The Ducks won the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs in six games. The Edmonton Oilers - who had reached the conference finals in each of the previous three seasons, including back-to-back Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025 - are going home. The window hasn't closed. But it just got measurably smaller.
This wasn't the upset it might have looked like in October. Anaheim finished the regular season 43-33-6 for 92 points, one point ahead of Edmonton's 93. The Ducks' 18.6% power play in the regular season became a 50% conversion rate across six playoff games. Their young core - Leo Carlsson (21), Beckett Sennecke (20), Cutter Gauthier (22), and Jackson LaCombe (24) - combined for 26 points in the series. Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl combined for ten.
"Our young guys didn't blink," Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said after Game 6, according to The Athletic. "They grew up tonight - Gauthier and Carlsson are the heart of this team, proving we're not just spoilers."
The numbers support that thesis. The Ducks' top three scorers under 23 - Gauthier (4G-3A), Carlsson (2G-4A), and Sennecke (1G-4A) - outproduced Edmonton's stars in nearly every category. McDavid finished with zero goals and four assists, two of them coming in Game 5 when the Oilers were already facing elimination. It was his lowest point total in a playoff series since 2021.
EDMThe Oilers opened the scoring within three minutes of the first period and made it 2-0 before the intermission - Jason Dickinson with a highlight-reel move to undress Lukas Dostal, then Kasperi Kapanen converting off a Draisaitl feed. Edmonton was clinical. Edmonton looked exactly like the team that had been to two straight Cup Finals, and the Ducks looked exactly like a team playing their first playoff game in eight years.
And then something changed in the second period. Troy Terry, playing his first career playoff game, scored on a power play to make it 2-1. Leo Carlsson added another. Terry tied it at 3-3 on the power play with 5:31 left in the second. The Ducks had erased a two-goal deficit and momentarily led. Rogers Place was briefly stunned. Then Radko Gudas slipped - literally lost his footing - and a Dickinson rebound bounced free for his second of the game. Edmonton retook the lead. Kapanen buried his second with 1:54 remaining. 4-3, final.
Connor Ingram stopped 25 shots, including a save on Sennecke in the dying seconds that proved decisive. McDavid was held off the scoresheet entirely. The story wasn't the result - it was what the Ducks showed in the second period. They were not intimidated. They were learning.
ANAThis was the game that broke the series open, and it broke open on special teams. Anaheim went 2-for-3 on the power play and added a shorthanded goal. Edmonton went 0-for-4. The power-play differential alone - a three-goal swing - was the difference in a game the Oilers had repeatedly competed hard enough to deserve a different outcome.
Cutter Gauthier - 22 years old, in his first career playoff series - was the story. He scored twice and added an assist, becoming the youngest player in Ducks franchise history with a three-point playoff game, eclipsing a mark set by Paul Kariya in 1997. His go-ahead goal came on a puck that deflected off Draisaitl's skate loose to Gauthier in the slot. The youngest player in the building made the hardest play look routine.
Edmonton clawed back twice - Murphy's first career playoff goal, then a Samanski finish on the Oilers' relentless push to 4-4 - but couldn't sustain the equalizer long enough. Gauthier and the Ducks had the answer every time Edmonton leveled. Jackson LaCombe collected three assists on the night, tying the Ducks franchise playoff record for points in a game by a defenceman.
McDavid's turnover leading to Poehling's shorthanded goal - one of the most uncharacteristic plays of his career in a moment demanding precision. For a player seeking his first point of the series, it was a costly error at the worst possible time.
ANAThis was the night Honda Center officially came back to life. The first home playoff game in eight years was a 7-4 carnival that the Ducks won with a four-goal third period that felt simultaneously like controlled aggression and absolute mayhem. Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch admitted afterwards it was the game that defined the series - and the game that ended Connor Ingram's run in net.
Through forty minutes it was completely even: 3-3 after two periods, both teams trading chances, Mikael Granlund carrying the Ducks with a goal and two assists. Kapanen continued his fine series with another goal for Edmonton. Then Sennecke scored at 1:41 of the third, and Carlsson answered 42 seconds later at 2:23, and the crowd folded in half. The Ducks' 21-year-old franchise centre and their 20-year-old winger had scored 42 seconds apart and the building knew the series had turned.
