Instant Reaction: Oilers regain series lead with commanding Game 3 victory
7 days ago
The Oilers have retaken the series lead on the back of Evander Kane’s terrific performance, defeating the Los Angeles Kings 6-1 to take a 2-1 series lead.
So what did Evander Kane and the rest of the Oilers do on Friday evening? Let’s find out.
For the second time in the series, the Oilers scored the first goal of the game, by guess who, Zach Hyman. A nice keep-in at the line by Mattias Ekholm helped, but Hyman was all alone in front of the net, beating Cam Talbot on a rebound.
Edmonton continued the scoring on a nice rush play, beating the Kings’ 1-3-1. Evander Kane made a nice pass against the run of play, finding Leon Draisaitl near the face-off dot. He beat Talbot, who was expecting a wrap-around.
Connor McDavid picked up his first goal of the playoffs with a nice power move to take it to the net. After a few whacks, he beat Talbot between the post and his foot, making it 3-0 before the first period.
Los Angeles picked up their game at the start of the second period, and that momentum led to a goal to make it 3-1. Evander Kane missed his assignment (Drew Doughty), who was alone on the weak side. No chance for Stuart Skinner.
Kane made up for it just a few minutes later as a Cody “Paul Coffey” Ceci slapshot deflected off Kane’s leg for his first goal of the postseason and his second point of the evening.
Before the end of the second period, Blake Lizotte went low on Kane, taking out his feet. No penalty was called, but it was a taste of what was to come in the third period.
The Kings once again had all the momentum at the start of the third period, but this time, they didn’t score. Instead, Andreas Englund clipped Kane high with a hit to the head.
Kane, who was rightfully not happy, dropped the mitts with Englund himself and threw some heavy punches before being wrestled down to the ice. In the ensuing scrum, the Oilers got a full two minutes. On the power play, Hyman scored his second goal of the game and his sixth goal of the series in just three games, putting the Kings to bed.
There were more scrums, this time between Evan Bouchard and Pierre-Luc Dubois, as both players got 10-minute misconducts. It was a pretty scary hit by Quinton Byfield on McDavid here, too, but he was okay.
The Oilers scored to make it 6-1 via Draisaitl’s second goal of the game, as the Kings were once again on a 5-on-3.
More 10-minute misconducts, as Kane and Drew Doughty got into it during the same power play.
At the end of the day, the Oilers go up 2-1 in the series and Darnell Nurse didn’t pick up a suspension this time!
Things worth mentioning…
This could be Evander Kane’s best game, picking up the Gordie Howe hat trick and being heavily involved in the game. I don’t care how he performed in the regular season if he continues to play like this. Playoff Kane is a different beast.
The Oilers had 55 penalty minutes, while the Kings picked up 47 penalty minutes. Four of these penalty minutes belong to Warren Foegele, who had an adventure in the final five minutes as he ran Talbot (who was way out of his crease) and tripped a guy which definitely was not a trip. Kane had 15 minutes, Ryan McLeod and Evan Bouchard each had 14.
Stuart Skinner had a great bounce-back game, saving 27 shots on 28 attempts for a .964 save percentage. The one goal scored was not his fault in the slightest.
Zach Hyman has six goals this post-season in three games, as do the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just a funny stat I found br
The Oilers need to take a page out of the Kings’ book when they’re getting blown out. Get scrappy, get in the other team’s head, and start stuff after whistles. Last postseason against the Vegas Golden Knights, they let the eventual Stanley Cup champions walk all over them when the Oilers were being blown out. Can’t let that happen again.
Leon Draisaitl scored his 20th away goal in just his 26th game, the fastest to that very obscure record. Connor McDavid is now three points per game in this series (one goal, nine points), while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked up three assists.
Up next: Oilers return to action on Sunday at 8:30 PM MT in Game 3. With a win, the Oilers will push their little brother to the edge with a chance to take the series at home.
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