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Anaheim Ducks forward Antoine Vermette was suspended for 10 games without pay Thursday for slashing a linesman in apparent anger after a faceoff.

Vermette slapped his stick against the back of linesman Shandor Alphonso’s legs after losing a faceoff to Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu during the third period of the Ducks’ 1-0 win Tuesday.

Two days later, the NHL issued the automatic 10-game suspension under league rules for applying physical force to an official without intent to injure. Vermette, who will lose $97,222.22 in salary, had never previously been fined or suspended during his 13 NHL seasons.

Vermette is expected to appeal the suspension to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. He could take a further appeal to an independent arbitrator.

The normally mild-mannered Vermette appeared to act in frustration after Alphonso dropped the puck before the forward had put his stick in place on the ice. Vermette has been the NHL’s most proficient faceoff man this season, winning 62.4 per cent of his 985 draws.

After the game, Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said he thought Vermette hadn’t acted maliciously, but had been trying to get Alphonso’s attention after what he viewed as an unfair faceoff.

But Carlyle also acknowledged that NHL rules strictly prohibit contact with officials. Alphonso is a former OHL player in his first full season as an NHL linesman.

The suspension hurts the Ducks during the stretch run of their drive for a fifth consecutive Pacific Division title. Second-place Anaheim (30-18-10) trails division-leading San Jose by four points with 24 games to play.

If Vermette immediately serves the entire 10-game suspension, he would be out until Anaheim’s visit from the NHL-leading Washington Capitals on March 12.

Vermette had been enjoying steady success in his first season with the Ducks, who signed the 34-year-old veteran to a two-year deal in August. Along with his faceoff success, the 2015 Stanley Cup champion also has contributed eight goals and 14 assists in 58 games as a reliable depth forward.

Anaheim hosts the Florida Panthers on Friday. The Ducks have four games in the next six days.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Opportunity came knocking in the worst possible way Sunday.

When Loui Eriksson was lost to a left-leg injury early in the first period after a heavy sideboards collision with Chris Wagner, the Vancouver Canucks were forced to double-shift wingers.

Nikolay Goldobin, Jayson Megna and Markus Granlund got the extra work and social media did the wave with coach Willie Desjardins forced to deploy Goldobin more than he did Saturday in Los Angeles.

However, on the second half of back-to-back games, it was a big ask because the legs were supposed to eventually go away, but that wasn’t really a factor in a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks as the Canucks concluded a three-game California tour with a 2-1-0 record.

They narrowed the gap to five points in the unlikely pursuit of the final Western Conference wild-card spot and have given more reason for hope than total despair.

Netminder Richard Bachman did his part to install that feeling Sunday. His calmness and ability to shake off a first-period non-goal when the puck was kicked in by Ondrej Kase spoke of the goalie’s ability to maintain mental sharpness despite not seeing an NHL crease in more than 16 months. He finished with 43 saves.

“That felt really good,” understated Bachman. “The win was special because you want to relish it and show management you can play. We gave up a lot of shots, but they were straight on and I was able to see most of them, so we did a nice job tonight.

“And the big thing early on is that I thought I was making pretty good reads and you want to make some big saves early and give the guys a chance to get a lead.”

It took 32 shots to finally beat Bachman, who played in place of injured Jacob Markstrom and resting Ryan Miller, when Patrick Eaves went short-side off a cross-ice feed from Ryan Getzlaf.

As much as Eriksson’s ailment looked like it might be knee-related — he braced for impact and his leg was crushed against the boards before he collapsed to the ice — it was a cruel way to end his day because there were recent signs of life in the high-priced, free-agent acquisition.

The struggling winger was coming off a more-engaged, two-assist effort in a 4-3 victory over the Kings and was developing chemistry with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi. They were baby steps for someone counted on for 30 goals, yet has but 11 in 65 games and has scored just once in the last 19.

“That (injury) was tough to see,” said Horvat, who opened the scoring. “The last two or three games, we were finding each other out there and making plays. For him to go down like that, definitely sucks. But he’s a tough player and hopefully he gets back in the lineup soon.”

What all that meant Sunday was to only refocus the attention on a younger core that didn’t wilt under the added duress of more ice time. The kids actually lapped it up. Granlund found an extra step and gave the Canucks a two-goal cushion when he snapped a wrist shot from the slot between the pads of struggling backup goalie Jonathan Bernier in the second period for his career-high 17th goal.

It was further proof why the Ducks have lost eight of their last 13 games and are obviously missing starting goalie John Gibson, who has missed five games with a muscle strain.

Meanwhile, Goldobin even got power-play time as Desjardins tried to come up with the right combinations at even strength and with the man advantage to put away the Ducks. And even when the Ducks crashed the crease, there was a sense of resiliency and belief that the Canucks could make something of this trip.

“We keep battling and keep trying to prove people wrong,” said Horvat. “This team has a lot of character, a lot of fight and lot of good players. I mean we’re right there.”

Desjardins is often questioned for line deployment, but his willingness to work with Granlund and allow him to become a top-six fixture is as encouraging as the results. So was this trip.

bkuzma@postmedia.com

twitter.com/@benkuzma

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Rickard Rakell scored the go-ahead goal, Hampus Lindholm had a goal and two assists and the Anaheim Ducks held off the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Jonathan Bernier made 29 saves, while Josh Manson and Patrick Eaves also scored as Anaheim passed Edmonton for second place in the Pacific Division with nine games remaining for both teams.

Cam Talbot gave up four goals on 18 shots before being pulled midway through the second period as the Oilers’ four-game winning streak ended. Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist, giving him 84 points to extend his league lead, and Leon Draisaitl also scored for the Oilers.

Mark Letestu added a 6-on-3 power-play goal with 6.7 seconds remaining.

Talbot, starting for the 13th game in a row and coming off consecutive shutouts, seemed a step slow from the start, and Anaheim made him pay. After failing to react in time to Manson’s score over his right shoulder, Talbot was beaten over his left glove side by Rakell during 4-on-4 play and prompting Oilers coach Todd McLellan to finally give Laurent Brossoit just his fifth appearance in net this season.

Brossoit made 16 saves in relief, playing for the first time since a loss at Tampa Bay on Feb. 21.

The Ducks took the lead 1:33 into the second after being rather fortunate to head into the locker-room tied at 2-2 when Lindholm scored with 30.2 seconds left. Edmonton succeeded early on in drawing Anaheim into a wide-open game, turning speed and skill into a 15-6 advantage in shots.

McDavid used a slick backhand to score his 26th, reaching around Cam Fowler and cutting back to his right to beat Bernier 1:03 after Eaves tied the game at 1-1.

Talbot gave up a howler on Eaves’ long shot, offering an early hint of the struggles to come.

The sequence that ended with the Oilers taking a 1-0 lead could have had a very different result if not for two fortunate redirections. Ryan Kesler’s shot was sent into the post by Talbot’s right skate and tantalizingly trickled parallel to the open goal, allowing Edmonton to recover and break the other way, where Draisaitl buried his 25th goal 5:58 into the first.

ANAHEIM – Most facets of the Winnipeg Jets game were much improved from a night before, but not even that could help them avoid a clean sweep in California.

The Jets were more disciplined and got much better goaltending, but ultimately fell 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night at Honda Center.
The Jets, who slipped to 33-35-7 on the season, are back in action on Sunday at MTS Centre against the Vancouver Canucks, before heading on the road for the postponed game against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday at the Prudential Center.

Corey Perry got the Ducks going at 17:17 of the first period, taking advantage of a screen by Antoine Vermette to score his 15th goal of the campaign.

After going into the contest with eight power-play goals in the past 42 opportunities (19.0 per cent), the Jets power-play struck once again during the second period.

With three seconds left in the minor penalty to Ducks defenceman Korbinian Holzer, Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey worked his way into the slot and redirected a point shot from captain Blake Wheeler.

Mathieu Perreault also drew an assist, giving him 19 points during his past 16 games to leave him at 36 points after a slow offensive start to the season.

It was the sixth goal of the season for Morrissey, who is up to 20 points in 75 games during his rookie season.

For a guy who wasn’t a lock to crack the roster on opening night, the consistent play of Morrissey has been one of the unheralded storylines of the season for the Jets.

Instead of slipping onto the roster on the third pairing, Morrissey used an excellent summer of training to vault himself onto the top pairing with Dustin Byfuglien.

As the season wore on, Morrissey went from being a complementary piece to someone who could stabilize a pairing.

With Byfuglien a late scratch with an undisclosed injury on Friday, Morrissey was the only blue-liner who was in the Jets’ opening-night roster that was in uniform.

Because the Jets were missing five regulars on the back end, Jets head coach Paul Maurice decided to play Morrissey and Jacob Trouba on separate pairings as a way to help spread out the minutes.