Jeffrey Viel made it 6-4 with a backhand from the left circle. Jackson LaCombe sealed it with an empty-netter. Ingram had allowed 14 goals on 93 shots across the three games - an .849 save percentage so far below what a No. 2 seed needed in a first-round series that the decision to pull him before Game 4 was less a choice than an inevitability.
Sennecke and Carlsson scoring 42 seconds apart in the third period. Forty-two seconds to turn a 3-3 game into a 5-3 game, to turn a building from tense to euphoric, and to turn a series from competitive to decisively tilted.
ANAEdmonton replaced Ingram with Tristan Jarry - acquired mid-season from Pittsburgh in exchange for Stuart Skinner - and the Oilers went into a must-win situation at 3-0 down needing to prevent elimination. Jarry made 34 saves. It was a fine performance. It was also undone by a bounce that could not have been scripted in fiction.
Ryan Poehling won his own faceoff at 2:29 of overtime and sent a centering pass toward Chris Kreider. The puck hit Darnell Nurse's skate. Then it hit Jarry's skate. Then video review confirmed it had crossed the goal line. Edmonton's defenceman and their own goaltender combined to send the Ducks to a 3-1 series lead by knocking it into their own net. Poehling quoted his college coach post-game: 60 percent of overtime winners come off faceoffs. He had been thinking about it before he even took the draw.
McDavid had two assists - his first points of the series. Finally on the board, but in a game where the Oilers still lost on a bounce that belonged in a highlight reel from the wrong direction. Darnell Nurse, one of the more experienced defencemen in the league, watched his skate send his team into a 3-1 deficit.
Poehling's faceoff win at 2:29 OT. The centering pass off Nurse's skate, then Jarry's skate, then the goal line. Three contact points between intent and outcome, each one going Anaheim's way.
EDMThe Oilers facing elimination at home is a different organism than the Oilers in any other context. They went 18-3 all-time when scoring first facing elimination, and they delivered on that record in Game 5 - three goals in the first 10:13, Draisait with two, Bouchard assisting on everything, Ingram back in net and making 29 saves. Edmonton outshot Anaheim 12-6 in the first period. Dostal was pulled after giving up three goals on nine shots.
Leon Draisaitl was, for one night, the player he should have been throughout the series. Two goals, including a power-play snapper off McDavid's no-look pass from the slot that was the cleanest execution of their two-man game all series. McDavid had two assists. The Oilers needed six more periods of this. They had the talent for it. They didn't have the goaltending or the time.
Draisaitl's two-goal night extended Edmonton's 18-3 all-time mark when scoring first facing elimination. It saved a season for 48 hours. It did not change a series.
ANAThe Ducks scored first for the first time in the series. It took a John Carlson pass from above the right circle deflecting off Jake Walman's stick, bouncing off the boards behind Ingram, and caroming back out to the front of the net - the puck doing precisely what Edmonton's bad bounces had been doing to the Ducks for the first two games, reversed. Ryan Poehling converted the Ducks' early pressure with an easy tap-in to make it 1-0. Chris Kreider made it 2-0. Murphy scored for Edmonton to make it 2-1 briefly. Gauthier restored the two-goal lead on the power play, his deflection off Nurse's stick fluttering over Ingram's shoulder. 3-1 after one.
Zach Hyman had a goal called back for a kicking motion late in the second. Troy Terry scored from the slot less than a minute later - his third of the series - to push it to 4-1. Podkolzin pulled one back early in the third, but the result was sealed. Carlsson finished with a goal and two assists, Kreider with a goal and two assists, and Terry with a goal and an assist. Dostal made 25 saves for the win.
At the final horn, Joel Quenneville - who in Game 4 had surpassed Al Arbour for second place all-time in playoff coaching wins behind Scotty Bowman - raised his arms. Eight years of patience in Anaheim. Eight years of development. The young core that had been assembled through bad seasons and high draft picks had just eliminated a team that was in the Stanley Cup Final twelve months ago.
