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Edmonton Oilers' Ingram was full of jokes after first playoff win

Preston Hodgkinson
Preston Hodgkinson
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Apr 21 2026, 4:27 pm
Edmonton Oilers' Ingram was full of jokes after first playoff win
@EdmontonOilers/X

The vibes are high for the Edmonton Oilers after a thrilling Game 1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

It was a stressful win for the team, having overcome a third-period deficit and then scoring the game-winner in the dying minutes of regulation. Kasperi Kapanen and Jason Dickinson were the unexpected heroes of the playoff opener, notching two goals apiece, while Connor Ingram locked things down between the pipes.

There were questions heading into the postseason of whether Ingram could be the guy for the Oilers, but he seemed to dispel those thoughts in Game 1. Monday’s victory was his first career playoff win, and he seemed as calm as can be talking to reporters after the game, cracking joke after joke.

“It took me four tries, but I’ll take it,” Ingram said with a sly smile. “It means a lot, it’s been cool. It’s been a wild year. I hit 100 games, 50 wins, things like that, just small little accomplishments along the way. It’s been fun. It’s exciting to do it here.”

There were a few critical saves that Ingram made along the way to help ensure this victory for the Oilers. A few of those came in the third period, with him stopping a point-blank chance from Ducks youngstar Beckette Sennecke to keep the deficit to one.

That was a massive save as the Oilers went back down the ice and scored the tying goal just moments later. Although Ingram wasn’t taking too much credit for the stop.

“He just came down to me, he had a lot of time, but he just turned and kinda fired it,” Ingram said. “He just fired it right into me, honestly.”

Ingram then found a way to get a pad on a Mikael Granlund chance in the dying seconds of the game to secure the victory, though it was Mattias Ekholm who got in the right position to steer the shot away from an empty net.

If there is one thing that Ingram has proven in his time with the Oilers, it’s that he is able to keep a level head in stressful situations. That was on display once again in his playoff debut with Edmonton, although he was blown away by the atmosphere in Rogers Place.

When asked about it, he included a dig at Mullet Arena, the 5,000-capacity rink he spent most of his NHL career playing in with the now-defunct Arizona Coyotes.

“The bulk of my career I’ve played out of Mullet Arena,” Ingram said with a smile. “To walk out of the tunnel today, it’s a different animal. It’s loud in there. It was fun.

“After the anthem, one thing I always do is smile and take it all in, and that was one today where I was like, ‘This is cool.'”

Early returns have looked good for Ingram and the Oilers, but there is still plenty of mountain left to climb before the job is done.

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