. It was also the Ducks' first loss in nine home games.
The victory by Edmonton also at least temporarily takes the home-ice advantage away from Anaheim, which finished two points ahead in the Pacific Division. The Oilers have beaten the Ducks four times in six meetings this season heading into Friday night's second game, which is also at the Honda Center.
"They're not going away," Larsson said. "They're a veteran team. They're dominant and they're going to keep keep coming."
The series then returns to Rogers Place in Edmonton for Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and Wednesday.
The game was a slug fest between two hard-hitting teams. It ended with three players from each team in the penalty box, all for roughing, with all infractions occurring with 3.7 seconds left.
Earlier in the third period, Milan Lucic decked an Anaheim player behind the Oilers' net. At various points in the game, Ryan Kesler was called for tripping against Edmonton star Connor McDavid, Hampus Lindholm punched the 20-year-old captain in the back as they skated up the ice, the Oilers' Patrick Maroon rode Josh Manson like a bucking bronco and Gibson punched Anton Slepyshev as they were sprawled in Gibson's crease after the Russian forward plowed into him on a rush.
The game entered the third period tied at 1, but then Edmonton went ahead on Letestu's second power-play goal and Larsson's first of the game. Within a minute and a half, however, the Ducks had tied it on goals by Getzlaf and Patrick Eaves and their home arena was rocking.
The Oilers won despite being outshot, outhit and having a massive disadvantage in faceoffs. Draisaitl had three assists for the Oilers, Larsson had one and so did Lucic and McDavid, who was tightly marked by Kesler. Edmonton's No. 1 line – McDavid, Draisaitl and Maroon – failed to generate a shot in the first two periods.
"They play with a chip on their shoulder," McDavid said after the Oilers' pregame skate. "They are going to want to engage us physically."
Edmonton has an agitator or two in Zack Kassian and Maroon, but nobody that can match Kesler for pestiness. The Anaheim centre, who will line up against McDavid throughout the series, prides himself on being the biggest irritant in the game.
Kesler, nominated for the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward, yaps and chops and whacks and slashes. He plays angry all the time, like a hornet that has just been chased out of its nest.
"I am his friend, and sometimes I even want to kill him," his teammate Kevin Bieksa said this week.
The gamesmanship entering the second round was not left to only the players.
On Tuesday, Anaheim's Randy Carlyle labelled the proposition that the Oilers are a young team "a pile of crap."
"They portray that, but I don't look at them as young," Carlyle said. "They have some very good young players, but they've got a veteran lineup and a lot of talent and high draft choices that have been moved to different spots, and it has solidified them as a group."
On Wednesday morning, Carlyle said he expected "a lot of whining" about Edmonton's inability to win faceoffs out of Oilers' coach Todd McLellan. The Ducks finished first in the league in faceoffs in the regular season, while the Oilers were last.
McLellan, nominated later in the day for the Jack Adams Award for top coach, along with Toronto's Mike Babcock and John Tortorella of Columbus, chuckled when Carlyle's quote was relayed to him.
"I've been whining about our faceoffs all year because we are in thirtieth place," McLellan said. "I don't think that's a brilliant comment [by him] by any means."
The Oilers now have the upper hand, but it is likely to be a long, drawn-out series.
It is the fifth consecutive season Anaheim has won the Pacific Division, and it marks the third time in four years that the Ducks advanced past the first round. It is the first since 2006 for the Oilers, when they beat Anaheim in the Western Conference finals.
The sellout crowd at Honda Center was loud throughout the night. Fans gave a warm applause to Willie O'Ree, the NHL's first African-American player, when he was shown in the stands. They roared when a camera found Teemu Selanne, the future Hall of Famer who played much of his career in Anaheim.
The Oilers fell behind 1-0, didn't fold, and then came back and won after blowing a two-goal lead. It is all pretty heady stuff for a team that finished 29th among 30 teams last year.
"We are a youthful team that hasn't been to this dance, but our group is evolving and growing," McLellan said.