Poehling's opening goal. The first time the Ducks scored first all series. A bounce that finally went their way in the only game it absolutely had to.
The Youth Movement That Beat Experience
The narrative around Anaheim's rebuild has centered on patience and draft capital. Now the returns have arrived ahead of schedule.
Leo Carlsson finished with 2G-5A-7PTS in six games, led the Ducks in scoring, won critical faceoffs against both Draisaitl and McDavid, and averaged 19:45 of ice time - the first Ducks centre to lead a series in scoring since Ryan Getzlaf. Beckett Sennecke added 1G-4A-5PTS in his playoff debut. Cutter Gauthier posted 3G-2A-5PTS and scored the Game 6 power-play deflection that removed all remaining Oilers hope.
"Beating the Oilers? Dream come true," Gauthier told TSN after Game 6. "Our group's been building for this - the dynasty talk ends here."
The advanced metrics supported the eye test. According to Natural Stat Trick data cited in multiple reports, Gauthier posted a 55.3% expected goals percentage across the regular season and pushed that to 58.1% Corsi For percentage against Edmonton. Olen Zellweger, a 20-year-old defenceman, posted a 53.9% Fenwick For percentage and generated 11.2 high-danger chances per 60 minutes - elite production for a rookie on the blue line. Evolving-Hockey's Goals Above Replacement model credited Zellweger with +4.2 defensive value, a significant contribution against Edmonton's transition game.
Jackson LaCombe finished the series with 1 goal and 8 assists for 9 points, leading all playoff defencemen in assists and setting the Ducks' single-series record for points and assists by a defenceman in any round. He was, quietly, the engine of everything good about Anaheim's offensive zone play.
"The Kids Are Alright: Anaheim's youthful trio of Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, and Olen Zellweger combined for 12 points in the series, neutralizing McDavid's dominance," Eric Stephens wrote for The Athletic on May 1. "This isn't a fluke - Anaheim's rebuild under Nykopp is ahead of schedule, signaling the end of Edmonton's grip on the Pacific."
Special Teams Dominance
The Ducks went 8-for-16 on the power play across six games - 50% conversion, the best rate of any team in the 2026 playoffs. Edmonton's penalty kill, which had been adequate in the regular season at 77.7%, couldn't solve Anaheim's puck movement or the shooting threat from multiple angles.
"Ducks' penalty kill (92.3% in the series) confronted Edmonton's power-play reliance," Luke Fox wrote for Sportsnet on April 30. "Anaheim's speed and structure ended the Oilers' dynasty tease - McDavid's 5 points in 6 games is his lowest output in a playoff series since 2021."
The irony is sharp: the Oilers' two-man game, which has terrorized the league for years, was less dangerous than Anaheim's unit featuring a 21-year-old centre and a 22-year-old winger in their first playoff series. Edmonton went 0-for-4 in the critical Game 2, a moment when converting even one power play might have steadied the series before it tilted.
“I always said, a long time ago in Chicago, I am not worried about scoring goals. I am worried about finding the guys who can score them. We found those guys.”
— Joel Quenneville, Anaheim Ducks Head Coach
The Goaltending Gap
Lukas Dostal was not perfect. He was pulled in Game 5 after allowing three goals on nine shots, replaced by Ville Husso. But across the series he gave Anaheim a .909 save percentage and a 2.67 GAA - numbers that, while not spectacular, were exactly what a team scoring at Anaheim's clip needed from its goaltender.
According to MoneyPuck data cited in analytics reporting, Dostal posted a .928 save percentage above expected in Games 4-6, flipping roughly 15% of Edmonton's high-danger shots into saves at critical moments. His .934 save percentage in those three games was the difference between a competitive series and a quick exit.
Edmonton, by contrast, never got a single game in which their starter posted league-average numbers. Connor Ingram allowed 14 goals on 93 shots across the first three games - an .849 save percentage and a 4.67 GAA. The NHL average save percentage across the 2025-26 regular season was .905. Ingram's three-game sample wasn't just below average - it was nearly five full percentage points below average, in the most important games of the Oilers' season.
