In Edmonton, the Los Angeles Kings’ Anze Kopitar took a breakout pass from Quinton Byfield to spring him into the Oilers’ offensive zone while most of the Oilers stood flat footed in the neutral zone, and scored at 2:07 of the first extra session to give the Kings a 5-4 win.
“Honestly, it was kind of a whacky play where Mikey (Anderson) throws it up the boards, and I think it was [Byfield] who tipped it, or was trying to tip it just to prevent the icing,” Kopitar said. “Next thing you know, I had it right on my stick, so I figured I’d make the most of it.”
The victory sends the series to LA with the two teams tied at 1-1.
Adrian Kempe hit for a double for the Kings, his first came at 3:19 of the opening stanza, scoring after the Kings have bottled up the Oilers in their own zone. He scored from the high slot.
“He had a big hand in winning us the hockey game tonight,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said of his goaltender. “I heard [the Talbot chants] prior to the game, so what do you say? The fans are on him, he goes in there, he wins us the hockey game.
“You get to overtime, he makes some big saves, and the guys leave with the win and now we’re squared up. So, I would say he’s done his job pretty well.”
Kempe collected his double at 14:57, scoring off an odd man rush.
The Oilers replied with a marker from Brett Kulak at 17:33 to trim the deficit to 2-1, scoring off a drop pass from Leon Draisaitl.
The Kings responded quickly with a strike by Drew Doughty just 29 seconds later to make it 3-1 to LA. He scored off a breakaway on a whiff by the Oilers goalie.
Cam Talbot made 27 saves in the win.
“One game for them, one game for us,” Hiller. “And now we go to L.A.”
Game 3 is set for Los Angeles on Friday.
“I think there’s a lot to clean up,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “They are a good team, they’re going to get their chances, but we were giving them some opportunities we didn’t need to.”
The Oilers’ offense ramped itself up and scored a pair of goals to get the game tied, 3-3.
Dylan Holloway scored the first of a double at 7:51 of the middle frame to close the gap to 3-2 for the Oilers.
Zach Hyman hit off the power play at 10:33 of the second, scoring off a shot from the left circle to tie the game, 3-3.
“Everything happened so quick,” Kempe said. “‘Kopi’ threw a pass there, and I don’t know if it bounced off [Bouchard’s] stick, and everything kind of just stopped through the air, and everything was slo-mo, so I just tried to whack it out of the air.
“I think their goalie thought it was going to go far side, and it ended up going short side, so it ended up working out well. It was a little bit of luck, but you deserve it sometimes.”
In the third period, LA’s Kevin Fiala regained the lead for the Kings at 1:46, scoring from the right boards.
Holloway hit for his double at 3:23, scoring from atop the right circle to get the teams even at 4-4, and forcing the extra session. roofing a shot glove side from the top of the right circle.
“In the first period, we dug ourselves a big hole being down 2-0 and 3-1, but after that I thought we played a lot better, especially in the second period,” Knoblauch. “I felt like if we were ever able to get the lead we could have finished the game, but we were never quite able to do that.”
Stuart Skinner made 21 saves in the loss.
“Since the third period of Game 1, just some really tough bounces are happening,” Skinner said. “That’s not saying that it leaked into tonight, it’s just that they’re getting some good puck luck right now. We’ve also had our fair share of puck luck as well.
“That’s how hockey works sometimes. Luck wasn’t on my side tonight.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.