LOS ANGELES — The Edmonton Oilers won their third straight game to go up 3-2 in the series against the Los Angeles Kings after their 3-1 road victory on Tuesday night.
“It’s hard right now, obviously everybody is frustrated,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said after the game. “But we gotta put it behind us. We gotta go and win a game on the road and that’s what we are going to focus on.”
It would be center Mattias Janmark scoring his second goal of the series in the middle of the third period that would seal the deal for the team in blue and orange. After a shot from winger Viktor Arvidsson missed wide, Janmark found the rebound and ripped it into the back of the net past a diving Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper. This was the Oilers’ 39th shot of the game while the Kings were still stuck at 14.
“They executed way better than us tonight,” head coach Jim Hiller said after the game. “That’s the first one. They were stronger… they beat us in every area of the game. Except fort he special teams obviously enough. But the goaltender was great for us to give us a chance. They were just better. In every way. We can’t look to one part of our game and think that that was acceptable or good enough.”
From the beginning, Edmonton just seemed to have an edge over Los Angeles no matter what they tried to do.
“We couldn’t really get anything going,” Kopitar said. “The shot-clock was pretty evident… we are going to look at some stuff and make sure that we do a lot better job.”
During L.A.’s first chance in their offensive zone, winger Andrei Kuzmenko was called for tripping, sending the Oilers to the powerplay for the first time.
Kuemper made numerous great saves, and defenseman Joel Edmundson sacrificed his body on a blocked shot to kill off the first penalty. Despite losing the game, Kuemper still had 43 saves with two goals against.
Edmundson continued the physicality, taking out an Oiler player, which caused Janmark to retaliate shortly after and get called for a penalty eight minutes into the first frame. This man-up opportunity was the first time that Los Angeles would get a shot on goal.
The Oilers continued where they left off after killing powerplay, with a great two-on-one chance that was denied after Kuemper flashed the leather on the far pipe on defenseman Evan Bouchard.
“[Kuemper] was stellar tonight, the whole season and the series. He gave us a chance,” Kopitar said.
With a little more than three minutes left in the first, the Oilers had another great chance on the faceoff but would be denied by Kuemper, who made three excellent saves in a row right in front of the goal.
A lot of pushing and shoving at the end of the first period, the teams would go into the locker room still knotted up at zero, though the visiting squad led 19-4 in shots. This was the first time the two teams had not scored in the first period.
The Kings had the first opportunity in the second on a two-on-one chance when winger Warren Foegele ripped a low shot that Oilers’ goaltender Calvin Pickard kicked aside. He would get another chance from the high slot a few moments later, which Pickard also knocked away.
Shortly after, winger Alex Turcotte pushed across the right side of the ice and was tripped by defenseman Darnell Nurse, bringing Los Angeles to their second powerplay of the game. It didn’t take long for the Kings to strike, making the score 1-0. After a faceoff win, Kopitar took a shot at the point, which was deflected right in front of the goal by Kuzmenko and past Pickard three-and-a-half minutes into the second period. This was Kuzmenko’s third goal of the series.
The Oilers went on their own powerplay right after, as defenseman Drew Doughty was called for a trip six minutes into the second frame. Though they didn’t score on the powerplay, they did score extremely shortly after as winger Evander Kane grabbed his second goal of the series. After the Kings failed to clear the zone, Kane found a loose puck in the middle of the slot and ripped a shot that deflected up defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov’s stick, tying the game 1-1.
Los Angeles looked to stay in the game offensively, tallying a few solid scoring chances, but they still were multiple steps behind at all times. Captain center Connor McDavid had a great chance after juking out multiple defensemen but could not convert the wraparound chance, with Kuemper out of position.
“They had us from the start of the game,” Hiller said. “It didn’t take us to get fatigued, right out of the gate… Maybe later in the game we didn’t generate enough, but I don’t think out of the gate… they were just better.”
The Oilers had another fantastic chance with under five minutes in the second period when Kuemper made a great save but left a rebound in front of the crease. It became a scramble in front, with Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson taking the puck off the goal line once before Kuemper finally covered.
Edmonton continued on the press, getting a few more great screened chances on Kuemper in front of the cage, but the Canadian goalkeeper stood strong. With about two minutes left in the period, Edmonton took their 30th shot on cage of the game, while the Kings had taken just their 10th.
Though the Kings looked stronger in the third period, Janmark would score to make the score 2-1 which they would win by.
One minute after the goal, though, it looked like there was some hope for L.A. Nurse was called for hooking, bringing the Kings back on the powerplay in a crucial spot of the game. The man-advantage wasn’t helpful for L.A., who only managed one shot on goal, while Edmonton had a fantastic shorthanded opportunity on the other end. On a two-on-one scenario, Kuemper made an arm save to keep the game within one as the penalty expired.
Now down by one, the Kings needed to step on the gas in order to get a goal on the board.
They would pull Kuemper for the extra attacker with a little over two minutes to go. The Kings had multiple different chances, with Kuzmenko nearly having a one-time opportunity at the far circle but the pass just missing.
With 58 seconds left on the game-clock, winger Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put in the dagger with an empty net goal to make the score 3-1.
Now winning three games in a row, the Oilers are ahead 3-2 in the series heading back to Edmonton.
“We knew we were going to have to win a game on the road eventually, and [there’s] no better time than now,” Kopitar said.
Game 6 between the Kings and Oilers will be on Thursday at 7 p.m.