EDMONTON, Alberta — In recent history, Game 2 playoff games haven’t been pleasant for the Kings against the Edmonton Oilers, but they managed to change that story Wednesday night.
Anze Kopitar scored just 2:07 into overtime, firing a wrist shot past Stuart Skinner’s glove and into the top corner on a breakaway to give the Kings a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers in the second game of their first round playoff series at Rogers Place.
Kopitar collected the puck near the Edmonton blue line after a strange bounce allowed him to move up the middle of the ice, headed toward Skinner and fired from the slot as Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse dove to try to block the shot.
The Kings bounced back from a 7-4 loss in the series opener Monday night to send the best-of-seven series to Los Angeles tied 1-1. Game 3 will take place Friday evening at the Crypto.com Arena.
It wasn’t pretty, as the Kings squandered a 3-1 lead in the first period and a 4-3 lead early in the third before Kopitar, who also had two assists, played hero .
Adrian Kempe scored twice in the first half for Los Angeles. Drew Doughty also connected first for the Kings, making the score 3-1. Kevin Fiala scored in the third and Cam Talbot had a huge feat with 27 saves.
Dylan Holloway scored twice for Edmonton, tying the score at 4-4 early in the third period. Brett Kulak and Zach Hyman also scored for the Oilers and Skinner stopped 21 shots.
The Kings wanted to rediscover their identity after their disappointing Game 1 loss, and they certainly did that.
They took an early 1-0 lead when Kopitar took an outlet pass from Evan Bouchard and made a nice pass to Kempe in the slot, who fired a shot past Skinner to take the lead, just 3:19 of the match.
Kempe and Kopitar started again later in the period. Kempe reportedly made Dodgers star Mookie Betts jealous when he knocked the puck out of the air on a backhand shot from Kopitar and beat Skinner under the crossbar.
Edmonton was able to cut the Kings’ lead to 2-1 when Kulak took a pass from Leon Draisaitl and fired a shot over Talbot’s shoulder, but the Kings had a quick answer.
Just 29 seconds later, the visitors took advantage of a turnover in the neutral zone and Viktor Arvidsson stopped at the red line and made a nice pass to Doughty, who scored despite losing control of the puck, as the momentum passed through Skinner’s legs. It was Doughty’s first playoff goal since 2014 and gave his team a 3-1 lead.
But Edmonton responded in a big way midway through the third as Holloway, playing in only his second career playoff game, scored his first goal of the playoffs to cut the Kings’ lead to 3-2.
Then Blake Lizotte took a hooking penalty, and the Oilers’ powerful power play went to work and Hyman scored his fourth of the series to tie it at 3-3 at 10:33 of the second period.
Fiala gave the Kings a 4-3 lead just 1:46 into the third period when his shot off the wall and a few feet from the blue line beat Skinner.
But the Oilers were quick to respond as Holloway scored his second of the game with a powerful wrist shot just 1:37 later.
POWER OUTAGE
The Kings were 2-for-10 on the power play against Edmonton during the regular season, but through the first two games of the series, they are 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
More to come on this story.
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