Global Courant 2023-04-20 10:19:10
Leon Draisaitl continued his torrid start in the NHL playoffs, but the Edmonton Oilers also leaned on their depth in a 4-2 victory Wednesday over the visiting Los Angeles Kings to tie their playoff series at a win apiece .
Draisaitl scored a goal and had two assists to lead Edmonton, who dropped Monday’s opener 4-3 in overtime after taking a two-goal lead twice in that game.
Klim Kostin produced the third period game winner for Edmonton on Wednesday. Evander Kane contributed an empty goal and Derek Ryan also scored.
“You’re not going to win 16 games by scoring every goal in your top two lines and doing everything,” Draisaitl said at the post-match press conference.
“You need guys like Klimmer, you need guys like Derek Ryan to pitch in now and then. We’ve been very lucky all year in finding those guys and having those guys on our team. “
LOOK | Kostin’s first career playoff goal helps Oilers tie series:
Klim Kostin’s first career playoff goal helps Oilers tie with Kings
Klim Kostin scored the game-winning goal, as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4–2, tying their first-round Western Conference series at a game apiece.
Oilers captain and NHL leading scorer Connor McDavid had an assist for his first point of the playoffs. He was kept off the scoresheet in Game 1.
Edmonton’s goaltender Stuart Skinner made 23 saves for his first career NHL playoff victory. King’s counterpart Joonas Korpisalo stopped 33 shots in the loss.
Gabriel Vilardi and Philip Danault scored for the Kings. Vilardi returned to the lineup after sitting out the last nine games of the regular season and the first game of the series with a lower body injury.
Game 3 is Friday and Game 4 is Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles where the Kings went 26-11-4 in the regular season.
The Oilers were minus winger Mattias Janmark, who blocked a hard shot with his foot on Monday.
Defenseman Philip Broberg pulled into the lineup as the Oilers went down 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
That configuration increased Draisaitl’s five-on-five minutes to 19 minutes and 28 seconds, while his regular-season average was 17:06 at even strength.
He was involved in Edmonton’s first three goals. Draisaitl’s neutral zone check on Arthur Kaliyev down the boards created a turnover for Kostin.
The Russian skated the puck into the zone and fired a shot from long range at Korpisalo, to the delight and relief of the sea of orange at Rogers Place.
“I was actually looking for Leo,” Kostin said. “I just tried to give the puck his hands. I trusted him more than myself. I saw three guys around me. I had nothing else to do (but) shoot the puck and it went in.”
Draisaitl’s blast off the back wall went wide of the net for Ryan to chip the puck under Korpisalo’s left pad at 6:57 of the first period.
Draisaitl dropped to one knee to make a cross-ice feed from McDavid atop Korpisalo at 12:06 for a power play goal and his third goal in two games.
Playoff power play Drai pic.twitter.com/H5TXxsrDcE
“He’s been by far the best player on the ice for two games in the series,” said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. “He found a way to get things done in different ways and that was a big reason why we won the game tonight.”
Edmonton let Los Angeles get back into the game for the second consecutive time after building a two-goal lead, but the Oilers were able to close it out on Wednesday.
“We don’t want it to happen every game, but these situations happen in playoffs,” said Draisaitl. “The momentum swings seem a lot bigger, much more dramatic and up and down than in the regular season.”
The Oilers scored on their lone power play opportunity to hold Los Angeles nil-for-four.
Trailing 2–0 after the first period, the Kings tied with goals at 14:38 and 19:16 of the second.
Vilardi scored his team’s second goal by driving the puck below the goal line and firing a shot off the back of Skinner’s skate into the net.
Danault cut the deficit in half by cutting in front of the net and lifting his own rebound over Skinner’s path on the backhand.
“It’s a bad recipe to get this team out and fall behind,” said Kings head coach Todd McLellan. “If you’re ahead you have a much better chance of checking and not taking as much risk as if you had to come back.
“The frustrating thing for me is that there were some things we had to do early in the game. We decided not to do that until the second, third period.”
Los Angeles did not record a shot at the net until 5:58 p.m. of the opening period, which saw the Kings beaten 11–3.
