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Edmonton Oilers stymied by Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal

Lukas Dostal made 46 saves as the Anaheim Ducks stunned the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 Saturday afternoon at Rogers Place.

The Oilers outshot the Ducks 49-17, including 23-2 in the third period.

“It’s frustrating right now but we can’t hang our heads,” Leon Draisaitl said. “We’ve got to park it and learn from it. We’ve got a big road trip coming up.”

The Oilers went ahead five minutes into the game when Darnell Nurse drifted a long shot past Lukas Dostal for his fifth of the season. Anaheim scored twice in the final six minutes of the period. Mason McTavish set up a wide-open Sam Carrick for a tap in. On the power play, Cam Fowler fired a point shot past Stuart Skinner.

“We weren’t sharp in the first two periods,” Leon Draisaitl said. “We turned it on in the third, but too many mistakes.”

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“It was another odd read for me,” Skinner said. “I knew it was coming but I was drifting to the left just to have a sightline and I kind of lost it for a second. It was another good shot — it was long enough I should probably have that — but NHL teams are good.”

In the second, Evan Bouchard turned the puck over to Ryan Strome at the Ducks blue line. Strome went in along and beat Skinner glove-side to make it 3-1 Ducks. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pushed in a pinballing puck on the power play to pull the Oilers within one in the last minute of the session.

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“It’s happened too much recently,” Bouchard said of his mistake. “I think I’ve got to go back to the fundamentals and keep things simple.”

“He’s a young defenceman that’s going through a stretch where simplicity may be his way out of it rather than complexity,” head coach Jay Woodcroft said of Bouchard. “He’s a young man that’s learning his way in the National Hockey League and unfortunately those chances against ended up in our net —the margins were thin today.”

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Connor McDavid buried his 28th on a two-man advantage to pull the Oilers even two minutes into the third. The Ducks waddled back in front four minutes later when John Klingberg whizzed a shot from the right wing boards over Skinner’s right shoulder.

“Too many individual mistakes from everyone — defencemen and forwards too,” Draisaitl said.

The Oilers went on the power play with 3:43 left when Trevor Zegras was nabbed for tripping Tyson Barrie. McDavid hit the post on a one-timer, and the puck hit the post on the resulting rebound as well.

The Oilers, 17-14-1, will play in Nashville on Monday (Face-off Show at 4:30 p.m., game at 6 p.m.)

With files from Brenden Escott, 630 CHED

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