May 5, 2017
The Ducks pulled off the unthinkable on Friday night at the Honda Center. Trailing 3-0 with about three minutes left, Anaheim rallied to score three goals to tie the game. Then Corey Perry scored the game-winner in double OT to defeat the Oilers 4-3 in the pivotal game 5 of their second round series. Anaheim now has a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Perry took a centering pass from Ryan Getzlaf at the 6:57 mark of the 2nd OT, and slid the puck past Cam Talbot, completing the miraculous comeback.
“Right to the net,” Perry said. “He had eyes up, and he had time, and I was yelling for that puck the whole way.”
The Ducks became the first team in Stanley Cup playoff history to force overtime or win a playoff game after trailing by three goals with less than four minutes left in regulation.
Anaheim pulled goaltender John Gibson with under four minutes to go in regulation, providing the Ducks with a 6-on-5 man advantage. Getzlaf got the Ducks on the board with a slap shot from the blue line with 3:16 left. Cam Fowler scored 35 seconds later with wrist shot from the blue line, which found the back of the net after getting past numerous bodies in front of the net. Finally, Rikard Rakell put a backhand shot past Talbot, which got through another pile up of bodies in front of Talbot.
“That’s will,” said Getzlaf. “We willed it through, and did whatever we had to do. We scratched and clawed at the end and found a way to get ourselves back in that game and give ourselves an opportunity.”
After a scoreless 1st period, the Oilers began to take control in the 2nd period. Leon Draisatl scored 15 seconds into the 2nd period, which was his 8th goal in the last 10 games against Anaheim. Connor McDavid made it 2-0 on a 2-man advantage at the 2:55 mark, batting the puck past Gibson after taking a pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Drake Caggiula made it 3-0 after scoring on a 4-on-1 break.
Talbot made 60 saves on the evening for the Oilers, including a pair of big saves on Getzlaf early on. The Ducks captain also missed high on a penalty shot in the 1st period.
Gibson made 35 saves for the Ducks, who have now won three straight games after losing the first two of the series at home.
The Ducks will try to close out the series on Sunday afternoon in Edmonton. A win will send the Ducks into the Western Conference Finals, where they would play either the Nashville Predators or the St. Louis Blues.