The Edmonton Oilers were shutout for the second time this season, falling 4-0 Saturday night in Los Angeles.
“I think they just played better than us, to be honest,” Oilers forward Zack Hyman said after the game. “You’ve got to make something happen out there, obviously there wasn’t a lot of space. They won the special teams battle and they won the game.”
After a scoreless first period, the Kings took control with goals 49 seconds apart early in the second. Pierre-Luc Dubois whizzed a power play shot from the right wing past Stuart Skinner. Then Quinton Byfield set up Trevor Lewis for a goal on two-on-one. Corey Perry appeared to have his first goal as an Oiler halfway through the second as he took a pass down low from Leon Draisaitl, but David Rittich came up with a sprawling right pad save.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a point blank on a power play early in the third, but again Rittich came up with a big stop. Byfield made it 3-0 when he cashed in a rebound with 12:54 left.
“I thought we did a pretty good job early and then it’s tough to chase it against that team,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “I thought we stuck with it and we had lots of chances.”
The Oilers pulled Skinner for an extra attacker with 5:37 to go. Byfield scored an empty netter with 2:42 on the clock.
Rittich made 27 stops for his first shutout of the season. Skinner made 23 saves.
“I think the first game against Vegas was probably our best game,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after being asked to sum up their play since returning from the All-Star break. “And we won the second game and then tonight . . . it was probably a game that we were finding ways to win during that streak and tonight it just wasn’t enough. A lot of credit to L.A., how they played, and definitely their goaltender played very well. We got shutout, but the amount of chances we had I thought we should have been able to put a few in.”
It was the Kings first game under interim head coach Jim Hiller. He replaced Todd McLellan on February 2.
The Oilers, 30-17-1, will host Detroit on Tuesday (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 5:30 p.m., game at 7 p.m.).