Oilers confident going home for Game 3 of Western Final against Avalanche

DENVER -- The Edmonton Oilers are headed home for Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS) down 2-0 in the best-of-7 series, but they hold a belief their best hockey is still to come.

"I think I don't think we've played our best game yet," Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said Friday. "I think there's more there for us.
"Obviously, you'd like to leave Denver with a split. It didn't happen, but we're going home where we've been good all year long and in the playoffs. And we're looking forward to getting to that game in Edmonton tomorrow night."
Edmonton is 4-2 at Rogers Place this postseason, and hopes home-ice advantage will give them a lift heading into Game 3 against Colorado, which won the first two games of the series at Ball Arena by a combined score of 12-6, including a 4-0 victory in Game 2 on Thursday.
RELATED: [Complete Avalanche vs. Oilers series coverage]
The Oilers were 28-12-1 at home this season, ninth-best in the NHL; the Avalanche were 24-14-3 on the road, good for 10th in the League.
"We love playing at home," Edmonton center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. "We love playing in front of a crowd. I think we have the best fans in the League, and it's going to be loud. It's going to be exciting. Great opportunity for us to go back home and feed off the fans and start this thing going."
Colorado scored three goals in a span of 2:04 during the second period Thursday and kept center Connor McDavid and forward Leon Draisaitl, who played on separate lines in Game 2, off the scoresheet for the second time this postseason.
"I think we have individuals that have more to give, and as a team, our team game can be a lot more sound than it has been," Woodcroft said, "I don't feel yet that we played a full 60 minutes. We've had good spurts, good periods, but we haven't played a full 60 minutes yet. And I know what our team is capable of, and certainly if we bring it over the full 60 minutes, we'll be in a good spot."
The Oilers have been behind in each of thr first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but never by more than one game. The No. 2 seed in the Pacific Division, Edmonton trailed the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 and 3-2 in the first round before winning in seven games. In the second round, the Oilers trailed 1-0 before winning the next four games against the Calgary Flames.
"Obviously, we can look right back to being down 3-2 in L.A., going down there and getting that win (4-2 in Game 6), but not just that," Nugent-Hopkins said. "During the season we went through a stretch where we were 2-14 (actually 2-11-2), we had COVID stuff going on, we had a ton of injuries, and we were out of a playoff spot. And we found a way to to battle back and stay resilient as a full group and push ourselves into a playoff spot and a good playoff spot."
Following that skid from Dec. 3-Jan. 20, Edmonton completed the regular season with a 31-11-4 run to finish 49-27-6 and secure second place in the Pacific Division.
Woodcroft replaced Dave Tippett as coach on Feb. 10, and the Oilers were 26-9-3 under him. Edmonton signed Evander Kane as a free agent on Jan. 27, and the forward is the NHL's leading goal-scorer in the playoffs with 13 goals after having 39 points (22 goals, 17 assists) in 43 games during the regular season.
"So we definitely have gone through some adversity," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I think that's kind of been one of our best attributes this season is the way that we responded from that. We're excited here. It's obviously not the position we wanted to be in, but at the same time we have a great opportunity here to head home and start rolling here."
Forward Kailer Yamamoto left Game 2 in the second period with an upper-body injury, and Woodcroft didn't provide a timeline for his return. If Yamamoto is out for Game 3, Edmonton may need to make more adjustments to find a spark against Colorado, which is 5-0 on the road this postseason.
"I think we've maintained a level of flexibility over the last 3 1/2 months that makes us hard to predict and allows us to make necessary adjustments," Woodcroft said. "I thought the way the game played yesterday, we we were able to get Connor's line out against the people we wanted to. Not all the time, but we did some things in order to get that. I think when you're at home it's a little bit easier because you do control the last change."