Anze Kopitar’s overtime goal leads Kings past Oilers in Game 2 thriller

The NHL regular season is like an anthology of 82 stories, each with its own beginning, middle and end. The playoffs, however, are like a novel, each game a new chapter that builds on the last.

AND Kings coach Jim Hiller says he likes it that way, especially after his team took the book in a new direction on Wednesday with Anze Kopitar scoring 2:07 into overtime to give his team a 5-4 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, ending their first-round playoff series with the Oilers winning each before Game 3 on Friday at Crypto.com Arena.

“We all love the playoffs because we play the game, you analyze the game, adjustments are made and you move on,” he said. “From a coaching perspective, we all enjoyed that part of the game, being able to just focus on one team.”

Hiller made many of those adjustments in Game 2, juggling his line combinations, flooding the neutral zone with bodies and preventing Edmonton’s lightning-quick forwards from making the dangerous on-ice drives they used to dominate Game 1. It was then up to What Kopitar did paid off, scoring on a strange play that started with a poor pass from Mikey Anderson jumping across the boards at the Kings end. Quinton Byfield was able to get a stick near center ice, redirecting the puck to a Kopitar, who beat Oiler goaltender Stuart Skinner cleanly.

“It was kind of a crazy play,” said Kopitar, who assisted on his team’s first two goals. “You just try to read the play and sometimes you’re in the right places, sometimes you’re in the wrong places. I’ve been in the right place a few times tonight. I think it worked.

See more information: Why Kings vs. Oilers is one of the truly great rivalries in the NHL

It worked well enough to ensure the best-of-seven series returns to Canada after Sunday’s Game 4 in Los Angeles.

“One game for us, one game for them,” Hiller said. “And now we’re going to LA”

But it wasn’t easy. Although the Oilers never led, they erased the Kings’ two-goal lead in the second period and one-goal deficit early in the third in a game that was open for much of the final period.

“That’s just playoff hockey for you,” said Byfield, whose game-winning assist was his second of the game. “There are a lot of momentum changes in a game like this and it’s how well you can handle the ups and downs and how well you can maintain them.”

This is the third time in as many seasons that the Kings and Oilers have split the first two games of a first-round playoff series in Edmonton. The teams also split the next two games in Los Angeles, although the Oilers eliminated the Kings from the playoffs both times.

This is the part of history that Hiller wants to rewrite.

The Kings took control early in Game 2 as Adrian Kempe’s second goal of the series off an assist from Kopitar gave them a 1–0 lead 3:19 into the game. Less than six minutes later, the Kings killed off the first of two penalties they would survive that night, which was equally significant as Edmonton went three for four on the power play in Game 1.

Kempe then doubled the lead at 14:57, again off an assist from Kopitar, before defenders Brett Kulak and Drew Doughty traded goals in the final three minutes of the first period. Kulak got Edmonton on the board with a vicious hit from the top of the left circle; Doughty restored the Kings’ two-goal lead 29 seconds later, sliding the puck through Skinner’s legs on the edge of the box.

Momentum shifted heavily toward Edmonton after halftime, with Dylan Holloway taking advantage of a Kings turnover in the neutral zone to cut the deficit to one goal by hitting a left-handed shot from the top of the slot at 7:51 of the second period. Less than three minutes later, Zach Hyman, who scored three goals in Game 1, scored his fourth goal of the series on a power play and the game was even.

See more information: The Kings’ penalty kill, a strength all year, becomes a weakness in mitigating loss to the Oilers

Kings goaltender Cam Talbot managed to keep it that way with a big save on Leon Draisaitl during an Edmonton power play in the final minute of the second period.

“That’s as good a defense as you’re going to see,” Hiller said. “It probably made the difference in the hockey game in the end.”

Added Kopitar: “He kept us in it.”

That allowed Kevin Fiala to put the Kings ahead at 1:46 of the final period with a rocket off the right boards. But again the lead was short-lived, with Holloway’s second goal of the night tying the score at 3:23 of the final period, sending the game into overtime and setting the stage for the victory for the captain of the Kings, a two-time champion team. Stanley Cup who, at 36, is the second oldest player on the squad.

“Someone needs to score a big goal,” Hiller said. “We needed this game, clearly. Seeing Kopi achieve this in the end was great.

“But I can say for me personally, for a guy who has done as much as he has, getting another game-winning goal in overtime was special.”

The idea is to create a compelling chapter to a playoff story that is far from complete.

This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.