For Trouba, it was his first game since suffering an upper-body injury – presumably during his fight with Calgary Flames forward Sam Bennett – and his return was a welcome one.

After the Jets tied the game, Trouba was the victim of an unfortunate bounce as Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano banked a shot off of him and past goalie Michael Hutchinson.

Jakob Silfverberg added an empty-netter with 67 seconds left in regulation to put the game on ice.

Following another tough outing for Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, Hutchinson provided some steady play between the pipes, making 32 saves.

It’s been a challenging season for Hutchinson, but this was his third consecutive strong appearance – including two starts and one relief appearance.

Goaltending has been a hot topic of conversation throughout the course of the season and the past two goalies the Jets faced are pending unrestricted free agents.

Kings goalie Ben Bishop stopped 19 of 21 shots against the Jets on Thursday and he’s sure to be one of the hottest commodities on the goalie market.

He’ll have plenty of suitors, though it will be interesting to see what type of money and term he gets on the open market.

As for Jonathan Bernier, he’s having a strong campaign as the Ducks backup and has seen an increase in his workload recently because of an injury to John Gibson.

Bernier is most likely going to take a pay cut from the $4-million he’s making.

Will he find an opportunity to be a starter elsewhere or might he see an opportunity to stick around with the Ducks (most likely after the expansion draft)?

Either way, these would be two goalies – among Scott Darling of the Chicago Blackhawks and several others – the Jets could have on their radar this summer.

Whether it’s in free agency or with a trade (again following the expansion draft in June), Hellebuyck figures to have a new partner next season and the competition for the starting job appears to be wide open.

kwiebe@postmedia.com

EDMONTON — Leon Draisaitl scored the overtime winner as the Edmonton Oilers vaulted into a tie for first place in the Pacific Division with Anaheim with a 3-2 victory over the Ducks on Saturday.

The winner came 1:26 into overtime as Connor McDavid fed it to Draisaitl on a 2-one-1.

Edmonton and Anaheim each have 97 points, with four games remaining for each club. The Oilers currently hold the tiebreaker.

McDavid also scored and finished with two assists and Milan Lucic had the other goal for the Oilers (44-25-9), who have won five games in a row and nine of their last 10. Edmonton’s 44 wins are the most the team has had in a season since the Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 1987-88.

Ryan Getzlaf and Patrick Eaves replied for the Ducks (42-23-13), who have lost two in a row on the heels of a five-game winning streak.

Anaheim had the best early chance six minutes in, but Oilers goalie Cam Talbot made a huge glove save on a point-blank shot by Corey Perry.

Edmonton finally broke the deadlock with 49 seconds left in the opening frame as Patrick Maroon’s nice individual effort set up McDavid’s 29th goal of the season, sending it past Ducks starter John Gibson. His league-leading 92nd point extended his current point streak to 10 games.

The Ducks pulled even on the power play early in the second when Getzlaf beat a screened Talbot with a blast from the point for his 15th goal.

Anaheim defenceman Sami Vatanen left the game in the second with an upper-body injury and did not return.

Ducks forward Ryan Kesler had a wide-open net to shoot for four minutes into the third, but rang it off the crossbar.

Anaheim took a 2-1 lead nine minutes into the third on the power play, as the Oilers got caught running around and Antoine Vermette was left alone in front to dish it to Eaves at the side of the net for his 29th goal.

Edmonton tied it back up with a power-play goal of its own with 1:58 remaining when Lucic scored from in tight on the rebound of a Draisaitl shot, whose assist also gave him a 10-game point streak.

CALGARY – Logan Shaw scored with 3:06 left in the third period to lead the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames on Sunday.

Shaw swatted a rebound past Calgary goalie Brian Elliott for just his third goal of the season (and second against the Flames) to help the Ducks bounce back from a 3-2 overtime road loss to the Edmonton Oilers one night earlier.

Patrick Eaves, Jakob Silfverberg and Korbinian Holzer also scored for the Ducks (43-23-13), who moved back into first place in the NHL’s Pacific Division ahead of the Oilers (44-25-9). Ryan Kesler finished with three assists.

Anaheim goalie Jonathan Bernier made 18 saves to improve his record to 10-0-2 in his past 12 games. Bernier stopped 17-of-25 shots during an 8-3 loss to the Flames in his last start in Calgary on Dec. 4.

Kris Versteeg had a pair of goals for the Flames (44-31-4), who play the Ducks again on Tuesday at Anaheim’s Honda Center where Calgary has lost 24 straight regular-season games dating back to Jan. 19, 2004. Michael Frolik also scored for Calgary, while TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano had two assists apiece. Elliott made 30 saves.

Eaves opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 11:32 of the first period. Elliott stopped the initial point shot by Cam Fowler with Eaves digging out the rebound from a mess of bodies in the crease before snapping a shot past the Calgary netminder for his seventh goal in his past eight games.

Silfverberg gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead with 56.2 seconds remaining in the opening period when he took a drop pass from Ryan Kesler and snapped a perfect shot to the top corner over Elliott’s blocker.

The Flames bounced back with a pair of power-play goals by Versteeg at 3:48 and 10:01 of the second period. After wiring a shot to the top corner past Bernier, Versteeg then scored on a two-man advantage when he skated out from the corner and shovelled a shot past the Anaheim goalie.

Anaheim pressed hard to retake the lead, but were continually denied by Elliott who made nice saves to stop quality scoring opportunities by Eaves, Rickard Rakell and Ryan Getzlaf.

The Ducks were rewarded for their persistence with 2:07 left in the second when Holzer pinched in off the point to take a pass from Getzlaf before snapping a shot past Elliott.

Frolik tipped Giordano’s point shot past Bernier at 5:42 of the third period to pull the Flames even again.

Notes: Defencemen Sami Vatanen and Hampus Lindholm both suffered upper-body injuries during Anaheim’s 3-2 overtime loss in Edmonton on Saturday. … Anaheim called up defenceman Shea Theodore from the AHL’s San Diego Gulls on Sunday and made it to Calgary on time to suit up for his 31st game of the season for the Ducks. … After sitting out Saturday’s game against the Oilers, defenceman Brandon Montour also made his return to Anaheim’s lineup against Calgary.

People keep asking Jonathan Bernier if this is the best he’s ever played, as though his re-emergence in Anaheim is some big surprise.

It’s not a shock to the 28-year-old, who recently wrapped up a sterling March in which he went 10-1-2 with a cool .941 save percentage. Bernier has gone 12 straight starts without a regulation loss, thrusting himself unexpectedly into the goaltending conversation for the Ducks’ upcoming playoff run.

“I’ve never lost confidence in myself to be honest,” said Bernier during a recent phone interview from southern California.

“I always believed that I’m a good goalie and I can do the job in this league and obviously to have that stretch right now — I’m not trying to prove anything to people, I think I’m just trying to get better every day for me. I only try to push myself. I’m not looking really at what people are saying or what they think, it’s just all about me (and what I think) right.”

It wasn’t long ago that Bernier struggled to win even once. The Laval, Que., native lost his first 10 starts with the Leafs last season, quickly souring any future under then-new head coach Mike Babcock. Toronto briefly demoted him to the minors sent him to Anaheim in the summer, following the acquisition of his replacement, Frederik Andersen.

Whether because of poor play, poor teams, injury or struggles handling an intense spotlight at a young age, Bernier’s experience with the Leafs never panned out. He wonders now how he might have fared if the 2013 trade from Los Angeles had come at a later point in his career, when he had more experience under his belt, more maturity for handling the ups and downs.

Stan Behal/Postmedia NetworkWhether because of poor play, poor teams, injury or struggles handling an intense spotlight at a young age, Bernier's experience with the Leafs never panned out.

“There’s a lot of things I would’ve done, probably, different when I was in Toronto, especially my third year,” said Bernier, who has a 20-7-4 record with the Ducks this season. “But I believe that I learned from what happened and I matured a lot as a player and as a person. And you’ve just got to take all those experiences, either good or bad, and you’ve just got to keep going forward. If you look back that’s when you get screwed.”

One lesson from Toronto was worrying less about end results and more about the process of getting there. During that poor start to his third season with the Leafs one loss just snowballed into another, and Bernier felt almost helpless to stop it. He’s focused now on going shot to shot, period to period, game to game and nothing beyond that.

He’s also made some slight technical changes in his year with the Ducks, coached by Randy Carlyle, his one-time boss with the Leafs.

Bernier isn’t being as aggressive in the crease as he was under Babcock, who prefers his goalies to play that way.

“Sometimes you just don’t feel as comfortable by doing this,” Bernier said of aggressively challenging shooters. “We all have a comfort level in our depth and I don’t think I was (comfortable) at beginning and maybe it had an effect on my game.”

Bernier has only played this much (38 games) and this well at one point in his NHL career — that first season with Toronto when he assembled a .923 save percentage in 55 games. Even he’s noticed that his numbers were better then than they are now, so he’s not quite sure whether he’s now truly at his best.

