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Saturday, May 6, 2017

{allcanada} Oilers angry, dejected after Game 5 loss to Ducks

 

ANAHEIM -- The collapse was historic, but the Edmonton Oilers believe in their chances to win the Western Conference Second Round against the Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks rallied from a 3-0 hole late in the third period and defeated the Oilers 4-3 in the second overtime of Game 5 at Honda Center on Friday, taking a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series.

Game 6 is at Rogers Place on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports).

The Ducks became the first team in Stanley Cup Playoff history to force overtime when trailing by three goals with less than four minutes remaining in regulation.

"There's not much that can really be said right now," Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. "It sucks. But we'll be back here Wednesday (for a Game 7).

"Nothing really has to change. We ultimately had them right where we wanted them and we just let it go."

McDavid had a goal and an assist in the second period -- his first two-point game of the playoffs -- to help the Oilers to a 3-0 lead.

The game went to overtime when the Ducks got third-period goals from Ryan Getzlaf at 16:44, Cam Fowler at 17:19 and Rickard Rakell at 19:45. Each Anaheim goal came with goalie John Gibson lifted for a sixth attacker.

"We're all (angry) and we're down," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "We're allowed to feel those emotions. We're allowed to vent and feel that way.

"But we have to come back with a game that's that much better at home. We can do that. We believed we can play with this team from Day 1. We'll go home and regroup. Our guys have done a tremendous job all season. We showed it again tonight. We weren't very happy with what happened in Edmonton and we responded with a hell of a game. We have to do the same thing. We have the ability to do that, and we will."

McLellan said there was nobody to blame in the comeback.

"We can be upset they scored, but we can't be mad at people, they were effort (situations)," he said.

The Oilers battled plenty of adversity. They were outplayed badly in the first period, outshot 13-7, and went through a run of injuries.

Forced to leave the game, in order, were defensemen Matt Benning, Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell, then right wing Zack Kassian.

All but Sekera returned; the Oilers finished with five defensemen.

"I want to say how gutsy a game those five played tonight," said goalie Cam Talbot, who made 60 saves. "Getting banged up… I think we had four guys (out) at one point in the first period, and how well they played tonight. Give them a lot of credit. They battled hard."

Defenseman Adam Larsson played a game-high 44:58 and Russell blocked eight shots.

"Those guys did an unbelievable job tonight," Talbot said.

Talbot, who faced 22 shots in the third period and 20 in overtime, sat in his stall for a lengthy spell before talking to reporters.

"Right now, it's just frustration, disappointment," he said. "But it's a race to four and they've only got three. We've got two more games to come out and hopefully be able to bring it back here on Wednesday and finish what we started here."

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