EDMONTON, Alberta – Leon Draisaitl scored twice, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to win the NHL’s first-round playoff series.
Edmonton eliminated Los Angeles in the opening round for the third consecutive year after coming out ahead in six games in 2023 and seven in 2022.
Zach Hyman – with his seventh goal of the postseason – and Evander Kane also scored for Edmonton, which only lost 5-4 in overtime of Game 2 in the best-of-seven series.
Evan Bouchard added three assists, and Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two each as Edmonton’s offense erupted at Rogers Place. McDavid increased his point total to a playoff-leading 12 (one goal, 11 assists).
Stuart Skinner made 18 saves after recording a shutout in Edmonton’s 1-0 win at Los Angeles in Game 4.
Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere and Blake Lizotte scored for Los Angeles, and David Rittich stopped 22 shots in his second straight game.
The Oilers move on to the second round, where they will face the winner of the matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators. Vancouver leads the series 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Friday in Nashville.
Trailing 2-1 in the second period, the Oilers scored three consecutive goals to take a 4-2 lead.
Draisaitl scored a power play goal at 7:44 after some exchanges with McDavid to tie it up. Rittich appeared to rob Draisaitl with a desperate glove save, but fans cheered as if it were a goal when they saw the replay and the referees ruled the puck crossed the line after a video review.
The Oilers’ power play went 1-4, but scored twice just after time expired on a penalty. Edmonton finished 9-for-19 with the man advantage of the series. Los Angeles went 0-1, going scoreless on 12 power plays in the series.
McDavid and Draisaitl connected again shortly after a penalty kick ended with 7:39 left in the period in the German forward’s fifth game of the playoffs.
The ill-disciplined Kings made Edmonton the man again near the end of the period. This time, Hyman slotted a puck across the goal line moments after Kings forward Pierre-Luc Dubois left the box to make it 4-2.
The Oilers hunkered down to hold off the Kings for most of the third. But with the goalie pulled, Kempe deflected a shot past Skinner with 2:18 remaining, cutting the deficit to one.
The Kings pressed for an equalizer in the final two minutes until Phillip Danault hooked Draisaitl with 19.7 seconds left – sending Edmonton on a power play and ending L.A.’s chances of a comeback.
The Kings limited the Oilers to 13 shots in Sunday’s 1-0 loss and had the same game plan working from the start, holding Edmonton to one shot for the first 10 minutes of the game.
Kane, however, opened the scoring on Edmonton’s second shot of the night at 10:17 with a smooth backhand that went past Rittich.
Los Angeles tied it with 28 seconds left in the first when the puck bounced off the boards and bounced in front of the net to Laferriere, who shot into the open net with Skinner out to play the puck.
Lizotte then scored 3:08 into the second to give Los Angeles its only lead of the game and calm Rogers Place before Edmonton responded with an attack.
It’s the first time the Oilers have advanced out of the first round in three consecutive years since 1990-92.
The Oilers lost 4-2 in the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights last year.
McDavid became the sixth player to record 10 or more assists in the first five playoff games — and the first in nearly 30 years. Draisaitl joined McDavid and Sidney Crosby as the third active player to record 10 points in four or more playoff series.
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AP NHL:
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