The Edmonton Oilers kept rolling Wednesday night, beating the host Anaheim Ducks 5-2 at Honda Center and stretching their winning streak to three games.
Edmonton got goals from Evan Bouchard, Kasperi Kapanen, Connor McDavid and Vasily Podkolzin, with Bouchard scoring twice. Anaheim’s offense came entirely from Becker Sennecke, who scored both Ducks goals. Devon Levi handled the rest for the Oilers with 29 saves, while Lukas Dostal was charged with five goals on 17 shots before Ville Husso took over to begin the third period and stopped both shots he saw.
The game flipped hard after Anaheim opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period. Edmonton answered with five straight in the second and then locked things down from there, as neither team scored in the third.
The Oilers were 1-for-4 on the power play. The Ducks went 2-for-7.
With the win, Edmonton moved to 3-0-1 and climbed into first place in the Pacific Division.
The second period belonged to Edmonton’s top-end firepower. Bouchard scored 11 seconds into the middle frame, Kapanen tied it on the power play at 6:30, Bouchard struck again at 14:12, Podkolzin made it another Oilers burst at 16:49, and McDavid capped the surge with 52 seconds left in the period.
That stretch had the Oilers’ stars all over it. At least one of Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl or McDavid had a point on every Edmonton goal, and four of the five goals featured at least two of those three on the scoresheet. Bouchard and McDavid finished with three points each, while Draisaitl tied the franchise record with four assists in a single period.
Edmonton’s offensive ceiling keeps showing up in flashes like this. Through four games, the Oilers have already scored three or more goals in a period four times.
The penalty kill was a much messier story early, then a much better one later. Edmonton was shorthanded seven times, matching its single-game high from last season, and Anaheim cashed in on its first two power plays in the opening period. At that point, the Oilers’ penalty kill sat at 44.4% this season.
But after that rough start, Edmonton settled in and killed all five Ducks power plays over the second and third periods. That included a late Anaheim sequence with a two-man advantage for 75 seconds, plus an extra attacker to make it six-on-three. The Oilers survived all of it.
“Our penalty kill that started crazy was excellent for us,” Oilers coach Mike Babcock said of his squad’s play after the opening 20 minutes.
The numbers still need work. Edmonton’s penalty kill is now at 64.3%, which ranks 28 th in the NHL, and the club has allowed five power-play goals, tied for most in the league.
Levi also deserves a big share of the credit. Even though he allowed two goals before the first period was 16 minutes old, he gave Edmonton a chance to stay in the game. He stopped 14 of 16 shots in the opening frame and made several tough saves to keep the deficit from getting out of hand.
That mattered after what happened in his debut last Thursday (Oct. 1), when he gave up seven goals on 22 shots against the Vancouver Canucks. Since then, he has bounced back with two strong outings, including 19 saves in Edmonton’s 3-1 home win over the Seattle Kraken last Saturday (Oct. 3).
Those performances are making a case for Levi as Edmonton’s No. 1 goalie. Tristan Jarry has struggled in his only appearance this season, a 6-5 overtime loss to the Canucks on Sept.
- On Monday (Oct.
5), Babcock said Levi would start once and Jarry twice on the team’s three-game road trip, which continues Saturday (Oct. 10) against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center before ending next Tuesday (Oct. 13) against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
For now, the question is simple: who gets the net in San Jose? Game time is 2 p.m. MDT.
In Other News...
Evan Bouchard Is Forcing A Big Oilers Debate Early
Evan Bouchard has wasted no time putting himself at the center of the Oilers early-season conversation. Through four games, the defenseman has six goals and 11 points, leading all blueliners in scoring and sitting second on the team in points behind Connor McDavid. He has also been logging a heavy workload while helping drive Edmontons offense, another sign of how much the Oilers are leaning on him right now.
The numbers have been impossible to ignore, and they have naturally reopened a familiar debate around Bouchards game. His offensive impact is obvious, but his defensive play remains the part of the conversation that keeps the Norris Trophy discussion from becoming straightforward. For Edmonton, the question is less about whether he has been one of the NHLs most productive defensemen so far and more about how far that production can carry him if the rest of the profile does not fully match. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers May Have Found More Than Depth In This Trade
The Oilers latest swap with Pittsburgh was framed as a depth move on paper, with Spencer Stastney going the other way and Filip Hallander coming back to Edmonton. But the more interesting part of the deal is what Hallander brings beyond simple roster insulation. He is a younger center who has done most of his growing up in the Swedish Hockey League, where his play has stood out enough to earn international attention, and he arrives with a profile that suggests there may be more here than a routine bottom-six addition.
Hallander has also given Edmonton a small but encouraging offensive glimpse in limited NHL usage this season, which only adds to the intrigue around how the Oilers might use him while injuries continue to test their forward depth. Stastneys metrics were solid but unspectacular, so the trade could end up being judged less by what Edmonton gave up than by whether Hallander can translate his strong track record into a larger role. For a team that needs reliable minutes now, the possibility of uncovering a useful center along the way makes the deal worth watching. [Read more 🡒]
Devon Levi Is Giving The Oilers A Real Starter Debate
With Frederik Andersen sidelined, the Oilers have leaned on a goaltending tandem of Devon Levi and Tristan Jarry, and the early returns have made the crease look a lot less settled than it did a few weeks ago. Levi has started three games and has given Edmonton a steady enough presence to keep winning, while Jarry has only had one chance to answer and was left with an overtime loss.
The bigger takeaway for Edmonton is that Levi is quickly turning a short-term necessity into a real conversation about the future. General manager Stan Bowman brought him in from Buffalo with an eye on upside, and the Oilers have reason to like what they are seeing so far, especially with Andersen unavailable and the backup plan still taking shape behind him. [Read more 🡒]