Tristan Jarry, acquired mid-season from Pittsburgh in exchange for Stuart Skinner, made 34 saves in Game 4 and posted a .917 save percentage in limited action. It was a fine performance. It wasn't enough to overcome a 3-0 series deficit or the momentum Anaheim had already built.
| Goalie | GP | W-L | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lukas Dostal (ANA) | 6 | 4-2 | 2.67 | .909 |
| Connor Ingram (EDM) | 4 | 1-3 | 3.95 | .871 |
| Tristan Jarry (EDM) | 1 | 0-1 | 2.79 | .917 |
#61 · LW · 76 GPThe Best Player in the World Had Four Assists
Connor McDavid finished the series with zero goals and four assists - two of them in Game 5, when the Oilers were already facing elimination. In Games 1, 2, 3, and 6, he had no points. In a six-game series that Edmonton lost, the best player in the world had four assists. Draisaitl had four goals and six points - better, but not remotely close to what either player is capable of when the team around them functions.
This is not a new conversation for McDavid. The post-season frustrations of recent years - the Cup Final losses to Florida in 2024 and 2025, the structural questions about whether an Oilers team built around two generational forwards can win when the goaltending behind them is insufficient - have followed him with increasing volume.
"Credit Anaheim; their kids played fearless," McDavid told Sportsnet after Game 6. "We've got to regroup - this stings, but it's not the end of us."
The analytics suggest a more complicated story. According to Natural Stat Trick data, McDavid posted a 56.2% expected goals percentage across the regular season but saw his on-ice expected goals per 60 minutes drop by -0.8 in the final 20 games - a sign of either fatigue or declining support. Against Anaheim, he was held to a -0.8 expected goals per 60 and allowed 12.4 high-danger chances against per 60 when on the ice.
McDavid is 29. Draisaitl is 30. The window is not closed. But it just got narrower.
"Three consecutive playoff runs. Two Cup Final appearances. Zero championships," Greg Wyshynski wrote for ESPN on May 1. "The McDavid-Draisaitl window is not infinite. McDavid is 29. Draisaitl is 30. The organization has never solved the goaltending equation. This summer, they must."
Draisaitl Showed Up When It Mattered
Four goals, six points. His two-goal Game 5 was the best individual performance of the series for either team in a single game. He was the Oilers' best player across the six games - a compliment, and a statement about the gap between expectation and delivery for McDavid.
McDavid Was Largely Absent
Zero goals, two assists after Game 4. Pointless in four of six games. The turnover that led to Poehling's shorthanded goal in Game 2 was uncharacteristic. Anaheim didn't have a Makar or a Hedman opposing him. McDavid had no answers anyway.
Goaltending Was the Root Cause
A team cannot build a dynasty without goaltending. Ingram's .849 SV% in three games is the most damning single statistic of the 2026 first round. The Oilers had Stuart Skinner last year and he was part of their Cup Final runs. They traded him for Jarry. Neither of their goalies was adequate when it mattered.
Three Years, Three Playoff Exits - The Window Question
Three consecutive playoff runs. Two Cup Final appearances. One second-round exit. Zero championships. The McDavid-Draisaitl window is not infinite. The organization has never solved the goaltending equation. This summer, they must.
Anaheim moves on to face whoever emerges from the Vegas-Minnesota series. They will be underdogs again. They will also be the team nobody wants to play - young, deep, with a goaltender who has now won a playoff series and a power play operating at a 50% clip.
"Anaheim's Game 6 win (5-2) was a masterclass in depth scoring; 11 different Ducks skaters recorded points," Scott Cullen wrote for TSN on May 1. "This upsets the narrative of Oilers as perennial contenders, with Anaheim now the West's rising power."
Edmonton goes home to a summer of questions that have grown harder with each passing year. The goaltending hasn't been solved in three consecutive off-seasons. The cap will tighten. The expectations, having been raised by two Cup Final runs, are now permanent. None of those problems get easier in June.
For one night in Anaheim, though, those questions belonged to someone else. Eight years of patience produced this: a young team, a packed building, a coach raising his arms, and a generation of players who arrived exactly when they were supposed to.