In Edmonton, the Los Angeles Kings’ Jonathan Quick made 21 saves on Sunday night in a 5-1 shellacking of the Oilers. 
A three-goal third period by the Kings broke open a tight, 2-1, game through two periods; all three goals came on the power play.
“I don’t think you beat the Edmonton Oilers unless you check,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “If you open it up and play a freewheeling game, you’re not going to win. Checking and patience led to opportunities for us, and we took advantage of them.”
The three goals came off a major penalty assessed to the Oilers’ Connor McDavid, for boarding.
The Kings took full advantage with the three strikes.
“We have to find a way to get the kill,” the Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “We have to find a way to bear down and not give up three. The PK has been strong for us all year, so it’s tough to give up a couple like that.”
Adrian Kempe scored his second of the game to start the outburst.
Drew Doughty and Trevor Moore scored 54 second apart after Kempe, to erase any doubt of the game’s outcome.
“They got some chances late in the second and in the third. We basically didn’t give them much and when we did, Quick was amazing,” Doughty said. “He’s been great all year. He deserves a lot of credit for the wins we have this year. We played a good third period, probably the best that we have this year.”
The Kings held Connor McDavid scoreless
LA improved to 10-9-4.
Darnell Nurse scored a shorthanded goal for the Oilers, his first strike of the campaign.
“This has been coming for a while now,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “We’ve been masking it with some special teams stuff, but we haven’t played well. We haven’t had enough guys play well for a while.”
Edmonton dropped to 16-7-0.
“They kind of just trapped us in the neutral zone. We need to play down low, and we didn’t do that tonight,” the Oilers’ Warren Foegele said. “It comes down to having better starts and being more consistent and playing hard for each other. As a group, we just have to bear down and keep it simple to start the games.”
Rasmus Kupari opened the scoring in the first period to give the Kings an early 1-0 lead.
Kempe doubled it before the Oilers made it 2-1.
Mikko Koskinen made 35 saves in the Oilers loss.
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