Regardless, his confidence in the crease is gradually increasing. He has gained Carlyle’s faith after stepping up during a recent injury to starter John Gibson.

“I think (Carlyle) has confidence in me and that makes a big difference for a goalie when your coach knows that you can win some games and he has confidence in you, then you feel confident, right?” Bernier said, a striking contrast to Babcock, whose lack of faith became all too apparent.

Without much outside noise or distraction, Bernier has found it easier to focus on hockey in his return California — where he started his career with the Kings. His strong March has made him only a slight underdog to Gibson to start for the Ducks when the playoffs begin next week.

An impending unrestricted free agent, Bernier even has hopes of getting another crack at being a No. 1 somewhere next season.

“Hopefully I can get another chance at it. But, to be honest, I’m really focused on right now and not focusing too much ahead for next year. I think we have everything to go deep and I really want to focus on what’s going on now and we’ll see in the summer what’s going to happen.”

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Randy Carlyle figures it might be time to call in a favour.

Not that the Anaheim Ducks bench boss expected this particular gameplan would work.

“Matthew Tkachuk … I played with his dad, coached his dad,” Carlyle said on the eve of Game 1 of a best-of-seven showdown between the Ducks and Calgary Flames. “So I’ll ask his dad to discipline him. Maybe I’ll make a phone call to his dad.”

Worth a try, right?

“Well, if he’s as thick-headed as his dad, then I don’t think the phone call is going to do me any good,” Carlyle said with a chuckle.

Gavin Young / Postmedia NetworkCalgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk skates over the Stanley Cup playoffs logo during practice at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on April 10.

Keith Tkachuk, en route to Slovakia to cheer on his youngest son, Brady, at the 2017 IIHF Under-18 World Hockey Championship, might have multiple voicemails.

One from his former Winnipeg Jets teammate, Carlyle, asking if he can somehow convince Matthew to behave during what promises to be a feisty and physical first-round series. And one from the Flames, wondering if he could get to Anaheim for Thursday’s Game 1 at Honda Center — plus, on a related note, whether he’d be willing to bring his skates.

“I wish we had Keith right now, too,” quipped Calgary’s head coach, Glen Gulutzan, after a slip-of-the-tongue by a reporter. “That wouldn’t be a bad guy to have.”

The Flames are thrilled to have 19-year-old Matthew on their side.

Heading into the series opener, there’s a sense of intrigue about what we might see from Calgary’s rambunctious rookie, not only the youngest skater in the 2017 playoffs but perhaps also the least likely to turn into a wallflower at his first spring dance.

With spades of skill and hockey sense and a nose for the net, kids might want to watch and learn. With his nasty streak, their parents might be tempted to switch the channel if the score starts to look a wee bit lopsided in either direction.

Jim Wells / Postmedia NetworkCalgary Flames forwards Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk celebrate a Monahan goal against the San Jose Sharks on March 31.

Nice plays? No problem. Play nice? Doesn’t seem to be his style.

“I just try to go out there and do what I can do,” Tkachuk said after Wednesday’s practice at Honda Center, where the Flames are aiming to snap a 27-game losing skid that dates back to when he was eight years old. “I know that the way I’ve played my whole life is the way I’m going to play this series and, moving forward, for the rest of my career.”

Which is, if you missed his 76 outings for the Flames during the regular season, not much different from how his father played. Keith racked up 538 goals and 1,065 points across 18 seasons. As one of the NHL’s elite power forwards, he could do damage many different ways.

Proof the apple didn’t fall far from the tree (and isn’t afraid to be bruised), Matthew managed 13 goals and 35 assists as a freshman and also served a team-high 105 minutes in the penalty box.

The Flames’ fearless freshman didn’t think his father would be relaying any messages from the Ducks coaching staff, but Keith did have some advice for his boy.

“He just says you have to play hard and you have to just play the way you’ve played so far this season and continue to play the same way in playoffs,” Matthew said. “Because at this point, there’s no waiting around and there’s no waiting for that next game and that next series. You have to go out and do it every game.”

A lot of folks have been waiting for this — to see what sort of magic and mayhem the mouthguard-chomping left-winger will provide during his first playoff run. This kid, it seems, is tailor-made for this time of year.

He hopes so.

“I haven’t done anything in the playoffs, so I don’t listen to anything like that,” Matthew said. “I mean, I have to go out and prove it.”

That starts Thursday.

“Watching the Stanley Cup playoffs every year, watching the finals, watching Game 7s, Game 7 overtimes. It’s something that you just dream about when you’re younger,” he said, recalling the Carolina Hurricanes’ championship run in 2006 — the same year that the Flames last celebrated a win in Anaheim — as his first vivid memory of watching the spring slugfests.

“So now that it’s here and I’m playing Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, it’s pretty crazy and it’s exciting.”

ANAHEIM — The Calgary Flames insisted they weren’t thinking about their past horrors at Honda Center in Anaheim.

Yet the curse continues because for a split second in the middle period of Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Ducks in Game 1 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series, they didn’t seem to be thinking at all.

Thanks to a pair of postcard-pretty passes by Kris Versteeg, the Flames were staked to a one-goal lead over the Pacific Division-winning Ducks when their five skaters skedaddled to the bench for a line change. All five, all at once.

Uh … guys?

Kevin Bieksa, who must have been baffled when he retrieved the puck and didn’t see any white jerseys, fired a long pass to captain Ryan Getzlaf, and the Ducks were off on a three-on-zip rush.

Brian Elliott made the initial save, one of his 38 stops in a strong showing, but Rickard Rakell buried the rebound as a fresh batch of Flames scrambled to the scene.

Too late. Tie game.

And now, it’s 28 straight losses for the Flames at the Honda Center.

“That was a big game-changer,” Flames coach Glen Gulutzan said. “That’s something we talked about — line changes — at length over the last couple of days, because those details become important.”

Rakell’s second-period goal wasn’t Thursday’s winner, but it’s the one that will haunt the Flames as they prepare for Saturday’s Game 2.

Jakob Silfverberg scored on a man-advantage less than four minutes later for the game-winner.

“There were a couple bad changes that hurt us tonight. We have to clean those up,” said Versteeg, one of the five guilty of the ill-timed beeline to the bench. “We just have to figure that out. Everyone who is on the ice has to talk. It was loud in there, but that’s just playoff atmosphere. You’re going to have to figure those things out as you go.

“I don’t know if that sucked the life out, but the games are about momentum up and down and they found a way to get the momentum back on their side after we were up 2-1. That’s what those teams do. We’re going to have to learn from our game and bring a better one.”

Getzlaf and Silfverberg each recorded a goal and assist for the Ducks, who scored twice on seven power-play opportunities in Game 1.

Sean Monahan and Sam Bennett scored for the Flames. The guests wasted a golden opportunity to tie it up late, failing to score on 1:14 of five-on-three power-play action in the final 2:20 of the third.

“We’re frustrated and our discipline tonight hurt us, but we’re right there,” Flames captain Mark Giordano said. “We can play with these guys, we know we can. Certain moments in the game, I thought we had good looks to go up by two. We didn’t score and then they get a break and then they come down and score.

“We talked about it — they have players who, shift to shift, they can change the game because they’re so skilled and they can make plays, make things happen. You saw that tonight.”

The lead-up to Game 1 was dominated by a pair of popular storylines — the losing streak in Anaheim and the carnage in their final regular-season matchup, when the Ducks lost defenceman Cam Fowler after a knee-on-knee collision with Giordano.

On both sides, they insisted there would be no further fallout from that hit. It was over.

The losing skid, on the other hand, is not.

The Flames haven’t celebrated a victory at Honda Center since an opening-round series against the Ducks in 2006.

For a while, it seemed like this might be the night that historic funk finally ended.

Asked in his post-game presser about that ugly change, Gulutzan pinpointed two times “that we stopped playing for a second.”

Both cost them dearly.

They were campaigning for a too-many-men call in the opening minute and had a valid point, but Flames defenceman Dougie Hamilton was preoccupied with pleading for a penalty when Andrew Cogliano claimed the loose puck and started to wheel away.

Hamilton hauled him down, earned his own trip to the penalty box and had just five seconds to settle in before Getzlaf’s blast glanced off the stick of Engelland and re-routed for the top shelf. The Ducks has a 1-0 lead after just 52 seconds.

The Flames cashed in on a man-advantage of their own later in the first, their lone power-play goal on five tries. Defenceman T.J. Brodie scrambled to glove down a clearing attempt at the blue line and swatted a pass over to Versteeg, who surveyed his options, spied Monahan and put the puck in a perfect spot for a re-direct.

Versteeg provided another sweet setup on Bennett’s goal near the midway point of the second. The sophomore centre was scrapping for position at the edge of the crease and managed to get his stick on a spinning backhand feed.

