The Edmonton Oilers gutted out a 4-2 win over the Kings Thursday night in Los Angeles to force a Game 7 Saturday night at Rogers Place.
“We felt we did a lot of really good stuff and we just stuck with it,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. “We were persistent; kept hammering away at the rock and eventually it split.”
The Oilers burst into the lead 1:40 into the contest. Captain Connor McDavid came down the left side, swooped behind the net and beat Kings netminder Jonathan Quick with a wraparound.
The Oilers killed off two L.A. power plays in the first and had a 15-12 edge in shots on goal.
Before the second turned two minutes old, Oilers forward Evander Kane deflected Brett Kulak’s point shot for his sixth.
Kane thought he scored again a few minutes later, but the goal was waved off as the referee ruled Edmonton forward Zach Hyman had interfered with Quick before the shot.
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Los Angeles defenceman Sean Durzi scored on a power play to cut the Oilers’ advantage to 2-1.
The Kings tied it 29 seconds into the third when Carl Grundstrom fired a shot past goaltender Mike Smith’s blocker.
With 5:10 left, Oilers blueliner Tyson Barrie took a drop pass from Leon Draisaitl and powered a shot past Quick.
“Kind of got lucky to beat Quickie there, he’s been playing great so far out,” Barrie said. “So it was just kind of nice to see that one go in.”
Kailer Yamamoto was flagged for tripping with 3:37 to go. The Oilers killed it off behind a couple of sharp saves from Smith.
Kane scored into an empty net to close it out.
Smith made 30 saves. McDavid and Kane both had three points.
“We got off to a good start, finally, in this series,” Kane said. “I thought that was big for us. We knew they were going to push. Obviously didn’t have the third period start out the way we wanted to, but I think this group’s shown it all year — sticking with it and not getting discouraged.
“We knew we could get one, we just had to make sure it was the next one.”
“So, we did a great job of that and bring it back home for seven.”
You can listen to live coverage of Saturday’s game on 630 CHED beginning with The Faceoff Show at 6 p.m. The actual game starts at 8 p.m.