Gibson makes 33 saves, Ducks give Oilers 4th straight loss
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - John Gibson bounced back from a most lousy performance by giving the Anaheim Ducks more than just a solid performance in net.
He even helped generate some offense.
Gibson made a season-high 33 saves, Cam Fowler and Ryan Kesler had goals and the Ducks gave the Edmonton Oilers their fourth straight loss, 4-1 on Tuesday night.
Nick Ritchie and Antoine Vermette also scored for Anaheim, and Corey Perry had two assists to take the team lead with 15 points.
Gibson earned his first assist of the season when he started the play that led to Fowler's 4-on-4 goal.
A tie-up between Jordan Eberle and Josh Manson sent both off for two minutes 1:23 into the second period. Exactly 1 minute later, Gibson kicked a shot by Connor McDavid right to Fowler, who took it up the ice, dished it to Jakob Silfverberg, got it back and beat Talbot stick-side for a 2-0 lead.
"(Gibson) was awesome. He gave us a chance to win the game and kept us in it," Fowler said. "The first 10 minutes of the second period were OK, but the last 10 minutes we spent the whole time in our own end. They had all the momentum. Without him, they probably get a couple more."
Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton and Cam Talbot made 23 saves.
Edmonton controlled play throughout much of the second period, outshooting Anaheim 18-9, but it was forced to climb out of a 3-0 hole after the Ducks capitalized on special teams chances to score twice in the second.
"Defensively, I didn't think we gave up much, but it was still four goals against," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "I thought we needed to get out of the second period down one, not two, and it would have made a difference."
Shortly after Fowler's goal, Kesler ended Anaheim's three-game power-play drought and put the Ducks up 3-0 at 7:51 of the second by catching a rebound in front of the crease and backhanding it around Talbot's skate.
With 1:46 left in the second period, Draisaitl put the Oilers on the board with an unassisted goal.
Vermette scored at 9:00 in the third, pushing the game out of reach for the Oilers. Joseph Cramarossa led a 4-on-1 rush and found a trailing Vermette in the slot.
"I think we couldn't really establish a forecheck tonight," Draisaitl said. "We couldn't really get that same momentum that we had in the second period with us. And it's too bad, because I think we played a really solid game."
Ritchie opened the scoring 7:13 in when he finished a beautiful backhand feed from Ryan Getzlaf with a top-shelf wrist shot over Talbot, the rookie's fourth of the season.
NOTES: Ducks D Korbinian Holzer and RW Chris Wagner were both healthy scratches Tuesday. ... Oilers D Dillon Simpson and RW Jesse Puljujarvi were healthy scratches. ... Kesler has scored six goals in November and is one away from matching his career-best mark for the month, set in November of 2010 with Vancouver.
UP NEXT
Oilers: Continue a three-game road trip in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
Ducks: Host New Jersey on Thursday night.