Saturday’s tilt between the Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place carries genuine weight well beyond the final buzzer of this contest. The Ducks, the NHL’s most pleasant surprise of the 2025-26 season, roll into Edmonton having won 4 straight, perched atop the Pacific Division with 86 points and a stranglehold on a division title that would be their first since 2017. Standing in their way is an Edmonton Oilers squad that knows exactly what is at stake: win in regulation and keep their own Pacific crown aspirations alive, or let Anaheim tighten its grip before the playoffs begin. Here, I break down this contest and make my Ducks vs Oilers prediction.
Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton Oilers Pick
- Pick: Edmonton Oilers Moneyline
- Confidence: 3 out of 5
Game Snapshot
- Matchup: Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton Oilers
- Date & Time: Saturday, March 28, 2026, 3:30 PM ET
- Venue: Rogers Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Broadcast: ESPN+
Key Storylines
Recent Form
Anaheim enters this game absolutely cooking. The Ducks have rattled off 4 consecutive wins, the most recent being a 3-2 overtime victory in Calgary on Thursday night. They are 5-1 in their last 6 games overall, and 4-1 in their last 5 road outings, a remarkable stretch for a club that was written off before the season began. However, their road record specifically against Edmonton tells a different story: Anaheim is 5-12 in its last 17 visits to Rogers Place and just 1-5 in its last 6 road trips against the Oilers. That is not a comfortable trend to carry into a building that will be rocking.
Edmonton bounced back from a difficult two-game home skid by going on the road and picking up back-to-back wins, including a 4-3 overtime decision at Vegas on Thursday. The Oilers are 4-2 across their last 6 games and have gone 6-3-1 over their last 10. With the Oilers sitting second in the Pacific at 36-28-9, they understand that this is essentially a must-win in regulation if they want any realistic chance of catching Anaheim for the division lead.
Goaltending
In net for Anaheim will be Lukas Dostal, who gets the start after Ville Husso played Thursday in Calgary. Dostal carries a 2.82 GAA and a .903 save percentage on the road this season. He did pick up a win in an earlier meeting between these teams this season, so he has some familiarity and success against this Edmonton lineup. His counterpart is expected to be Connor Ingram, who started Thursday’s win in Vegas and is likely to draw the assignment again. Ingram is posting a 2.84 GAA with a .893 save percentage over the last 10 games, numbers that put both goaltenders in a similar tier and make the crease matchup largely a wash.
Key Skaters
For Anaheim, Mikael Granlund has been an absolute force during the winning streak. The 34-year-old veteran scored a hat trick Thursday in Calgary, capping it with an overtime power-play winner at 4:59 of the extra period, his 7th goal across the current 4-game winning run. He is now the second player in Ducks history to score multiple hat tricks in a single season with the club. Over the last 10 games, Leo Carlsson leads Anaheim with 9 points on 3 goals and 6 assists, while Alex Killorn has added 8 points with 4 goals and 4 assists.
On the Edmonton side, the story belongs to Connor McDavid. The generational talent recorded a goal and 2 assists Thursday in Vegas, pushing him to 15 points across the last 10 games on 6 goals and 9 helpers. In doing so, McDavid reached 800 career assists in just 785 games, the 3rd-fastest player in NHL history to reach that mark. Evan Bouchard continues to be a revelation on the blue line, lighting the lamp for his 20th goal of the season in overtime Thursday, making him the 6th defenseman this season to hit that plateau, a feat not seen league-wide since 1993-94.
Betting Trends & H2H
- These teams are 1-1 against each other this season.
- There have been 11 total goals scored in each of their meetings this year.
Anaheim Ducks vs. Edmonton Oilers Model Projection
- Score Projection: Edmonton Oilers 4 – Anaheim Ducks 3
- Win Probability: Edmonton 59%, Anaheim 41%
The numbers point in one direction, even if the Ducks’ storyline is a compelling one. Edmonton gets the home ice advantage, has won 6 of the last 10 head-to-head meetings, and boasts the most dangerous individual player in the sport right now in Connor McDavid, who appears locked in at precisely the right moment. The Oilers’ need to win in regulation adds a layer of desperation that Rogers Place will feed off from the opening puck drop. McDavid, Bouchard, and a crowd with genuine stakes on the line is a difficult environment for any team to walk into. I’ll go with the Oilers to win this one.
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