EDMONTON – Kasperi Kapanen’s second goal of the game with less than two minutes left in the third period lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against the Anaheim Ducks in the opener of their first-round playoff series on Monday.
Jason Dickinson also scored twice for the Oilers.
The Oilers (41-30-11 in the regular season) saw star forward Leon Draisaitl return after missing the final 14 games of the regular season and pick up a pair of assists, as did Jake Walman.
The Oilers are looking for their third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Finals after losing 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 (43-33-6), who are in the postseason for the first time since 2018.
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Connor Ingram made 25 saves, including a shot in the closing seconds to record the win in Edmonton’s net. Lukas Dostal recorded 30 saves for Anaheim.
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The Oilers started the scoring with 2:39 left in the first period after Walman made a long stretch pass to Dickinson, who stripped Dostal with a nifty move. The Oilers were 30-5-5 when they scored first this season.
Edmonton scored again exactly one minute later as Kapanen took a rebound from Draisaitl and then had two rips on his rebound to score his first of the playoffs.
The Oilers outscored the Ducks 14-4 in the first half.
It took Anaheim just 19 seconds into the middle frame to make it 2-1 as Terry scored on a huge rebound off a Leo Carlsson shot.
The Ducks tied the game 4:38 into the second period when Carlsson returned the favor by hitting in a Terry jumper.
Anaheim recorded 26 comeback wins this season, tied for the league lead with Montreal. The Ducks won 17 games when trailing by one 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 in his first career playoff game, sent a shot into traffic for his second of the contest.
Edmonton tied the game at 3-3 as Radko Gudas broke the rubber when a big shot on a Mattias Ekholm shot came to Dickinson for his second goal of the game.
The Oilers went up 4-3 with 1:54 left in the third as Vasily Podkolzin made a beautiful pass behind the net to set up Kapanen’s second of the game.
endnoteS
McDavid’s 138 regular-season points were exactly double Ducks leading scorer Cutter Gauthier’s 69. It’s the third-largest gap between each team’s leading scorer in a first-round series in the last 30 years.
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The second game takes place on Wednesday in Edmonton.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 20, 2026.
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
