Oilers at Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks were in the midst of a 12-game home point streak (11-0-1) before the Edmonton Oilers made themselves comfortable at Honda Center by winning the first two contests of their Western Conference second-round series. After remaining perfect in the playoffs in Alberta, the Ducks vie for their third win in a row in the matchup when they host the Oilers for Game 5 on Friday.
"It's a weird series when you take that both teams have went into one another's building and won both games," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle told reporters. "So I'm sure they're looking at it and saying, 'We've got road-ice advantage. We're going to try to defend it. It's our serve.'" Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf has enjoyed the series regardless of venue, highlighting his four-point performance in Wednesday's 4-3 overtime victory with a pair of tallies to surpass Teemu Selanne (35) for first place on the franchise's all-time playoff list. "Right now, we don't (have an answer for Getzlaf)," Edmonton coach Todd McLellan told TSN. Leon Draisaitl (team-high 10 points) has been pretty hard to solve as well on the heels of his third multi-point performance in the playoffs for the Oilers.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, Sportsnet, TVA
ABOUT THE OILERS: Captain Connor McDavid followed his highlight-reel goal in Game 3 with another tally on Wednesday, giving the Hart Trophy finalist a point in five of his last six contests. The 20-year-old Art Ross Trophy winner wasn't hanging his head after his team dropped both contests at Rogers Place and rather expressed an air of confidence on Thursday given Edmonton's 4-1 record in California during the playoffs and 22-14-5 road mark in the regular season. "I think everyone feels pretty good, even though losing both (games) at home is not ideal," McDavid told reporters. "We're going into a building that we feel pretty comfortable playing in, we've had success there before. We've been a pretty good road team this year, the guys seem to jell on the road."
ABOUT THE DUCKS: Jakob Silfverberg scored the second-fastest overtime goal in franchise playoff history when he tallied 45 seconds into the extra session in Game 4, extending his goal-scoring streak to four contests and playoff total to seven in eight games. The 26-year-old Swede has shown a knack for coming up big in the postseason, as he's only two years removed from recording 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) in 16 games during Anaheim's run to the Western Conference final. Rickard Rakell, who led the team during the regular season with a career-high 33 goals, has scored in back-to-back contests and totaled a plus-6 rating over those two games.
OVERTIME
1. Edmonton LW Patrick Maroon has burned his former team with two goals and four assists during his four-game point streak.
2. Ducks RW Corey Perry notched an assist on Wednesday, marking his first point versus the Oilers in his last seven encounters.
3. Edmonton D Adam Larsson has been on the ice for four of his team's goals during the postseason and 11 by the opposition.