The Oilers will miss the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season after losing 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.

Taylor Hall scored for the Oilers (17-20-7), who have lost seven of their last eight games and were officially eliminated from the playoffs for yet another season. The string of futility stretches back to their loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

“To have another season where we’re out of the playoffs, another season where we’re playing meaningless games at the end of the year, is very frustrating,” Hall said. “It’s something we’re not proud of.”

Oilers captain Shawn Horcoff, who has been with the team for the entire seven years, said it hasn’t been an easy process.

“It’s tough, it’s been extremely tough on me,” he said. “We made some steps and at least this year we got some meaningful games in, gave ourselves a chance to get in, but it fell off as of late.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction. It’s just a little slower than we’d like.”

It was a badly-needed victory for the Ducks (28-11-6), who got goals from Cam Fowler, Kyle Palmieri and Corey Perry to help the team snap a four-game losing skid and move closer to clinching the Pacific Division crown.

“It was a step closer to where we want to be,” said Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf. “There are still mistakes that we need to eliminate going into the playoffs, but this was a much-needed win tonight and one that I felt we deserved. It’s all about playing the right way going into the playoffs. This was a step in the right direction.”

The Ducks can clinch the division with another win over the Oilers in the rematch in Edmonton on Monday.

“It’s great to have a win again after what has been happening for the last little while,” said Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller, who stopped 27 shots. “We knew that we needed to play better, but sometimes it is not that easy. Tonight I think that everybody worked a little harder and that made the difference.”

Edmonton had a quick start, scoring exactly one minute in when Hall notched his 15th of the season as he came in off the boards to beat Ducks starter Jonas Hiller between the legs with a wrist shot from the right face-off dot.

The Ducks evened it up with just 1.1 seconds remaining in the period as Oilers center Jerred Smithson broke his stick on the faceoff and Fowler was able to pick up a rebound and bank in his first of the year off goalie Devan Dubnyk’s pads.

Anaheim took a 2-1 lead with just under a minute to play in the second period when Palmieri tried to get a pass through to Teemu Selanne on a 2-on-1, but the pass was blocked by a diving Ladislav Smid. However, Palmieri was able to dig the puck out from under Smid and deposit his 10th of the year behind Dubnyk.

The Ducks went up 3-1 midway through the third when Ryan Getzlaf made a great move to walk around Smid and then sent a backhand pass in front for Perry, who had an easy tap-in for the goal.

The Ducks hit the post twice with Dubnyk pulled for the final two minutes.

Game notes

It was the second of three meetings between the two teams this season. Anaheim came in as the winners of their last nine in Edmonton and 12 of the last 14 meetings overall. … The Oilers announced Sunday that 2011 first overall draft pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is out for the remainder of the season as he likely requires shoulder surgery. … Edmonton Fs Ales Hemsky (foot), Eric Belanger (groin) and Lennart Petrell (leg) are also probably done for the year. … Anaheim was missing Luca Sbisa (upper body) and D Sheldon Souray (lower body).

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The Anaheim Ducks’ star winger was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for his late hit on Minnesota Wild winger Jason Zucker.

Perry, who will forfeit $115,135.12 in salary, also was suspended four games in January 2009 for an elbow to the head of Philadelphia Flyers star Claude Giroux.

Rob Blake of the NHL’s Player Safety Department explained the Perry suspension in a league video released Wednesday.

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The deal is worth $66 million for an average of $8.25 million per season, league sources told ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun.

The Ducks announced the deal Friday with Getzlaf, the former Canadian Olympic center who has spent his entire NHL career with Anaheim. His new contract runs through the 2020-21 season.

Getzlaf would have been an unrestricted free agent this summer along with Corey Perry, the former NHL MVP and his longtime teammate. Perry remains signed to his current deal.

Getzlaf, 27, has scored 499 points in 534 games with Anaheim, establishing himself as one of the NHL’s top playmakers. He won the Stanley Cup in 2007 and became Anaheim’s captain in 2010.

“This is a wonderful day for my family, as Anaheim has become our home,” said Getzlaf, a native of Saskatchewan. “The fans here have treated me very well, and I look forward to being part of a winning hockey team and contributing to the Orange County community for years to come.”

After struggling last year to his lowest-scoring performance in a full NHL season, Getzlaf is in the midst of an outstanding season for the Ducks (16-3-3), who have the NHL’s second-best record behind Chicago.

Getzlaf has nine goals and 18 assists with a plus-10 rating in just 22 games this season, tying with Chicago’s Patrick Kane for the Western Conference scoring lead.

Perry has seemed more interested than Getzlaf in exploring free agency. The gold-medal-winning Canadian Olympians have spent their entire careers with Anaheim, which drafted them together in the first round in 2003.

Ducks general manager Bob Murray has been eager to re-sign both Getzlaf and Perry, even though Anaheim has won just one playoff round in the five seasons since the franchise’s only Stanley Cup title. After several years of slow starts, the duo have justified Murray’s faith in them this season with strong play, leading the Ducks to a significant lead in the Pacific Division near the midway point of the lockout-shortened season.

“We are very happy to have Ryan committed to this franchise long-term,” Murray said. “He has often expressed his interest to stay in Anaheim for his entire career, a goal we share. He is a leader, a proven winner, and possesses a skill set that’s hard to find. This is a great day for the Ducks.”

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Palmieri ended a 10-game goal drought with his first NHL hat trick, Viktor Fasth made 20 saves, and the Pacific Division leaders beat the Nashville Predators 5-1 Wednesday night for their seventh straight home victory.

“It’s been an up-and-down season for me, but I hope that this gives me the confidence to put together a nice little hot streak,” Palmieri said.

