The excitement around the Pacific Division playoff races continued this past week. The three teams in contention for the top seed—the Vegas Golden Knights, Edmonton Oilers, and Los Angeles Kings—all came out on the positive side of the points despite some difficult games. The gap between first and third is now five points. However, there’s plenty to play for, with two colliding next week.

The schedule wasn’t easy for the Vegas Golden Knights last week, with three games in four nights. Fortunately for the Golden Knights, the three games were played at the T-Mobile Arena. Nevertheless, Vegas took maximum points, beating the Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings, and Tampa Bay Lightning. They outscored their opponents 15-to-6 and never trailed. Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomas Hertl contributed with hat tricks against Boston and Detroit. Against Tampa Bay, Vegas got offensive contributions from nine skaters in a 4-1 win. The bad news for Vegas was seeing Hertl leave the ice late in the game after a heavy collision with Lightning defenceman Emil Lilleberg.

Vegas is now on the road for a three-game trip, with two matchups against teams ready for the season to end in Chicago and Nashville. However, the trip won’t start easy as they stop in Minnesota to face the Wild. The injury bug has hit Minnesota hard, but despite that, they strung together three straight wins last week.

Another busy week is coming up for the LA Kings, with four games on the schedule. They played four last week, too, which resulted in a 3-1-0 record. Like Vegas, they faced back-to-back games on home ice but came away with maximum points and outscored their opponents 14-4. There was almost a goalie fight in their 7-2 win over Boston last night, but the officials ultimately stopped that. Their other win came against the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1, but their lone loss was when Minnesota beat them 3-1 on home ice at the beginning of the week.

The schedule is a little more challenging as they face two teams chasing the top seed in their division: the Colorado Avalanche and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game against Colorado is their lone road trip this week. They’ll be home to face the New York Rangers on Tuesday and Sunday against the San Jose Sharks.

What a week it has been for the Edmonton Oilers, who now sit third in the Pacific Division based on win percentage. Leon Draisaitl got injured in their 7-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club, which forced him out of the next game against Winnipeg. Connor McDavid got injured in that Winnipeg matchup, which resulted in him missing the next game at home on Saturday. Edmonton managed to grab a point in the Winnipeg game but lost 4-3. In that Hockey Night in Canada matchup versus the Seattle Kraken, Edmonton was without McDavid and Draisaitl for the first time for injury-related reasons. Despite that, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins stepped up, scoring a hat-trick in a 5-4 win. Taking five of a possible six points was massive for Edmonton, especially when you consider the circumstances.

McDavid and Draisaitl may return this week with another three games on the calendar for the Copper and Blue. They have a few days off before heading to Dallas for a one-game trip on Wednesday. They then return home for two division games against Seattle and the Calgary Flames in the final Battle of Alberta of the season.