THE Kiss ran to an advance of four goals, then had to retain a frantic return from Edmonton to beat the Oilers 6-5 In a wild opening match of a series of playoff series at the best of seven rounds at Crypto.com Arena on Monday evening.
Phillip Danault scored the winner, his second goal in the match, with 41 seconds to play after the Kings led 4-0 at the end of the second period.
Andrei Kuzmenko,, Quinton Byfield,, Adrian Kempe And Kevin Fiala also marked for kings. The goals of Kuzmenko in the first period and Fiala in the third came to Power Plays. The Oilers did not authorize a power game goal in 12 chances during the victory of the playoffs last year over the Kings.
Leon Draisaitl,, Mattias Janmark,, Corey Perry,, Zach Hyman And Connor McDavid Marked for Edmonton, Hyman and McDavid marking 36 seconds apart at the end of the third period after the Oilers drew their goalkeeper. The goal of McDavid, who equaled it 5-5, came with 88 seconds to play.
But Danault erased this less than a minute later on a weak shot that hit the goalkeeper of the Stuart Skinner.
“I understood everything,” joked Danault afterwards.
The Kings were able to laugh because after giving a big lead, they managed to save the victory.
“It is obviously not ideal, how it happened,” said Byfield. “But it's just a sign of good teams. We have dropped our guard a bit and it's a big team there. They have world class players. They will never stop.”
Kings striker Adrian Kempe puts the washer in front of the goalkeeper of Edmonton's Oilers, Stuart Skinner, in the second period of match 1 on Monday evening.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Kings, who are trying to end a sequence of three -year qualifying series against Edmonton, won the opening match in two of these meetings, but lost each series. All these series started in Edmonton; This time, the Kings attracted the first blood at home, where they won a franchise record 31 times during the regular season.
The goals of Kuzmenko and Byfield in the first period and Kempe and Danault, in the second, gave the Kings an advance of 4-0 at the end of the second period, putting in place what seemed to be a rout.
Especially since the Oilers, who took the Florida Panthers to a seventh game before falling in the Stanley Cup last year, drink in the playoffs, but rose all the same. Draisaitl, who led the NHL with 52 goals despite the last seven games of the regular season with an injury of the lower body, put Edmonton on the board with less than six seconds to play in the second period. Janmark then scored 2:19 in the third half of the Kings' advance.
Fiala seemed to restore order, marking a few seconds after a power game of five against three, but goals from Perry, Hyman and McDavid equaled the match.
But then Danault marked to save the kings, even if Edmonton left the building with a momentum.
“We have to do a better job to close this match,” said Byfield. “No security manager in the playoffs. They come all the time. We will learn.”
“Obviously, we have to win it, you know, firmly,” added Fiala. “But it's hockey in playoffs. And they don't give up either. I am therefore very proud of our group, which we responded again and that we did not decide.
“It's 1-0 right now and we are enjoying it, but move on. It is a hell of a way to win it. ”