The Flames’ lead was soon erased by that boneheaded line change and then a brain-fart by fourth-liner Lance Bouma, who nudged Ducks netminder John Gibson as he cruised through the crease after a scoring chance.

With Bouma in the box for goalie interference, Silfverberg wired a wrister that squeaked under Elliott’s arm and would stand as the eventual winner.

Special-teams, as is so often the case come spring, was key..

“When you get a five-on-three with two minutes left and you’re down a goal, you have to find the net there,” said Flames star Johnny Gaudreau. “We didn’t. But it’s a seven-game series so we have to regroup.”

ANAHEIM, Calif.  — Perhaps the Calgary Flames should put their own arena project on hold.

Who do you call about building a new rink in Anaheim?

In a run of what’s now been 29 consecutive defeats at Honda Center, Saturday’s 3-2 loss would rank among the most agonizing, with the Flames haunted by a controversial no-goal call before eventually surrendering the winner on an unfortunate bounce as the Anaheim Ducks claimed a two-zip lead in this best-of-seven showdown.

The series now shifts back to the Saddledome for Games 3 and 4, with the crew from Calgary needing at least one victory on home ice to book a return trip to their Unhappiest Place on Earth.

The Ducks had potted a pair before Saturday’s first commercial break, but the out-of-towners scratched back to tie it up and had all the momentum in the middle stanza when they jammed a puck past Ducks stalwart John Gibson during a wild goal-mouth scramble.

Go-ahead goal, right? Apparently not.

Although overhead video clearly showed the puck slither across the goal-line as Sam Bennett and Alex Chiasson crashed the crease, referees explained to the NHL’s Situation Room that it was waved off because of interference on Gibson and that’s a call that cannot be reviewed.

The hockey gods probably owed them one.

They never seem to pay up at Honda Center, where the Flames haven’t celebrated a win since April 2006.

Instead, with just under five minutes remaining in regulation and sudden bad-boy Dougie Hamilton serving a holding-the-stick penalty, Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf attempted a pass that glanced off the right skate of Flames penalty-killer Lance Bouma in the slot and wound up in Calgary’s net.

Gut-wrenching stuff.

Jakob Silfverberg and Rickard Rakell also scored for the Ducks, while Gibson finished with 35 saves.

Mikael Backlund sniped on a short-handed breakaway and Sean Monahan scored his second power-play goal of the series for the Flames, but Calgary will be no doubt buzzing about the goal that didn’t count.

The hosts struck twice before Saturday’s first commercial break.

Just three minutes and change after the anthems, Silfverberg wired a wrister from the right wing that squeaked by Brian Elliott on the short side.

Then, with only 6:46 off the clock, Rakell batted down a puck behind Calgary’s net and cashed in on a slick wraparound.

The Flames could have been in big trouble late in the first when Matthew Tkachuk was banished for a double-minor for high-sticking, but his pals on the 3M Line managed to spark their squad while the rabble-rousing rookie was in the penalty box.

Michael Frolik swiped the puck from Silfverberg and then, despite being pestered by a pair of Ducks, fired a breakaway pass to Backlund, who finished the job with a deke to his forehand for the short-handed strike.

The Flames killed off the remainder of Tkachuk’s four-minute sentence and soon after tied it up with a gorgeous tic-tac-toe tally on a man-advantage of their own.

Johnny Gaudreau passed to Kris Versteeg, who moved the puck to TJ Brodie, who returned it to Gaudreau, who found Monahan for a one-timer in the slot. Not to be forgotten, the fifth guy on Calgary’s top power-play unit — right-winger Troy Brouwer — provided the screen.

About three minutes later, Bennett and Chiasson figured they had staked the guests to a lead. The Flames, after that kick to the gut, wouldn’t beat Gibson again.
 
wgilbertson@postmedia.com

Remember when the Calgary Flames faced the Anaheim Ducks in the National Hockey League playoffs in 2015 and barely got out of Anaheim alive after Games 1 and 2?

This is not that team.

But, similar to back then, they’re going to need to continue throwing everything they have at the Ducks after squandering a three-goal lead in the final 20:49 of Monday’s 5-4 overtime loss in Game 3 at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Their playoff lives depend on it.

Game 4 goes Wednesday (8 p.m., CBC, Sportsnet 960 The Fan) — a must-win if they want to extend the series and send it back to the Honda Center (cue the horror movie music) on Friday for Game 5 (8 p.m., CBC, Sportsnet 960 The Fan).

Corey Perry netted the game winner with just 1:30 into the extra frame while Michael Stone was tying up Nate Thompson in front of Calgary’s net.

“It’s not what we wanted,” Stone said. “It’s not the way we wanted to play the third period. We’re going to try and win Game 4 and put this one behind us and move onto the next one. One at a time.”

Flames goalie Brian Elliott took the blame squarely on his shoulders.

“It’s not an easy one, especially personally,” said Elliott who allowed five goals on 27 shots. “I didn’t feel like I played very well. I let the team down.

“It’s tough to lose off a bounce like that. You want to help the team more than you hurt it. It’s tough to swallow right now.”

After back-to-back losses by 3-2 counts in the first two games of the series, the Flames pumped John Gibson for four goals on 16 shots to end his night before the second period was over.

At one point, they up 4-1. They also had zero penalty kill time and were three-for-five on the power play.

Yes, you read that right.

“That’s the toughest loss I’ve been around in this organization,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano. “It’s a game you’re up 4-1 and can swing the series. Now, it’s do-or-die time, play with nothing to lose.

“But we better learn a lot from that. I mean, that can’t happen.”

Anaheim, looking like a team which hadn’t lost in regulation in 16 straight games, chipped away and erased the cushion on unanswered goals from Shea Theodore — who also scored to force overtime with 4:21 remaining in the third period — and Thompson.

Monday’s game also featured a controversial goal call, just like Saturday’s game which saw the Flames potential go-ahead goal be waved off for goaltender interference.

Once again, they were on the wrong side of the call.

This time, it was on the Ducks’ third marker with 8:46 remaining in the final period when Hampus Lindholm’s shot was deflected off Thompson’s stick.

Immediately referee Gord Dwyer got on the horn and determined whether or not Thompson had a high-stick on the play. The goal stood.

The NHL sent confirmation that although Thompson’s sticks was at or below the height of the crossbar when he deflected the puck, the “determining factor is where the puck makes contact with the stick in relation to the crossbar. If the puck makes contact with the portion of the stick that is at or below the level of the crossbar and enters the goal, this goal shall be allowed.”

Got it? Good. Because it was the turning point in the game.

The Flames, backed by a deafening home crowd, tried to fend off a Ducks attack during the last five minutes of the third.

Didn’t work.

Theodore lined up a straight shot past Brian Elliott’s glove hand — Elliott’s fourth goal allowed on 24 shots.

“When you get to overtime it’s anybody’s ball game,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan. “At the end of the day, we needed to push in the last 10. We had them in a good spot, up two goals . . . we needed a better push there.”

With just 4:34 elapsed in the middle frame, Stone, looking like he was back with the Calgary Hitmen, ripped home a point-shot and gave the Flames their second (!) even-strength goal of the series. At the same time, Matthew Tkachuk tied up Rickard Rakell in front and provided a screen.

On Calgary’s fourth power play of the game (Korbinian Holzer off for hooking on Johnny Gaudreau who nearly had a breakaway) Sam Bennett bashed and crashed his way into Gibson’s crease and wound up getting credit for Mark Giordano’s shot — 4-1 Flames.

Theodore scored with 49 ticks left in the second period to preview a comeback to come in the third period.

It seemed like it was the Flames night, however, at the puck drop.

Fans in the ‘C’ of Red started “Go Flames Go” chants during warm-ups and kept the hits coming all night. Also overheard at the Saddledome were these classics: “Biek-sa’s Ugl-eeeee,” “Kesler’s Ugl-eeeee,” “Gibbbbbson,” “Kesler Sucks,” and various renditions of “boooos” whenever old friend Kevin Bieksa or Ryan Kesler touched the puck.

Special teams, once again, dominated the game as Sean Monahan netted his third man advantage marker of the series, just 2:10 into Game 3. Monahan finished off a passing play from Troy Brouwer and Gaudreau and got the fans engaged.

The power-play struck again when Kris Versteeg batted in Monahan’s rebound at 9:18.

The Ducks replied after spending nearly two minutes in their own zone when Mikael Backlund stripped Rakell of the puck in the neutral zone and the Flames played keepaway.

Nick Ritchie deposited a massive Elliott rebound following Antoine Vermette’s shot with 4:27 remaining in the first period.

“I have to own that,” said Elliott. “It’s not an easy thing to do. But the guys spotted four goals and we should win a game like that.”

kodland@postmedia.com

Twitter/Kristen_Odland

CALGARY — Chances of a comeback in the series were slim.

