The Los Angeles Kings continued their home ice dominance of the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-2 win Wednesday night at the Staples Center.
“We don’t know what it is,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “Sometimes we’re great off the hop, sometimes we’re a little bit sluggish. Obviously, tonight, we weren’t great off the hop, but we found a way to get ourselves back in it — just came up a little shot at the end.”
The Kings took the lead on the first shot of the game. Trevor Lewis cleanly won an offensive zone faceoff and Kyle Clifford wristed a shot over Cam Talbot’s right shoulder to make it 1-0 Kings 1:10 into the game.
After a series of turnovers by the Oilers, Adrian Kempe beat Talbot blocker side to make it 2-0 Kings 58 seconds into the second frame. Leon Draisaitl replied with a power play goal less than three minutes later. That ended the shutout streak for Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper at 193:58.
Midway though the first period, Connor McDavid collided with teammate Jujhar Khaira in the neutral zone. After gathering himself, McDavid took a long pass from Mike Cammalleri and broke in one-on-one against Drew Doughty. McDavid’s shot from the right wing eluded Kuemper to tie it 2-2.
With Jesse Puljujarvi in the penalty box for an offensive zone interferfence penalty, Paul LaDue put the Kings back in front with 5:27 left. The Oilers challenged for goalie interference as Tanner Pearson brushed Talbot, setting up a screen on the play. The goal stood. Alex Iafallo and Anze Kopitar added empty-net goals in the final two minutes.
“I was hoping that we would have been playing this game two weeks ago, because I think it would have been different,” head coach Todd McLellan said. “But we made the call; we took a chance, and, obviously, it went against us, so nothing we can do about that.”
The Oilers (23-35-4) are winless in their last 12 visits to Los Angeles. They’ll play at Anaheim on Friday.
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