Aneheim, California: Cam Talbot made 39 saves and Patrick Maroon scored a power-play goal as the Edmonton Oilers moved halfway to the NHL Western Conference finals with a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in Game 2 of their second-round series Friday night.
Andrej Sekera scored an early goal for the Oilers, who took the first two games on Pacific Division champion Anaheim’s home ice. Talbot was the difference in Game 2, making all manner of impressive saves while Anaheim dominated the last 30 minutes.
Jakob Silfverberg scored and John Gibson stopped 21 shots for the Ducks, who had gone 18 games without a regulation defeat before this series. Anaheim has never recovered from an 0-2 series deficit, losing all seven series after digging that early hole.
Game 3 is Sunday in Edmonton.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice, including the tiebreaking goal with 3:51 left to help St Louis tie the Western Conference semi-final series at one game apiece with a 3-2 win. Jori Lehtera also scored for the Blues, and Jake Allen stopped 22 shots — including 14 in the third period.
Ryan Ellis had a goal and an assist and James Neal also scored for Nashville, which had its franchise-high five-game postseason winning streak snapped. Pekka Rinne finished with 17 saves. Game 3 is Sunday at Nashville, Tennessee.
Tarasenko’s game-winner came on lucky bounce. Jaden Schwartz led the rush and initially tried to pass it to Carl Gunnarsson, but the pass was off the mark and bounced off of Gunnarsson’s foot right to Tarasenko’s stick.
It was the first lead for St Louis in 116:09 of the series.