About as skinny, say, as the sliver of daylight between Brian Elliott’s right pad and the short-side post, all the space that Anaheim Ducks forward Patrick Eaves needed to deal a crushing blow to the Calgary Flames’ hopes to extend their playoff run.

Eaves’ awkward-angle stinker briefly let the air out of the Saddledome in the early stages of Wednesday’s Game 4 and although the Flames showed oodles of resiliency as they tried to scratch back, the Ducks were on their way to completing a series sweep with a 3-1 victory.

The Flames, to their credit, buzzed until the clock showed zeros.

The crowd roared until Anaheim’s empty-netter with 6.7 seconds remaining. Many stuck around for a ‘Go Flames Go’ chant during the handshakes and a standing ovation after that.

The Flames are the first troupe eliminated from the 2017 Stanley Cup tournament, left to stew over a combination of bad luck and a few rotten goals against.

Elliott is certainly not the only one of Calgary’s key cogs who didn’t have his best stuff in this best-of-seven set — we’re looking at you, Johnny Gaudreau — but the goaltender is usually the goat or the hero. That’s the nature of the position.

And with Game 4 essentially decided by one goal, that short-side strike will not be easily forgotten.

Elliott was hooked after Eaves’ softy and, ironically, won’t even show on the game-sheet as the losing goalie. That dubious distinction belongs to backup Chad Johnson, who was fooled just 68 seconds into his relief effort but was perfect the rest of the way.

At the other end, Ducks netminder John Gibson delivered 36 saves in a first-star showing.

Nate Thompson also tickled twine for the Quack Pack, who now await the winner of a showdown between the Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks, and captain Ryan Getzlaf scored into an empty net  to seal it.

For the home side, Sean Monahan buried yet another man-advantage marker, something he managed in all four clashes in this series.

That’s about the only trend that favoured the Flames.

Many folks figured the Ducks presented the worst possible matchup of potential opening-round foes, and the Pacific Division pennant-winners proved that to be true.

They have more depth, more experience, a bit more snarl and, when the crew from Calgary comes calling, a mind-boggling run of dominance on home ice.

Over the past week, they’ve had better goaltending and more puck luck, too.

The only good news is the Flames won’t have to worry about The Curse of Honda Center until next season. If they had forced a Game 5, they would have been facing a must-win at their Unhappiest Place on Earth, where they’ve now lost 29 consecutive contests.

Elliott was critical of his own performance in Monday’s overtime heartbreaker, a shaky enough outing that some folks wondered if he would even be between the pipes for Game 4.

He was. For a few minutes.

Just 5:38 after the anthems, Eaves retrieved the puck along the side wall and whipped a low shot from below the hash-marks that somehow squeaked past Elliott.

The 32-year-old masked man raised his arms slightly, as if to ask the hockey gods, ‘How the heck did that go in?’

A boisterous crowd of 19,289 red-clad supporters were wondering the same thing.

And on the home bench, Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan had already seen enough.

Elliott was yanked after just three shots, and only two saves.

Johnson didn’t prove to be immediately bullet-proof, either. He stopped the first puck fired his direction, but Thompson buried the rebound to give the Pacific Division pennant-winners a two-goal lead.

Even with 53 minutes and change to mount a comeback, this was too tall an order.

The locals cranked the volume of the C of Red with a strong second period, and that saddled-shaped roof was shaking when Monahan scored on a chaotic scramble on the power play, batting a puck out of mid-air with the shaft of his stick.

Gibson’s finest work included a sprawling save on Flames thumper Micheal Ferland late in the first and a beauty blocker on centre Mikael Backlund in the second. The Flames pulled Johnson for an extra attacker with 2:39 to go, but couldn’t capitalize.
 
wgilbertson@postmedia.com

The Brian Elliott era is over in Calgary. So is the Calgary Flames’ season.

Those facts aren’t mutually exclusive.

Not only did Elliott play a significant role in the Flames loss for the second game in a row, the 32-year-old netminder’s whiff on a soft, weak-angled wrister by Patrick Eaves a mere 5:38 into Wednesday’s series-ending game also put an abrupt end to any chance the Flames can put any more faith in him.

Or money.

That point was hammered home seconds later when coach Glen Gulutzan replaced Elliott with Chad Johnson, leading to one of the longest skates to the bench in Elliott’s career.

Surely his last as a Flame.

AL CHAREST/POSTMEDIACalgary Flames goalie Brian Elliott reacts after giving up a goal to the Anaheim Ducks during the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs in Calgary, Alta., on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.

Immediately plopping himself down at the end of the bench, a stunned Elliott left his mask and gloves on the rest of the period. You couldn’t help but feel bad for him.

He returned for the second wearing a ball cap, looking no less dejected.

“It’s tough to swallow, especially in an elimination game,” said a soft-spoken Elliott, who deserves full marks for facing the media afterwards.

“It’s not how you imagine things happening.”

It’s a horrible end to a rocky relationship with Calgary hockey fans who only started to warm up to him the latter half of the season following a horrific start.

Prior to the playoffs, it seemed likely the Flames would at least entertain the notion of re-signing the unrestricted free agent long term.

The break up is now obvious, with everyone’s last memory of the year together being the most painful.

Eaves’ soft shot from below the hash marks and along the boards beat Elliott low, caroming off his far pad and between his legs, sucking all the life out of a building willing to do its part of help the lads get over Monday’s heartbreaking overtime loss.

“As a goalie you take pride in giving yourself and your team a chance to win every night and that, off the bat, I still can’t explain how it goes under my pad there,” said Elliott, who only faced three shots.

“I feel bad. I didn’t give our guys a chance right off the bat. It was definitely a short leash – I’m not saying I deserve a longer one after that. It’s tough when you can’t go out and redeem yourself, but the guys went out and did a great job trying to come back. They put it all out there, I’m definitely proud of them.”

Two shots and 68 seconds later Johnson was beaten on a big rebound, putting Anaheim up 2-0.

From there Johnson was perfect, although John Gibson was better, making 36 saves – many spectacular – to shut the door, much like Elliott did from Christmas on.

With an empty-netter it ended Ducks 3, Flames 1. Series over, 4-0.

Full marks to Johnson and a resilient, young group of Flames skaters who valiantly tried to get back into the game, but one of the closest four-game sweeps in recent NHL history came to an end.

For the first time in the series, the Flames got a couple significant breaks when Sean Monahan’s power-play goal banged in off the shaft of his stick, followed by a Corey Perry goal post near the end of the second period.

Al Charest/PostmediaAnaheim Ducks' Nate Thompson scores a goal against Flames netminder Chad Johnson during the first period of Game 4 of their Western Conference quarter-final series on Wednesday night in Calgary.

Alas, a solid finish by Johnson wasn’t enough to spur on the comeback. Gibson was the best goalie all series.

Penalty problems, a few bad bounces and two unfortunate rulings were key contributors to the Flames’ demise. But nothing separated the teams more than netminding.

All told, Elliott started all four losses, had a 3.89 GAA and a .864 save percentage. He undid the team’s best outing of the series in Game 3 when he openly admitted he, “let the team down a little bit” by surrendering four consecutive goals in their 5-4 loss.

Yet, he was the right choice to start Game 4. He had earned that right.

Let the record show he was the right choice by GM Brad Treliving last summer too. Acquired in a trade from St. Louis, he had just come off a stellar playoffs, he was relatively cheap at $2.5 million and he was hungry to prove he was starter-worthy. By season’s end, he was in the discussion as perhaps the team’s MVP, chiefly responsible for the team’s timely 10-game winning streak.

Someone will get a very good goalie next year. It just can’t be here, given when and the way he faltered late. In a knowledgeable hockey market like Calgary it would be a public relations nightmare, especially if he were signed long–term.

The questions would never end, causing unnecessary distractions.

This year, the constant question was whether he could be the starter. Next year, the doubts will revolve around his ability to handle playoff pressure, even though he did so admirably in St. Louis a year earlier when he helped the Blues get to the conference final.

No one said life was fair.

The team needn’t worry about surrendering a third round to St. Louis as required if they re-up Elliott this summer. That’s off the table, as was the possibility of bringing back Karri Ramo or Jonas Hiller the year before. Johnson is the logical backup once again, but let the Ben Bishop rumours begin.

Yes, heroes are born in the playoffs. Unfortunately, so are goats. And fair or not, Elliott’s season will largely be remembered for the way he punctuated it.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — OK, how many people jumped on Adam Larsson in their playoff pool?

The Edmonton Oilers defenceman — who’s paid handsomely to handcuff shooters, not be a scoring hero — only had one career playoff goal before Wednesday night. But amazingly, he had two in the third period at the Honda Center as the Oilers held off the Anaheim Ducks 5-3 in a wild Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series.

