Anaheim and Edmonton meet again tonight at Honda Center, with the Ducks trying to turn a 2-1 lead in their First Round series into a commanding 3-1 advantage. Puck drop for Game 4 is set for 6:30 p.m. PT, with the game airing locally on KCOP-13 and Victory+ and nationally on.
The Ducks carry real momentum into the night after beating the Oilers 7-4 on Friday, a result that gave Anaheim its first home playoff victory since May 2017. It was also the franchise playoff record for goals in a game, with seven different Ducks scoring and four of them netting their first career playoff goals. Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson set the tone early by scoring 42 seconds apart, but the game was tied 3-3 after two periods before Anaheim broke it open with four goals in the third.
That kind of night changed the feel of the series and gave Joel Quenneville’s team a chance to press an advantage in front of its own crowd. Quenneville has said momentum matters in a playoff series, and Anaheim has already won two straight. If the Ducks win again, they go back to Edmonton with a 3-1 series lead.
The Oilers arrive knowing what the numbers say and what history says. Edmonton has won six consecutive Game 4s when trailing 2-1 in a series, a streak that makes tonight a different kind of test for Anaheim than Friday’s shootout-style win. Quenneville called this matchup the hardest game of the series, and he is right about the pressure point: the Ducks have a chance to make Friday’s breakthrough count for more than one night.
There is still uncertainty on the Edmonton side. Kris Knoblauch had not settled on a starting goalie on Saturday, with Connor Ingram 1-2 in the series and Tristan Jarry waiting in the wings. For Anaheim, Radko Gudas remains out with a lower-body injury, while Troy Terry is in for Game 4. The Ducks do not need another 7-4 game to matter. They need the same pace, the same urgency and the same finish they found in the third period on Friday.