Ritchie scored the tiebreaker, John Gibson made 23 saves and the Ducks ended their streak of five straight game-seven losses, downing the Oilers to reach the western finals again.
Edmonton - facing elimination at home - blew out the Ducks, 7-1, on Monday night behind three goals and two assists from Leon Draisaitl, who leads all Oilers in playoff scoring (6 goals, 10 assists). St. Louis scored just five goals over the final four games of the series and lost three of them.
"I don't know how you are supposed to feel comfortable", McDavid said. "Got to find a way to get over it".
It was Caggiula's third goal in the last four games, and added to the Ducks' recent history of Game 7 woe.
The Oilers pulled Talbot with 2:06 to go and couldn't muster the tying goal. Like game 6 against the Oilers when the Ducks found themselves down 5-0, game seven starts have been the death knell for the team. Alas, Nashville stole Game 1 on the road and didn't lose at home once in the series, closing out the Blues 3-1 last Sunday in Game 6.
Justin Abdelkader and Valtteri Filppula broke the decisive contest open as the Red Wings held on for a 3-2 victory and ousted the Ducks for an anticlimactic finish to a thrill-packed Western Conference first-round series. Talbot got turned around as Ryan Kesler was attacking the crease before ending up face down on the ice and in no position to stop Cogliano's soft backhand swat of a loose puck.
"We're just confident in our group", Watson said of the spread-out scoring. "But we did a good job of matching that and being physical on our own and continuing to push", said Predators forward Austin Watson, who gave Nashville a 2-1 lead 2:42 into the second period on a swift and precise passing play. "They only had a day of rest and we were fresh".
Students choose NDP in mock election
A spokesperson said the party's two key demands would be a move to proportional representation and a ban on big money in politics. The Liberals have 41 candidates elected while the NDP have 39 elected followed by the BC Green Party with 3 candidates elected.
Nashville tied the score 1-1 on Forsberg's third goal of the playoffs at 12:34 of the first.
"It was fun to see the city get behind us like they did". The Oilers only seemed to recover in the closing minute, creating two chances before returning to the dressing room.
The $5 tickets for Game 7 sold out in TWO minutes. The team has had plenty of trips to the playoffs since their opening 1998-1999 season with this their 10th trip out of 18 tries. Connor McDavid hoped no one in the dressing room would forget what happened in the series and how it felt.
ANAHEIM The preseason pick by many to play for the Stanley Cup and even pass the silver chalice around to each other never got within shouting distance of it, trudging dejectedly off the ice just like previous versions did. "We finished near the bottom of the league last year, and took a big step this year". Everyone that chips in, like right through to the fourth line, and I think we have that, and like I said before, we have a team that can play all different styles of games. The Ducks regrouped. From that point on, the Oilers managed only 11 shots on net. It will simply be a question of how quickly Edmonton learns the lessons of this series.
"It still stings", said defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, the team captain. Anytime you have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on your team, you have a pretty darn good shot at winning the Stanley Cup. "But I think there are a lot of positives we can take from this year".
That the was the start the Oilers needed and they wore it well, riding a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Unlike the Oilers, who's bottom six rarely contributed and who had only 2 better-than-average defensemen to speak of, Nashville is built well from top to bottom.
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