With 4:40 to play, Larsson bolted down the right side, circled the net and his pass into the slot bounced off the skate of Josh Manson and past Ducks goaltender John Gibson for the eventual game-winning goal.

While Larsson scored two after having just one in his previous 11 playoff games, Leon Draisaitl finished it off with an empty-netter with 1:05 remaining to go with three helpers, continuing a terrific run against the Ducks this season. He’s got seven goals in six games against Anaheim this season and in his career against the Ducks, Draisaitl now has 17 points in 13 games.

The Oilers scored two in a 1:40 span in the third as Mark Letestu got his second power play goal of the night after a hook on Connor McDavid and Larsson banged one home on the next shift, but the Ducks refused to go quietly into the night, getting two of their own in 24 seconds to tie it.

Ryan Getzlaf, the best player on the ice, beat McDavid cleanly on a draw and Patrick Eaves, who had 11 goals in 20 league games after his trade from Dallas, flipped home a Brandon Montour shot. Then Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot bobbled a Jakob Silfverberg shot and he followed it up to slide it home. There was some thought Ryan Kesler might have interfered with Talbot with his leg, but he didn’t.

Four goals in 4:24 in a wild opening game.

In the second, Getzlaf made the Oilers pay for a lazy hook on Anton Slepyshev late in the first when he ripped a wrister past Talbot on the blocker side 30 seconds into the period for a 1-0 Ducks lead as the Anaheim coaching staff all said “like we always tell Getzie, shoot the puck will ya?”

It was Getzlaf’s 105th point in 109 playoff games.

“He’s the heart of their team, the head of their snake … tough task to play him for seven games,” said Oiler coach Todd McLellan after the morning skate when tired of questions about Kesler, he opened with his admiration of the Ducks captain.

The Oilers got that Getzlaf goal back on a power play of their own, however. It was a 5-on-3 technically with Nick Ritchie off for a hold on Oscar Klefbom as both jostled for space and defenceman Hampus Lindholm for a high-stick on Draisaitl, but really it was a three-man advantage because Getzlaf broke his stick on the draw and Letestu one-timed one home

It continued an amazing run for Letestu, who had 11 power play goals in regular-season.

“They’re a team that plays with a chip on their shoulder and they’re not afraid to take penalties,” McDavid said of the league’s second most penalized team. “If they want to do that, we better be good on the power play.”

Slepyshev atoned for his bad penalty with two strong rushes around Shea Theodore in the second, with Gibson robbing him once and again just as the Russian winger bowled him over and into the net. Obvious penalty, but not from another member of the goalie lodge.

“Crap call,” former Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr wrote on Twitter as he watched on TV, probably harkening back to all those nights in the Battle of Alberta when he was run over.

Talbot made one great catch off a Lindholm slapper from the high slot with 83 seconds left in the second off an Andrew Cogliano feed to keep it tied going to the third. That was vintage Fuhr mitt, flying against teams who seem to feel Talbot’s glove might be one of his few weak links.

It was a nasty piece of business off the opening faceoff, way different than the fairly calm first series against San Jose where there were no real villains. “They like to engage physically and the Sharks didn’t want to get our big guys emotional and into the game,” said McDavid.

McDavid, far less noticeable than Getzlaf in this one with no shots through 40 minutes, took his usual array of whacks and hacks, not just from Kesler, but from Lindholm, too. He drew one penalty on Kesler for something for less severe some of the other stuff and his linemate Draisaitl got them for another when Logan Shaw tripped him but they only had two shots on their two power play tries in the scoreless first.

“Connor understands he’s a target for their checkers and he’ll have to play through that stuff. We’re not getting away with it, but we’ll have to play through out,” said McLellan, who watched McDavid draw two penalties — shrugging off Kesler trying to make things miserable for the NHL’s scoring champion.

Gibson, 4-1-2 lifetime against the Oilers, made a couple of good stops, one off his helmet from a Zack Kassian shot while Talbot made a strong screened leg save on Lindholm in a period with 19 shots and 29 hits, 20 by the home side as they tried to dictate the black and blue stuff.

The Ducks lost defenceman Kevin Bieksa for the third period. He limped off with a left leg injury four minutes into the game and while the tough blueliner came back to play seven minutes total, he left the Ducks with five D in the third. Bieksa lost a couple of teeth in a late season game against the Oilers when high-sticked by Darnell Nurse so he’s no stranger to medical distress against Edmonton.

And no surprise, the NHL’s best faceoff team won 12 of the 16 draws against the worst team. McDavid only took one and lost it and Draisaitl took one and won his. Antoine Vermette, the NHL’s second-best faceoff guy after Matt Duchene was 4-1 and Ryan Getzlaf was 4-1.

jmatheson@postmedia.com

ANAHEIM, Calif. — By comparison, the Edmonton Oilers and the San Jose Sharks conducted themselves like refined gentlemen.

In the rear-view mirror, their physicality through the six-game set, though certainly intense at the time, suddenly looks more like a bunch of brothers rough-housing on Saturday morning in their pajamas. Or fighting over the last meatball.

Stuff just got real, real fast. And real mean.

The Oilers won an entertaining, goal-stuffed hack-and-whack-fest at Honda Center that has ramped up the nasty. To 11. It took less than five minutes for the on-ice vitriol to start flowing at a rate much higher, far meaner, than it ever reached in Round 1.

By the time it was over, and the Oilers had put a 5-3 win in the bank, the price had been paid all over the place by players up and down the depth chart.

Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesCam Talbot #33 of the Edmonton Oilers collides with Rickard Rakell #67 of the Anaheim Ducks in the third period in Game One of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2017 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Honda Center on April 26, 2017 in Anaheim, California.

The first period of this even, scrappy tilt was scoreless, unless you were counting cheap shots. At 1-1, they got at it again, many players sending messages via morse code, tapping them out with stick blades. A jab in the back of the leg here, a cross-check there. Ryan Kesler did the expected and took as many liberties as he could on Connor McDavid, and then took a penalty. Ryan Getzlaf and Leon Draisaitl exchanged chops and hairy eyeballs.

There was much jawing and the requisite pushing and shoving. Milan Lucic eventually ran over Cam Fowler. The official scorer gave the Ducks a 46-27 advantage in hits, and you are free to debate their ocular strength.

While the San Jose series was definitely not for the faint of heart, the Marquess of Queensbury would have been proud of the lads. This one looked like it could turn into a street fight at any point.

“It was more physical, but I think it’s more a part of each team’s DNA,” said two-goal man Mark Letestu, who is a keen judge. “It just comes naturally to both of these teams. Familiarity, you know, breeds a little bit of contempt, so as the series goes on, I expect the intensity and the physicality to go further up.”

To 12. Or 13?

“It’s the second round. It gets ramped up a little bit more,” said Edmonton’s head coach Todd McLellan, who didn’t think the action was any meaner than it was in the San Jose series. But he’s expecting something to build before his very eyes, and the devil will be in the details.

AP Photo/Chris CarlsonEdmonton Oilers left wing Patrick Maroon, right, checks Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler during the first period in Game 1 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday, April 26, 2017.

“Positioning is important. The little extra tug, if you will, occurs probably more often. Shot blocking goes up. Line changes become important. The deeper you go, the more intense those moments become.”

So we’re in for a ride. A bumpy ride. Elbows up rather than inside the car.

Can you imagine the wounds these guys are going to sport if it goes seven games? The Black Aces for each squad might find themselves dealt into this series at some point, just for the fresh meat.

Imagine if, or perhaps when, somebody jabs somebody in the bits, like Draisaitl did in San Jose in Game 4. The Ducks, you have to believe, would respond in kind, not kindly. The Sharks shrugged it off.

When Zack Kassian ran over Brenden Dillon and Logan Couture in the same game in Edmonton, the Sharks swallowed hard and moved along, hoping their power play would wake up and make the Oilers pay. It finally happened in Game 4, but that was basically a one-and-done for that special teams unit.

Here, the response will be more pointed. And the Oilers appear ready.

“It was another intense hockey game out there,” said Kassian. “As the series wore on against San Jose, it was a little different. But the first two games, I think this was similar. They were playing hard, we were playing hard.

“They’re all intense from here on in, no matter if there are scrums or not.”

The difference I see is that the Ducks run on ire, where the Sharks ran on discipline and puck possession. They play a heavy game, but they don’t run you over.

It starts in Anaheim with Kesler, of course, but it runs deep, through Corey Perry and Josh Manson and Getzlaf. The Ducks will dish it out. They will take it. These guys play with an edge.

The Oilers were more than ready to play that game on Wednesday. With a willing dance partner, the Ducks are even more engaged. That moves the needle.

“Yeah, it’s a different team, different game. It’s intense, but we were ready for it,” said Draisaitl, who had a four-point night, beating up the Ducks like he has all year and where it counts even more, on the score sheet.

