LOS ANGELES – With their stars cooking early, the Edmonton Oilers raced out to a three-goal lead in the first period and cruised to a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 3 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series.
The Oilers took a 2-1 series lead in emphatic fashion Friday night as Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid all scored while Stuart Skinner made 27 saves. Hyman and Draisaitl would each finish with two goals while Evander Kane also added a second-period tally. Game 4 is Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
Anze Kopitar’s overtime winner in Game 2 had Los Angeles on an emotional high on its return to Southern California. One key to the win was the Kings forcing the Oilers to chase the game after building a 3-1 first-period lead. Edmonton turned the tables right away on the road to regain control of the series.
The Oilers grabbed the lead at 6:42 when Hyman scored down low after Mattias Ekholm intercepted Drew Doughty’s pass in the LA zone. Draisaitl made it 2-0 at 15:36 as he beat Cam Talbot after Kane drew the attention of the Kings’ defense with a move to behind the net before giving Draisaitl a nice drop pass. It was Kane’s first point of the series and Draisaitl’s second goal.
An overwhelming opening 20 minutes continued for Edmonton as McDavid got his first goal of the series when he overpowered Talbot at the net as Doughty served a slashing penalty. Kane scored when he got a piece of Cody Ceci’s point shot at 7:39 of the second. Hyman and Draisaitl chipped in power-play markers as the Kings eventually lost their cool in the one-sided affair.
The Kings had solved their first-half issues on home ice by going 14-3-1 after the All-Star break. But they were never in this one.
Kane’s promotion largely pays off
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch hinted Thursday that Kane could get more ice time in Game 3. There didn’t appear to be any changes to the Oilers lineup from the previous two games based on the morning skate, but Knoblauch bumped Kane up for his first shift .
Kane took Warren Foegele’s spot at second-line right wing next to Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and made an early impact. He took a pass from Draisaitl late in the first period, entered the Kings zone and drove down the wing. As he went around the net, Kane reversed the puck to Draisaitl, who beat Talbot before the Kings goalie had enough time to react. That put the Oilers up 2-0.
Kane’s tip-in goal increased the Oilers’ lead to 4-1. It was his first goal of the playoffs after scoring just three times in his last 26 regular season games before missing the last week to rest a nagging sports hernia injury.
The only misstep from Kane was losing Doughty in the defensive zone in the middle period, which resulted in a Kings goal.
Kane completed his Gordie Howe hat trick by fighting Andreas Englund in the third after Englund caught him with a massive open-ice hit.
Kings fall flat with a nightmarish first period
Each game is usually its own entity in the Stanley Cup playoffs, which throws cold water on the momentum narrative from contest to contest. The Kings made sure that was the case with an awful performance to start Game 3.
It could have been different as they put the Oilers on the penalty kill twice with PL Dubois and Quinton Byfield drawing penalties while also doing a strong job killing off Edmonton’s first power play. But the Kings continued to be ice cold with the man advantage and the Oilers dominated them at even strength.
Despite being short-handed twice, the Oilers racked up a 16-8 shot advantage. The Kings either fumbled pucks in the offensive zone or turned them over in their own end.
Doughty would get one goal back when he scored early in the second, but his turnover and penalty proved costly for both.
Kane’s goal shortly after Doughty’s score took away any momentum the Kings were trying to build. But the first period never gave their home crowd any chance to stay fired up.
Oilers make huge defensive improvements
The Oilers had a lot of weird bounces going against them over the first two games. Still, they surrendered nine goals.
What did Knoblauch make of the way they had defended in Edmonton?
“If you give up one chance, it’s too many,” he said.
By that criterion, the Oilers were abject failures in Game 3. Being realistic, however, the Oilers received high marks for their play without the puck. It wouldn’t be overzealous to say they were elite.
The Oilers held the Kings to 28 shots. They were a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. The number of high-danger chances they afforded the Kings could be counted on one hand.
Yes, Doughty’s goal was off a clear-cut opportunity after a pass from Quinton Byfield, but Kane responded quickly to restore a three-goal lead.
This was the Oilers’ most complete game of the series, and it started with their work in their own zone.
Big-money combo on Kings’ third line isn’t feasting
Kings coach Jim Hiller has had Dubois and Kevin Fiala as a pairing while spinning different wingers off the duo. The two were part of major trades in each of the last two seasons and signed long-term contracts totaling over $123 million. They’ve got two goals between them over the first three games.
That’s a big problem. The third line should be a matchup problem for Edmonton with Kopitar and Phillip Danault dealing with McDavid and Draisaitl on the Oilers’ top two lines. But while Dubois had a goal in Game 1 and Fiala scored in Game 2, the two haven’t consistently won the matchups with an Edmonton third line that originally had Ryan McLeod centering Kane and Corey Perry. Kane was moved up to the Draisaitl line for Game 3, with Warren Foegele sliding in his spot.
Hiller has said how he needs that line to score. He has put Byfield, Kempe and rookie Alex Laferriere with Dubois and Fiala but they’ve failed to become a major factor when it has been hard enough to slow McDavid and Draisaitl down. Those two should be difference-makers and that’s not happening.
Hyman keeps the goals coming
Hyman had a career campaign by scoring 54 times, becoming perhaps the most unlikely player in NHL history to hit the half-century mark based on his age, past production and draft slot.
Well, he hasn’t slowed down one bit in the playoffs. He netted two goals, bumping him to an NHL-best six markers these playoffs.
Hyman got the Oilers’ offense started by scoring on his own rebound at 6:42 of the first period, a chance facilitated by a Doughty turnover.
He then left no doubt that the Oilers would take this one when he scored on a two-man advantage that came to fruition after a fracas ensued from the Kane-Englund confrontation.
Hyman has goals in every game of the series. He had a hat trick in a 7-4 Game 1 win and scored once in the 5-4 overtime loss in Game 2.
(Photo of Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman: Yannick Peterhans / USA Today)
