Oilers oust Kings in 5 games, advance to West semifinals

EDMONTON, Alberta — Leon Draisaitl scored twice, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 in Game 5 on Wednesday night time to win their first-round NHL playoff sequence.

Edmonton eradicated Los Angeles in the opening spherical for the third straight 12 months after popping out on prime in six video games in 2023 and 7 in 2022.

Zach Hyman — together with his seventh aim of the postseason — and Evander Kane additionally scored for Edmonton, which solely dropped a 5-4 loss in additional time of Game 2 in the best-of-seven sequence.

Evan Bouchard added three assists, and Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two every as Edmonton’s offense broke out at Rogers Place. McDavid prolonged his factors complete to a playoff-leading 12 (one aim, 11 assists).

Stuart Skinner made 18 saves after posting 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 pictures in his second straight begin.

The Oilers transfer on to the second spherical, the place they’ll face the winner of a matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and (*5*). Vancouver leads the sequence 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Friday in Nashville, Tennessee.

Down 2-1 in the second interval, the Oilers scored three consecutive targets to take 4-2 lead.

Draisaitl had a power-play aim at 7:44 after a pair exchanges with McDavid to tie it. Rittich appeared to rob Draisaitl with a desperation glove save, however followers cheered as if it had been a aim upon seeing the replay and officers dominated the puck crossed the road after a video evaluation.

The Oilers’ energy play went 1 for 4 however scored twice simply after time expired on a penalty. Edmonton completed 9 for 19 with the person benefit in the sequence. Los Angeles was 0 for 1, going scoreless on 12 energy performs.

McDavid and Draisaitl related once more simply after a penalty expired with 7:39 left in the interval for the German ahead’s fifth of the playoffs.

The undisciplined Kings put Edmonton up a person once more close to the top of the interval. This time, Hyman tapped house a puck on the aim line moments after Kings ahead Pierre-Luc Dubois stepped out of the field to make it 4-2.

The Oilers hunkered down to maintain off the Kings a lot of the third. But with the goalie pulled, Kempe deflected a shot previous Skinner with 2:18 left to trim the deficit to one.

The Kings pressured for an equalizer in the ultimate two minutes till Phillip Danault hooked Draisaitl with 19.7 seconds left — sending Edmonton on an influence play and squashing L.A.’s probabilities of a comeback.

The Kings restricted the Oilers to 13 pictures in Sunday’s 1-0 loss and had the identical sport plan working early, holding Edmonton to one shot via the primary 10 minutes.

Kane, nonetheless, opened the scoring on Edmonton’s second shot of the night time at 10:17 with a comfortable backhand that slipped previous Rittich.

Los Angeles tied it with 28 seconds left in the primary when the puck caromed across the boards and bounced in entrance of the online to Laferriere, who shot into an open web with Skinner out to play the puck.

Lizotte then scored 3:08 into the second to give Los Angeles its solely lead of the sport and quiet Rogers Place earlier than Edmonton replied with an onslaught.

It’s the primary time the Oilers have superior from the primary spherical in three straight years since 1990 to 1992.

The Oilers fell 4-2 in the second spherical to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights final 12 months.

McDavid turned the sixth participant to file 10 or extra assists via the primary 5 video games of the playoffs — and the primary in practically 30 years. Draisaitl joined McDavid and Sidney Crosby because the third energetic participant to file 10 factors in 4 or extra playoff sequence.