So away we go. There might be six more of these. Disneyland might not have a ride this good.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — After you’ve won Game 1 on the road, you’re playing with house money in Game 2, but sometimes, it’s just in the cards, especially when your goalie has the hot hand. Lady Luck helps, too.

So while the Edmonton Oilers didn’t need Cam Talbot a whole lot in their 5-3 win Wednesday against Anaheim Ducks because Leon Draiasitl had four points and Mark Letestu and Adam Larsson each had two goals, Talbot stood on his head with 39 stops in Friday’s 2-1 victory.

And he also breathed a heavy sign of relief with eight minutes left when Cam Fowler beat him cleanly with a 55-footer but the slapper smacked so hard off the iron you could hear it up in the press box.

Fowler, who missed 3 1/2 weeks with a knee sprain after a hit by Mark Giordano late in the season, also blew a tire on a breakaway in the third, as if there was a sniper in the seats in an Oiler jersey among the other 17,000 Ducks’ fans at Honda Center.

The Oilers were outshot, outfit and lost 60 per cent of the faceoffs and they bent but didn’t break after scoring 65 seconds in on Andrej Sekera’s screened shot that surprised Ducks’ goalie John Gibson when it got through half a dozen arms and other body parts.

The Oilers got a power play goal from former Ducks’ winger Patrick Maroon, and held on through the final 25 minutes after Jakob Silfverberg’s hard shot beat Talbot, who never saw the power play shot in the second period.

In the second, the Oilers made the Ducks hang their heads for a bad hold by Korbinian Holzer on Zack Kassian to take their 2-0 lead on Maroon’s power play tally.

After some tremendous pressure and Gibson out waiting Connor McDavid on a deke and Draisaitl hitting the crossbar, Jordan Eberle’s shot into the crease bounced off the skate of Maroon.

Then the Ducks got one of their own when defenceman Darnell Nurse hit fourth-liner Jared Boll with a high-stick in the crease and Silfverberg’s power play 40-footer sailed past Talbot, who was totally screened by Patrick Eaves to make it 2-1 heading to the third.

The Oilers played most of the period without winger Drake Caggiula, who drove the net on Gibson on his eighth shift of the night but stumbled as he crossed the crease and fell hard into the boards, appearing to hurt his right knee. Benoit Pouliot took his spot on the left side on the third line.

The Oilers scored on the first shot of the game 65 seconds in on a seeing-eye 50-footer by Sekera that smacked the knob of Gibson’s stick. Then they relied on Talbot to get them out of the first up 1-0 with three huge stops on Andrew Cogliano, Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler. The Oilers only sent 10 total shots in the general direction of Gibson, with three on him.

The Ducks outshot the Oilers 10-1 over the last 15 minutes of the period with Kesler having the best chance short-handed after some lazy work along the boards and Getzlaf feeding Kesler all by his lonesome. They also won 60 per cent of the faceoffs and outfit Oilers 16-6.

Gibson did rob McDavid, sent in by Draisaitl, stabbing a 15-footer with his mitt and they had a goal by Kassian rightly waved off when Letestu shoved Brandon Montour into Gibson in a battle in the blue-paint and the goalie was totally out of the play.

Sami Vatanen still wasn’t back on the Ducks’ blue line after he originally hurt his shoulder in Edmonton earlier in April.

Anaheim’s Nick Ritchie was a late scratch with the flu and Boll took his spot in the lineup, while Rickard Rakell moved up from third line to the No. 1 line with Getzlaf and Eaves.

If you’re picking Conn Smythe candidates — and it’s way too early, but the Oilers are up 2-0 on the Ducks and the pleasure level in Edmonton is high, according to head coach Todd McLellan, so what the heck — Cam Talbot would be the easy pick.

Two shutouts in Round 1. Armed robbery in the Game 2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. His goals against average is a solid 2.02, his save percentage a sterling .934.

The pleasure level in the Oiler room is most certainly rising because of his play. In fact, he’s probably controlling the pleasure level. That’s a lot of power for one man, but in Cam they trust.

The quiet confidence Talbot has manufactured along his journey from New York backup to Edmonton starter permeates the Oiler room at home and on the road. His teammates and coaches believed in his ability to carry a heavy workload during the regular season, and all he has done in the playoffs is validate their faith.

Sean M. Haffey / Getty ImagesEdmonton Oilers goalie Cam Talbot looks on against the Anaheim Ducks on April 28.

But this isn’t a one-man team. This isn’t a one-line team. As captain Connor McDavid reminds reporters on almost a daily basis, this is a formidable lineup.

“We’re a very deep team. I keep saying that. You guys will believe me one day,” McDavid said after the Game 1 win at Honda Center.

That said, the Oilers’ list of Conn Smythe contenders does have more names on it. Leon Draisaitl wouldn’t be too far behind Talbot, especially if you’re inclined to cut him some slack for playing through the flu — poorly, it must be said — for the first four games of the San Jose series. He was healthier and dominant in Games 5 and 6 and carried that momentum into the second round.

Some observers accused Draisaitl of having a “quiet four-point night” in Game 1 against the Ducks, but he put up a four spot in a playoff game on the road. That’s more clutch than quiet.

To flesh out the field, you could slot McDavid at the head of a group that would have to include power play triggerman Mark Letestu, Adam Larsson, Oscar Klefbom and Zack Kassian at much longer odds.

You get the feeling there will be more, and they will surely need more if this run is to go deeper than the second round. They will also have to be much better than they were in Game 2. The Ducks had the puck on a string in the third period and the outcome could have been far less pleasurable for the Oilers, who looked more lucky than good in the final 20 minutes, but for Talbot of course.

Chris Carlson / Associated PressEdmonton Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, right, makes a save on Anaheim Ducks centre Ryan Kesler on April 28.

McDavid saw something else at play.

“I’ve always said it. We have a more experienced group than people give us credit for,” he said, when asked how they protected the lead under a constant siege. “We have a bunch of great leaders on this team that handle those momentum swings. We got a big (penalty) kill there in the third period and kind of fed off that. We’re comfortable playing from behind. We’re comfortable playing from ahead.”

That Oiler depth certainly sunk the Sharks. Their five-man blanket approach mitigated McDavid’s impact on the series, but the Oilers still won two games in San Jose and the series in six. The Ducks are seeing it happen now. McDavid has one assist in two games and Randy Carlyle’s boys lost both of them in front of their own fans. Not pleasurable.

In a physical burst from the gate, Ryan Kesler hacked and hit McDavid every chance he could in Game 1. But bent on intimidation, the Ducks ran into penalty trouble and the Oilers won a special teams battle. The Ducks changed it up in Game 2 and McDavid got loose far more often. Even so, Talbot’s thievery was the difference.

“It’s nice,” McDavid said of the 2-0 lead. “But the series is long from over.

“Playing on home ice (in Round 1) was nice, but it doesn’t mean everything. It’s still a huge test coming up. Many teams have done it, come back from two (down), so it doesn’t mean much.”

It means they have a 2-0 lead, which beats the alternative. And for that bit of flippant wisdom, you need not thank me. It was my pleasure.

There will be a Game 5…at least.

With the Oilers up 2-0 coming home and fans in Edmonton daring to dream that their team might sweep its way into the Western Conference final, the Anaheim Ducks sent a loud and clear message Sunday: This series is a long way from over.

The Ducks took a hostile crowd out of the game early and took the Oilers out of it late by scoring three goals in the first period and three goals down the stretch en route to a convincing 6-3 Game 3 victory at Rogers Place.

Edmonton will put the last of its breathing room on the line in Game 4 Wednesday.

“We weren’t very good, they got the win,” said head coach Todd McLellan, describing the night perfectly. “That’s a team that hasn’t lost three games in a row in I don’t know how many games. So for us to think it was going to be a 4-0 easy cakewalk . . . it wasn’t.

“We’re now experiencing what it’s like to play against a very desperate, hard, hungry team.”

The Ducks knew coming in that the difference between 3-0 and 2-1 in a playoff series is somewhere between massive and astronomical, resulting in a level of desperation that proved too much for the Oilers to handle.

Edmonton rose up in the second period to wipe out a three-goal deficit, but the first and third were all Ducks.

“We worked our way back in, but it wasn’t our night,” said McLellan. “We weren’t sharp enough. You couldn’t even shorten the bench to find two or three lines. There were that many who were erring on a consistent basis.”

The expectation for Game 3 was an earth-shaking atmosphere that would let the Ducks know before the puck even dropped if they wanted this one, they would have to get through some of the most passionate fans in sports.

Then the puck dropped.

And the bottom fell out of the game like garbage through a wet paper bag.

Just 25 seconds in, it was 1-0 Ducks.

At 5:33, it was 2-0.

And at 11:51, Anaheim had a 3-0 lead.

