The Los Angeles Kings took care of business at home.
With a commanding 6-2 win on
Wednesday, the Kings now have a 2-0 series lead over the
Edmonton Oilers. Let’s go through the highlights from
Game 2 along with some things worth mentioning.
The Kings opened the scoring in the middle of the first period with a power-play goal. This is going to be a theme for the night. Former Oiler Warren Foegele broke the puck into Edmonton’s zone and centred a pass for defenceman Brandt Clarke, who joined the play and buried his first NHL playoff goal.
The Oilers had an opportunity on the man advantage shortly after the Kings opened the scoring, but they weren’t able to convert. The best opportunity was turned aside by Darcy Kuemper when Zach Hyman was robbed on the doorstep.
The Kings extended their lead to 2-0 a few minutes into the second period, this time with an even-strength goal. The Oilers weren’t able to break out of their own zone, Quinton Byfield picked up a loose puck along the boards, skated in alone, and roofed a shot over Stuart Skinner for his second goal of the series.
The Oilers killed off one penalty in the second period, but the Kings were able to bury another with the man advantage to go up 3-0 in the middle of the frame. Trent Frederic was called for hooking and Andrei Kuzmenko capitalized.
The Oilers finally got on the board with just over six minutes left to play in the second period. John Klingberg walked the puck into the middle of the ice and made a nice shot-pass that deflected off Leon Draisaitl and past Darcy Kuemper to make the score 3-1.
The comeback appeared to be in full swing early in the third period. Vasily Podkolzin carried the puck deep into the Kings’ zone, sent a pass back to the point for Brett Kulak, and his shot deflected off Viktor Arvidsson and past Kuemper to bring the Oilers to within one.
That was as close as Edmonton would get, as the Kings killed their momentum a couple of minutes later with a goal of their own. Anze Kopitar forced a turnover and Adrian Kempe sniped a shot over Skinner to make the score 4-2.
The Oilers continued to give Los Angeles power play opportunities and they continued to capitalize. While Adam Henrique was in the box for an undisciplined roughing call, Kopitar tapped in a cross-zone pass from Kevin Fiala to put the Kings up 5-2.
With Skinner out of the net, the Kings also made sure to score a goal on backup Calvin Pickard for good measure. Adrian Kempe came into Edmonton’s zone on a two-on-one and sniped blocker side.
Takeaways from Game 2…
Just like in Game 1, the story on Wednesday was special teams. The Kings scored on three of five power-play opportunities in their 6-2 win, while the Oilers weren’t able to score on either of their chances with the man advantage. The Kings are 5-for-10 on the power play through two games in this series and the Oilers are 0-for-5.
It was another forgettable outing for Stuart Skinner, who allowed five goals on 28 shots. After allowing 11 goals across Games 1 and 2, will the Oilers go with Pickard for Game 3 in Edmonton? There have certainly been some terrible defensive lapses in front of Skinner, but he simply hasn’t come up with big saves like Kuemper has for the Kings.
Teams that have gone up 2-0 in a best-of-seven series have gone on to win that series 87.7 percent of the time in
NHL history. In last year’s playoffs, the only team to come back and win after going down 2-0 was the Dallas Stars, who trailed the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round.
The last time the Oilers came back from down 2-0 to win a playoff series was in 2006 against the San Jose Sharks. Edmonton dropped the first two games of the series on the road, stayed alive with a triple overtime victory in Game 3, and then finished off the Sharks with four consecutive wins.
Let’s hope Game 3 in 2025 isn’t quite as stressful. The Oilers and Kings will meet in Edmonton on Friday in what’s already a must-win situation.
