EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Kasperi Kapanen scored his second goal of the game with 1:54 left in the third period to give the Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the opener of their first-round playoff series Monday night.
Jason Dickinson also scored twice for the Oilers, who trailed 3-2 entering the third after squandering a 2-0 lead.
Oilers star Leon Draisaitl returned to the ice after missing the final 14 regular-season games with an injury. Draisaitl and Jake Walman each had two assists for Edmonton, while Connor McDavid was held without a point.
McDavid and 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 the postseason this year.
Troy Terry had two goals and an assist and Leo Carlsson also scored for the Ducks, who are in the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
Connor Ingram made 25 saves, including a doozy in the waning seconds, to earn the win. Lukas Dostal stopped 30 shots for Anaheim.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Wednesday in Edmonton.
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. Edmonton was 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 Carlsson’s shot.
The Ducks tied it 4:38 into the second period as Carlsson returned the favor by banging in a rebound of Terry’s shot.
Anaheim had 26 comeback wins this season, tied for the NHL 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 for his second goal of the game.
Edmonton tied it at 3 when Radko Gudas slipped and fell as a huge rebound on Mattias Ekholm’s shot came to Dickinson for his second goal of the game.
The Oilers went ahead for good when Vasily Podkolzin made a great backhand pass from behind the net to set up Kapanen’s second of the game.
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