EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) 鈥� Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid will play Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks in Game 5 of the teams’ first-round playoff series.
McDavid, who led the NHL in points this season, did not participate in the team’s morning skate ahead of a must-win game for Edmonton and was a game-time decision, according to coach Kris Knoblauch.
The 29-year-old McDavid has looked uncomfortable at times since rolling his ankle in the second period of Game 2 when he collided with teammate Mattias Ekholm.
The Oilers are trying to avoid elimination and rally from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series. Edmonton reached the Stanley Cup final in each of the last two seasons before losing to the two-time champion Florida Panthers.
Edmonton forward/center Jason Dickinson, also a game-time decision, was also in the lineup released shortly before gametime.
Knoblauch said earlier Tuesday that Connor Ingram would start in net after Tristan Jarry started in Game 4.
McDavid, who led the league with 138 points, scored his first goal in Game 3 and had his first multi-point games in the third and fourth games of the series in Anaheim. McDavid didn鈥檛 participate in Saturday鈥檚 off-day skate in Anaheim.
McDavid was nominated Tuesday for the Ted Lindsay Award, along with San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov. The award is for the league鈥檚 鈥渕ost outstanding player鈥� as voted by NHL players. McDavid is a four-time winner.
Ingram returns to the Edmonton net on Tuesday after Jarry made 34 saves . Ingram started the first three games of the series. He earned a 4-3 victory in Game 1 before allowing 11 goals in consecutive losses behind a leaky Edmonton defense.
鈥淣othing against Jarry,鈥� Knoblauch said early Tuesday. 鈥淚 thought he had a solid game the other night, but going down this last few weeks or months, Ingram鈥檚 been our starter. He鈥檚 been our guy. Now that our season鈥檚 on the line, we felt that we would go with our guy.鈥�
Dickinson sat out the second and third games of the series due to injury. He scored twice in Edmonton鈥檚 win in the opener and assisted on the Oilers鈥� first goal in the Game 4 loss.
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