On Wednesday night, the Edmonton Oilers hosted the LA Kings for Game 2 of Round 1 at Rogers Place in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. The teams began the game with the same line combinations from Game 1, with Stuart Skinner and Cam Talbot as the goaltenders. The LA Kings were expected to come out strong, as they did not want to fall behind 2-0 in the series against the high-scoring Oilers. In Game 1, the Oilers won 7-4, with Connor McDavid recording five assists and Zach Hyman scoring a hat-trick. The Kings’ game plan was to limit the Oilers’ scoring chances by implementing a lockdown 1-3-1 structure.
During the first period of the game between the Kings and Oilers, the Kings started strong and outplayed the Oilers in the first 4 minutes. Adrian Kempe scored the first goal of the game with a wrist shot, taking advantage of a bad turnover from Evan Bouchard. The Kings managed to kill a penalty and control the first 10 minutes with their 1-3-1 defensive structure. Adrian Kempe scored again with 5 minutes left in the period, batting in a puck that deflected off Bouchard after a pass from Kopitar. A minute later, Mikey Anderson made a clearly illegal save by covering the puck, preventing the Oilers from scoring. However, the play went under review to check if it was a goal, but it was deemed no goal and no penalty shot for the Oilers. Leon Draisaitl fed Brett Kulak for a slap-shot, trimming the deficit to 2-1, but the Kings responded quickly with Drew Doughty scoring on a breakaway to extend their lead to 3-1. Just before the end of the period, the Kings clearly had too many players on the ice, but the referees didn’t call it.
During the second period of the game between the LA Kings and Edmonton, the Kings got a powerplay opportunity, but Edmonton was able to stop them and even gained momentum. Dylan Holloway’s first-ever NHL playoff goal, a screened wrist shot, brought the Oilers closer to the Kings with a score of 3-2. Later, the Kings would pay for another minor penalty, and Zach Hyman scored his fourth playoff goal of the year, evening the game at 3-3. Corey Perry took his second penalty of the period, but the Oilers were able to kill the penalty. The Oilers had another powerplay opportunity with 2 minutes left in the period due to a delay-of-game minor from the Kings, but Cam Talbot made an unreal glove save on a wide-open slap-shot from Leon Draisaitl just as the powerplay expired, ending the second period.
At the beginning of the third period, the LA Kings scored quickly as Kevin Fiala managed to score a long slap-shot from the blue line, making it 4-3 for LA. The goal should have been an easy save for Skinner, but he was screened by his own teammate, Mattias Ekholm. The Oilers managed to tie the game at 4-4 with another wrist-shot goal from Dylan Holloway. Later, Zach Hyman laid out Phillip Danault in the open ice, which erupted the crowd at Rogers Place and built momentum for the Oilers. With 7 minutes left in the third period, Connor McDavid was called for a holding penalty, and the Kings went on the powerplay. However, the Oilers managed to kill it off, and the game went into overtime tied at 4-4.
The Oilers began the overtime period with a barrage of shots on Talbot, but he managed to hold his ground. However, overtime did not last for long, and Darnell Nurse’s lack of attention allowed Anze Kopitar to capitalize on a fortunate bounce at the blue line and snipe the game-winning goal past Stuart Skinner. Although the loss cannot be attributed to Skinner alone, the Oilers will need to tighten up defensively if they want a chance at winning the series. The Oilers will seek to bounce back against the Kings in Game 3, which will take place on Friday night at the Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles at 7:30 PM PST.
Three Stars of the Game:
1) Anze Kopitar- 2 Assists, Game Winning OT Goal
2) Adrian Kempe- 2 Goals
3) Dylan Holloway- 2 Goals (First Career Playoff Goal)
