Mattias Janmark of Edmonton pushed the Kings on the verge of eliminating the playoffs, marking a rebound at the start of the third period to give the Oilers a 3-1 victory in match 5 of their STANLEY Cup qualifiers in the first round at Crypto.com Arena. The Oilers, who run the series of seven best 3-2, can end the Kings season for a fourth consecutive season with another victory.
Janmark’s goal scored the fourth time in five games that the Kings have abandoned a match or regulatory score in the last 13 minutes of regulation. It was also the third consecutive victory for the victory for the Oilers, the first time they did it in the history of the franchise eliminatory series.
Evander Kane had the first goal of Edmonton while the score of the solitary Kings came from Andrei Kuzmenko, both in the second period. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Oilers closed the scoring with an empty goal in the last minute.
The oilers had the higher 20-minute opening, during which they took the first 11 shots, building an advantage of 19-4 for the period. But Kings Darcy Kuemper's goalkeeper, who was appointed one of the three finalists in the Vezina trophy on Monday, proved why, leaving Edmonton without showing anything for all these efforts.
The left wing of the Kings Andrei Kuzmenko is tangled with the defender of Brett Kulak Oilers in the first period.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
This allowed Kuzmenko to put the kings in front of 3:33 in the second period. The winger parked in front of the net and protected the goalkeeper of Edmonton Calvin Pickard when he stretched his hand to redirect a pass of Anze Kopitar near the blue line. The goal, the eighth score of the Kings series series, occurred eight seconds after the Darnell nurse was triggered to trip. He also marked the fourth time in five games that the Kings scored first.
Kopitar's assistance was his seventh in five games while Adrian Kempe, who also helped the goal, has six.
However, the advance lasted less than three minutes before Kane ties it on a wrist of the high slit. This goal occurred seven seconds after the Kings killed a trigger penalty for Drew Doughty.
Kings left Kevin Fiala goes after the washer against the center of the Oilers Leon Draisaitl in the first period.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Edmonton then went before 7:12 in the last period when Janmark marked the rebound of a shot by former King Viktor Arvidsson that Kuemper had pushed his side, not knowing that Janmark was perched just inside the circle.
Kuemper deserved a much better spell after refusing 43 shots. He faced 93 shots in the last two games.