Nick Bonino and Saku Koivu also scored for Anaheim. Perry and Getzlaf assisted on all three goals by Palmieri, who hadn’t scored since netting back-to-back game winners on Feb. 1-2.

“They’re two phenomenal players and definitely two of the best in the world, so it’s an honor to be on their line and be on ice with them,” Palmieri said. “Those guys are also phenomenal playmakers as well as goal scorers.

“I just knew I had to get out there and work hard and find those areas. I knew that if I was open, they’d give me the puck.”

Palmieri completed his outburst against Pekka Rinne 1:07 into the second period, during a power play after Nashville had too many men on the ice.

“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Palmieri said. “It was kind of a quick play there, and I wasn’t actually sure if it went in. But when the ref game the signal, it was a pretty awesome feeling.”

It was the sixth natural hat trick in club history and marked the third career multigoal game for the 22-year-old forward, selected by the Ducks in the first round of the 2009 draft.

“Last year, I was up and down from the minors quite a few times and couldn’t quite find my home in the lineup,” Palmieri said. “But this year I came in knowing I wanted to be here and I was going to work and do whatever it took to stay here.”

Anaheim (14-3-1) tied Montreal for the second-most points in the NHL behind Chicago’s 35. The Ducks have won seven of eight, losing to only Los Angeles on Monday.

“We just turned the page,” Getzlaf said. “In this short season, if you can resist losing two in a row, it changes a lot of things.”

Rinne gave up five goals on 21 shots before he was replaced at the start of the third period.

Craig Smith scored Nashville’s goal.

Rinne allowed at least four goals for the third game in a row after coming in with a 1.90 goals-against average and a league-best three shutouts.

Rinne was 7-0-2 with a 1.58 GAA in his previous nine starts against Anaheim — both losses coming this season in shootouts.

“We didn’t put pressure in the other team at all. We made it easy for them,” Smith said after the opener of a three-game California trip. “We have to get back to work and try to sort this thing out.”

The Predators fell behind 2-0 before getting their first shot at 6:11 of the first period.

“We were able to catch them on a very tired night,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It was their fourth game in six nights and they were flying cross-country, so they didn’t look like they had the normal energy that a Nashville team does.”

Anaheim’s first goal came on a dump-in play, as Rinne mishandled the puck behind the net. Rookie Emerson Etem, recalled from the minors on Tuesday, came in hard and fed a pass in front to Bonino, who scored his fifth goal of the season at 2:48.

“We’ve had pretty bad starts lately, so it’s nice when one pops to you between the hash marks in front of an open net to get it going,” Bonino said. “It was huge.

“We have a good team here and everyone knows it.”

The assist was Etem’s third in nine NHL games. He started the season in the minors, then returned there for five games before he and center Peter Holland switched places.

“He brought a lot of energy to the game. There’s no doubt,” Boudreau said of Etem. “He did it the first time he was here and he got two assists in his third game. I think he feels more comfortable coming back for the second time.”

Palmieri finished off a 2-on-2 rush with Perry 61 seconds later, getting a pass in the left circle and swerving around Predators captain Shea Weber before cutting in front of the crease and jamming the puck past Rinne’s outstretched left leg at 3:49.

“That was our worst performance of the year,” Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. “We were down 2-0 right off the bat, and after that we had no bite and no fight. That’s not like us. I thought we might pull it together in the second period, but we didn’t. I was a little surprised at that. This is an important trip.”

Palmieri connected again at 16:57 of the first, converting Perry’s pass from behind the net after Getzlaf won a faceoff in the Nashville zone.

“Kyle’s had a couple of chances in the last few games wasn’t able to score, so it was great that he was able to,” Boudreau said. “When he’s scoring goals, and Bones is scoring goals, and you’re getting them from guys that aren’t normally your leading scorers, it’s good for us.”

Game notes

The first-period goals by Bonino and Palmieri gave Anaheim nine players with five or more, the most of any team. … Palmieri is the second-youngest player to get a hat trick for the Ducks. The youngest was Bobby Ryan, who did it at age 21 on Jan. 8, 2009, in Los Angeles. … The Ducks’ home winning streak is their longest since a club-record 11-game stretch in the 2009-10 season. … The Ducks were 11-2 in February, tying the franchise record for wins in a month. … The Predators were 0-for-10 on the power play during the Ducks’ three-game, season-series sweep. … Palmieri’s final goal ended a run of 15 unsuccessful power plays by the Ducks against Nashville in the regular season. … Anaheim C Daniel Winnik, the first player in franchise history with five goals in the first four games, hasn’t scored in 14 games since. … The Ducks are 8-for-14 on the power play in their past four games.

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Vancouver at Anaheim
When: 10:00 PM ET, Friday, January 25, 2013
Where: Honda Center, Anaheim, California
Prediction: Canucks 4, Ducks 1

Daniel Sedin leads all Vancouver players with four points (three on the power play). Henrik Sedin has two assists and is plus-2. Alexander Edler leads the team’s defensemen with two goals and three points, and leads the club with 12 shots. Roberto Luongo made 30 saves in Vancouver’s 3-2 shootout loss to Edmonton on Sunday after stopping 10 of 12 against Anaheim. Alex Burrows has 10 shots on goal but hasn’t recorded a point and is minus-1.

Goaltender Jonas Hiller has both wins this season despite allowing seven goals in his first two starts. Captain Ryan Getzlaf has four points and Corey Perry has three, but Bobby Ryan has yet to record a point and has one shot on goal. Kyle Palmieri, who has a goal and an assist, leads the Ducks with eight shots. Sheldon Souray leads Anaheim defensemen with three points and is plus-3. Penalty killing is the Ducks’ biggest weakness so far this season, with four goals allowed on seven opportunities.

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