Sennecke has three points, Ducks withstand late rally from Oilers

EDMONTON -- Beckett Sennecke had two goals and an assist, and the Anaheim Ducks withstood a late rally from the Edmonton Oilers for a 5-4 win at Rogers Place on Thursday.

After Sennecke had given the Ducks a 5-2 lead early in the third period, Kasperi Kapanen began the comeback attempt by scoring a power-play goal with 3:36 remaining.

Leon Draisaitl then cut it to 5-4 with 45 seconds left in the third, receiving a cross-crease pass through the seam from Connor McDavid and scoring past Laurent Brossoit’s glove with Matt Tomkins on the bench for the extra attacker.

The Oilers then possessed the puck off the ensuing face-off, but they weren't able to find the tying goal.

“We keep finding ways to leave teams in it a little bit in the past couple of games,” Sennecke said. “But a win’s a win.”

Cutter Gauthier had a goal and an assist, including his ninth goal in his past four games, and Pavel Mintyukov had two goals and an assist for the Ducks (8-7-1), who have won three straight. Brossoit made 23 saves.

“I thought we worked hard tonight. I thought our momentum shifted a couple times, like our last game (a 5-4 win at the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday),” Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. “Up 5-2, looked like they were going away, and then next thing you know they tie it up.

“Vancouver beat us similarly a week ago (6-5 in overtime on Oct. 27), same situation. So, we hung on there at the end, but I thought we had a really good third period going until they made it 5-3. But the guys worked hard and had a lot of positives.”

McDavid had a goal and three assists to extend his season-opening point streak to 17 games, Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard each had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two assists for the Oilers (11-3-3), who had their point streak end at five (3-0-2). Tomkins made 16 saves.

“I thought our penalty kill was excellent (6-for-8),” Edmonton coach Mike Babcock said. “It really set us up to win the game, to tell you the truth. It gave us a chance. And then we didn’t look after it. They won both net fronts. They won our net front and their net front.”

Gauthier put the Ducks ahead 1-0 on a power play at 9:26 of the first period. He took a pass across the slot from Jackson LaCombe and scored short side under Tomkins’ right arm.

The goal was Gauthier's seventh power-play goal in four games after he became the first player in Ducks history to score two on the man-advantage in each of his previous three games.

“They have a good penalty kill and something we haven’t seen so far this season,” Gauthier said. “A lot of pressure, they don’t give you any time to set up and really make a play, so it’s kind of just road hockey there."

Bouchard tied it 1-1 on a power play with 19 seconds left in the period, taking a pass from McDavid from behind the net and scoring on a wrist shot high to the glove side from the slot. 

McDavid put Edmonton ahead 2-1 while short-handed at 2:34 of the second period. He skated in 1-on-1 against Ducks forward Nikita Nesterenko, took a shot in the slot and batted his own rebound out of midair past Brossoit.

“The battle level was high,” McDavid said. “Just little mistakes here and there and they found a way to capitalize. We just came up a little short.

“We felt like we had a chance all along. We just had to find a way to keep them at three, four, five. Obviously, we needed to keep them at four. As soon as it gets to five, it’s obviously tough.

“We never feel like we are out of games. With our group, we feel like we can come back in any situation. We fell just a little bit short.”

Mintyukov tied it 2-2 at 3:37, scoring with a shot that went in off the stick of Oilers forward Mathieu Joseph. He then scored again at 6:15 to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead, cleaning up a rebound in close past Tomkins’ blocker off a point-blank shot by Judd Caulfield.

Sennecke made it 4-2 with 38 seconds remaining in the period, taking a cross-crease pass from Tristan Luneau and lifting it over the extended left pad of Tomkins.

“It was kind of a bit of an O-zone play there, and then someone got it to the net and I was just trying to slide it next door, and ‘Lunes’ made a great play and kind of shoveled it to the net and he put it on my tape,” Sennecke said. “We’re rolling hot right now. I think we all feel good and we’re confident in our group now, so it’s nice to kind of feel that way after the start we had.”

Sennecke then extended the lead to 5-2 at 1:42 of the third period with a power-play goal, completing a tic-tac-toe passing play with Gauthier and Carlsson.

NOTES: The Ducks have scored at least five goals in six consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. ...  With goaltender Tristan Jarry sitting out the game due to illness, the Oilers activated emergency backup goaltender Brett Epp to the roster for the first time to back up Tomkins. ... Combining on two goals, McDavid and Draisaitl (561 times) moved ahead of Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe (560 times) for fourth on the list of duos in NHL history to earn a point on the same goal. ... Bouchard (17 games) tied Bobby Orr (17 games in 1973-74 and 1969-70) for the second-fewest games to reach 30 points in a season by a defenseman. Orr also holds the record (14 games in 1974-75).