Just like that. Rickard Rakell, Jacob Silfverberg and Ryan Getzlaf were all on the board.

“It was a bad start, we weren’t ready to play,” said Jordan Eberle. “We found ourselves down by three.”

Game over, right?

Not quite.

The Oilers weren’t done yet.

Patrick Maroon and Anton Slepyshev scored goals 2:08 apart late in the first and early in the second and Connor McDavid brought down the house with the goal of the playoffs, dekeing Sami Vatanen into the middle of next week and putting the tying goal under the crossbar past Ducks’ goalie John Gibsona at 8:40.

“I think our second period was the best period out of the nine periods we’ve played,” said Maroon. “We battled back.”

The Oilers were about to ride their momentum to victory, right?

Not quite.

Just 48 seconds after McDavid’s highlight of the night, Chris Wagner (he of just 10 career NHL goals), snuck one through Cam Talbot and the building fell silent again.

“I didn’t make the save early that I needed to and I didn’t make a lot of other saves during the game that I needed to,” said Talbot, who didn’t like the Wagner goal at all. “It was kind of a knuckle puck from the corner, it kind of changed speed on me, but that was a deciding moment in the game. We have all the momentum, we just tied the game, and a shot like that goes in. It can’t go in. It’s on me.”

It was on all of them, actually, allowing the Ducks to pull away in the third on Silfverberg’s second of the night, which stood after an offside video review that looked either offside or too close to call, and one more from Ryan Kesler.

Now the Oilers were done.

“We did a good job battling back to tie it up, but ultimately, we definitely didn’t deserve to win this one,” said McDavid. “Whatever luck we might have had in Game 2 definitely wasn’t there tonight.”

The fifth Anaheim goal was very likely offside, but the league said it couldn’t find the definitive shot on video, so the goal had to stand.

“Your eyes are telling you it’s offside,” said McLellan. “But if you’re the linesman, you’re saying ‘I don’t know for sure,’ so the call on the ice stands.

It’s disappointing because even they likely know it’s offside but they can’t confirm it.

“But let’s not kid ourselves, that wasn’t the back breaker. The back breaker was about 25 seconds in.”

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We should have seen it coming, this wacky 6-3 Oilers loss to the Anaheim Ducks, the blowout that wasn’t, then was again.

It might well have looked more believable, in fact, on Friday in Anaheim. Because the Oilers hung on for a 2-1 win they absolutely did not deserve on that night. Goalie Cam Talbot stopped 39 shots and swiped it. Outright larceny.

He gave some of them back on Sunday. The 4-3 goal from Chris Wagner in particular was a stinker from a bad angle. And a back-breaker after they had erased a 3-0 deficit.

But the Ducks knew they were the better team in Game 2 and had nothing to show for it, except the confidence that comes with having won several playoff games together.

The Oilers, not as long on post-season experience as those Ducks, came home knowing they had been outplayed, then magnified the sin by doing precious little about it for very long stretches in Game 3. They looked unprepared and were quite suddenly shell-shocked. Rickard Rakell’s breakaway snipe 25 seconds into the first period was indicative of their myriad breakdowns.

Codie McLachlan/Getty ImagesTo a man, the Ducks said all they had to do was keep playing the way they did in Game 2 and they’d find a way to beat Cam Talbot. Sure enough.

That goal let the air out of a crowd at Rogers Place that started on such a high note. Lots of notes actually. The crowd sang all 81 words of the Star Spangled Banner and then finished their set with O Canada.

The Oilers weren’t ready to hum along.

“We were flat. Weren’t ready,” said winger Patrick Maroon. “Weren’t on our toes. You saw the first goal. Then it just kind of trickled from there. We weren’t winning board battles in the first period. We weren’t getting pucks out.”

Head coach Todd McLellan said he couldn’t shorten his bench to find three lines and five defencemen giving him what he needed. That’s a fairly serious indictment, and he pointed it at their willingness to freelance outside their system.

“We have to play within our structure. When we’re making mistakes, a lot of times we’re cheating on the wrong side (of the puck). We’re not coming out of our end clean. Our neutral zone isn’t real good. We’ve got to get back to some structure.”

They were terrible early and late. And that was more than enough to put them on the losing end.

Usually, you don’t see the transfer of momentum from game to game in a playoff series. But it’s hard to deny that the Ducks took something from Anaheim with them on that charter flight. Confidence, for sure. Belief. Experience. Desperation. All the things that will fuel a team like theirs in a situation like they faced here. Coming into hostile territory having already blown home ice advantage in a major way.

To a man, the Ducks said all they had to do was keep playing the way they did in Game 2 and they’d find a way to beat Talbot. Sure enough.

“I don’t think we ever played that bad,” said Anaheim goalie John Gibson, summing up the two tilts back home. “They tip one, it goes off a guy and goes in. They get another one that goes off our guy and goes in. It’s fluky goals. They obviously earned them, but it’s just bounces. That’s the way it goes. We hit some posts early and they get some that go in. But it shows to us that we just stay with it.”

And what we have now is a series that will probably go six or seven games, just as most people expected.

None of them might be as tense and wide open and crazy good as Game 3. Even the game within the game was a good game.

David Bloom/Postmedia NetworkThe Edmonton Oilers fan reacts to the Anaheim Ducks fifth goal being allowed, during third period NHL action at Rogers Place, in Edmonton Saturday April 30, 2017.

Connor McDavid found another gear and scored a powerful goal to make it 3-3. But he wasn’t close to good enough defensively. He was one of three Oilers to finish minus-two. Milan Lucic and Jordan Eberle were a team-worst minus-three.

And the Ryan Kesler line, charged on and off with shadowing, pestering and checking the McDavid line, finally answered back with some pure offence. Kesler’s winger, Jakob Silfverberg, scored a pair and assisted on the Kesler goal that ended all the guesswork. Together with their other winger, Andrew Cogliano, they finished plus-eight as a line.

“You hope you can capitalize when you get opportunities,” said Cogliano. “When you play good defensively, it’s really cliché, but sometimes you get really good offensive looks. I think that’s what makes guys like Silfverberg a special player. He doesn’t give much up defensively and once you cheat, he can make you pay.”

That line had all kinds of chances early in Game 2 and were stymied repeatedly by Talbot. They just kept coming in Game 3.

“That was nice for us,” continued Cogliano. “I think we needed a game like that where we were able to help the team win. I think we’ve been playing pretty well in terms of creating offensive chances. … It seems like tonight the puck was going in. That’s good to see. If you can play strong defensively and make offensive lines pay, you’re well ahead of the curve.”

The Oilers are still ahead of the Ducks. But they have to find their A-game soon.

EDMONTON — First it was a jab over faceoffs, and then it was preferential treatment of NHL star Connor McDavid. Randy Carlyle’s comments continue to stir the pot in Anaheim’s playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Ducks head coach seemed mildly surprised prior to Wednesday’s Game 4 that a comment about McDavid he’d made the previous day to reporters in Kelowna, B.C., had made it to Edmonton.

“In this viral world, things get out in a hurry,” he said.

“We all have tape in this modern era, so we review things that are happening, infractions that are happening on the ice. We explain to our players ‘this is what’s going on out there.’ We think there are situations that people have received preferential treatment.”

Jae C. Hong / Associated PressIn this April 9 file photo, Anaheim Ducks coach Randy Carlyle watches warm-up before a game against the Los Angeles Kings.

Postmedia and the Los Angeles Times quoted the Ducks coach as saying in Kelowna that “it seems like there is somewhat of a white-glove treatment for Mr. McDavid. The restrictions on anybody touching him seem to be a little bit higher than normal.”

“I don’t know what game he’s watching,” Oilers forward Zack Kassian countered Wednesday. “Obviously a guy with that speed, guys are going to be hanging all over him.”

Protecting the league’s stars became the burning issue after Penguins Penguins forward Sidney Crosby suffered a concussion in a controversial collision Monday with Washington Capitals defenceman Matt Niskanen.

So Carlyle may have been doing some preemptive lobbying of officials in regards to McDavid, the winner of this year’s Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s points leader.

Jason Franson / The Canadian PressIn this April 1 file photo, Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid (right) battles Anaheim Ducks forward Antoine Vermette.

McDavid and Jordan Eberle led the Oilers in drawing penalties in the playoffs with four apiece prior to Wednesday’s game. McDavid has three power-play assists in nine games.

“I think the ref is going to call the game how he sees it,” McDavid said. “That’s all I’ll say about that.”

Carlyle had also predicted prior to the Western Conference semifinal against Edmonton that the Oilers would “be whining to officials” about faceoffs. The Ducks were the best team on draws and the Oilers the worst in the regular-season.

“The ‘white-glove’ part of it, I think that’s questioning the integrity of the officiating, so I’m going to stay out of that and let them do that,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said.

“I heard that and I was surprised, because I thought we were supposed to be the team whining.”