Kings edge out road victory against Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers still can’t win three consecutive games.

They were handed a prime opportunity on Saturday, with the Los Angeles Kings coming to town fresh off a loss in Winnipeg the night before.

Leon Draisaitl, who was honoured prior to puck drop for reaching 1,000 career NHL points, opened the scoring midway through the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead.

That advantage didn’t last long. Darnell Nurse was called for high-sticking late in the frame, and former Oiler Corey Perry made the Oilers pay on the power play.

Draisaitl struck again just one minute into the second period, but the Kings responded almost immediately. Andre Lee buried the first goal of his NHL career just two minutes later to even things up once again.

Los Angeles took its first lead of the night in the third period when Alex Laferriere scored his 12th goal of the season. Connor McDavid answered back three minutes later with a power-play goal after Adrian Kempe was whistled for slashing.

Overtime solved nothing, sending the Pacific Division rivals to a shootout. Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg turned aside McDavid, Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while Kempe beat Connor Ingram to secure the extra point for Los Angeles.

The win helped Los Angeles gain a bit of ground on the Oilers in the standings. Edmonton sits second in the Pacific Division with 51 points through 45 games, three points ahead of the Kings, who have one game in hand.

What they said…

Connor McDavid on the Oilers being unable to win three games in a row…

“I thought we had looks to win this game. I don’t know what it is. We really gotta find a way to put together a streak. I keep on saying it’s an important stretch for us. We gotta put a string of wins together.”

L.A. head coach Jim Hiller on the Kings winning the second game of a road back-to-back…

“I think the back-to-backs, if you want to test your character of your team, those are back-to-backs. And a lot of times, we got in really late last night, you can kind of build in an excuse a little bit, but we don’t do that. We haven’t done that, and I’m just really proud of the effort. It was a hard fought game last night despite the score, get in late, first time against Edmonton, and we came out right from the drop of the puck ready to play.”

Hiller on former Oiler Corey Perry’s play in his return to Edmonton…

“He’s going through a tough time, and this is a hockey player just through and through. He comes, he shows up here, he wants to play hockey, he wants to help his team in difficult circumstances, and then he goes out and scores a goal. He plays 15-16 minutes, a lot of times against McDavid’s line, it’s pretty incredible. I just have so much respect for him, and I always have, but this is, I just have a lot of respect for him.”

Kasperi Kapanen on dropping a tight game against a familiar rival…

“I think it’s the same team that we’ve been facing for some time now. And listen, I thought they played pretty well, especially after playing last night, too. So they had their moments, and we had our moments tonight. That’s just the way it went.

“We had a pretty good effort tonight, and that’s hockey sometimes.”

Kings winger Alex Laferriere on his team’s effort against the Oilers…

“It was a huge character win for us, a couple of huge guys out of our lineup. A tough game last night, and then to come in here into a barn that’s pretty hard to win in, and play like that. It was a great game.

“We don’t win that game without (Anton Forsberg) too. I thought he played unbelievable, stood on his head for us there and gave us a chance to win it in the end. It was a huge team win.”

Up next…

The Oilers won’t have much time to dwell on this loss to the Kings. They’ll open next week with a road back-to-back against the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators before returning to Edmonton to host the Islanders on Thursday. The weekend brings another back-to-back, starting Saturday in Vancouver and wrapping up Sunday at home against St. Louis.