In Edmonton, the Oilers’ Mike Smith made 30 saves in a 6-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night.
The win evens the series at 1-1.
“To be honest, I didn’t really feel too bad in Game 1. I made one bad play and it cost us the game,” Smith said. “I think I just carried the same kind of mindset into tonight and wanted to put in a good showing, especially after you feel like maybe you’re the cause of a loss. I feel like a bounce-back is always important, and tonight the team played more up to their capabilities and how we’re able to play, and we got rewarded because of it.”
Game 3 is on Friday night in LA.
“We didn’t play hard enough, really,” Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar said. “We got some power-play opportunities, and we couldn’t convert and they did. It was a big turning point in the game and we couldn’t really get going.”
Evander Kane hit for a pair of goals in the Edmonton win.
Leon Draisaitl(power play) and Darnell Nurse scored a shorthanded goal in the middle frame to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead.
“They’ve got a good power play and they were cashing in on it tonight,” Kings defenseman Matt Roy said. “A penalty right off the hop in the second and a shorthanded goal there. It’s tough to come back from there.”
Ryan McLeod pushed the lead to 3-0 heading to the third period.
“We were patient, we didn’t try to force anything, we kind of just waited for opportunities to open up, and when they came, we made the most of them,” Nurse said. “It’s important to keep playing the same way because that’s a good team in LA that works hard every night and doesn’t give up much.”
Kane scored his two goals in the third period, Jesse Puljujarvi added a single marker.
“I thought we played a strong first period, had two big penalty kills that settled everything down for us,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “We had two good scoring chances that we didn’t convert, but we stuck with it. The second period was a breakout period for us, and it was led by our leaders, who went out and scored a huge power-play goal and kind of broke the ice for us. It was a strong game, 20 players deep, in our lineup tonight.”
Jonathan Quick made 30 saves in the LA loss.
“Sometimes you tip your hat to the opposition, they played a really good game,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “Secondly, that’s called ‘experience’ tonight. A lot of guys had their eyes opened up in terms of what playoffs is all about, and others were reminded to what playoffs are all about. It happens in series. It happens more often than you think. We have to go home now, recover, get some rest and we can play better than that, we know that.”
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