Zach Hyman notched a hat trick and Connor McDavid had five assists as the Edmonton Oilers sunk the Los Angeles Kings 7-4 Monday night at Rogers Place.
The Oilers lead the best-of-seven first-round series 1-0.
The Oilers controlled the play in the first period and earned a 2-0 lead. Hyman broke the ice by whapping in a pass from McDavid just before the game was seven minutes old.
Less than three minutes later, Adam Henrique popped a shot up high past the blocker of Kings goaltender Cam Talbot. The Oilers outshot the Kings 15-7 in the first period.
“I thought we came out and played with some desperation early on and tried to impose our will on them in that first period,” Henrique said.
“Until you experience that playoff atmosphere here, it’s hard to explain and understand what that’s really like,” Henrique said about the Rogers Place crowd.
“That was exciting to be a part of. The fans were great tonight.”
Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner stopped Viktor Arvidsson four-and-half minutes into the second.
Less than 30 seconds later, McDavid spun from behind the Kings’ net and fed Hyman for a flick-in.
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“Both my wingers were good,” McDavid said.
“They did a good job getting on the forecheck, winning pucks back down low — we were able to create a couple of chances and ultimately they score a couple.”
On an Oilers power play, Leon Draisaitl popped a pass into the crease for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins whose tap-in made it 4-0 Edmonton.
“The power play was the difference in the game tonight,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “We win by three and the three power-play goals obviously had a big impact on the game.”
Mikey Anderson put the Kings on the board with a hard high slapper with 9:04 left in the second.
The Kings celebrated another goal less than two minutes later, but after video review the officials ruled that Trevor Lewis had directed the puck in using his hand.
Adrian Kempe would get one that counted by banking the puck in off Edmonton defenceman Evan Bouchard to cut the Oilers’ lead to 4-2.
Kings forward Trevor Moore went off for tripping Oilers defenceman Vincent Desharnais late in the second, leading to a power-play one-timer by Draisaitl 1:08 into the third.
Hyman completed the hat trick on another power play five minutes later, nudging in a pass from McDavid.
“They had their push in the second,” Hyman said after the game.
“Grabbing a hold of it in the third and scoring a big power-play goal, I think that was a huge goal to settle the group down and kind of be the dagger.”
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored a late goal for the Kings with a bank shot off Oilers blueliner Darnell Nurse.
Moore scored with 1:11 left shortly after Cody Ceci’s broken stick created a Kings chance.
Warren Foegele added an empty-netter for the Oilers to put it away.
Skinner finished with 34 saves while Talbot made 38.
The teams will play Game 2 on Wednesdsay. You can listen to the game live on 630 CHED, beginning with The Faceoff Show at 6 p.m. The actual game starts at 8 p.m.
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