There’s no place like home.
After dropping Games 1 and 2 of this first-round series in Los Angeles earlier this week, the Edmonton Oilers got into the win column with a 7-4 victory over the Kings in Game 3 on Friday night.
Riding the momentum generated from a raucous crowd at Rogers Place, the Oilers opened the scoring three minutes into the first period. Edmonton then capitalized on their first power play opportunity of the game a few minutes later, bringing the score to 2-0 just nine minutes into the game
The Kings got on the board late in the first period and buried a couple of power-play goals in the second to take their first lead of the game. Both teams exchanged goals late in the second frame and Los Angeles went into the third leading by a score of 4-3.
It took the Oilers 13 minutes, but they knotted the score again thanks to Evander Kane’s first goal since last year’s playoffs. The Kings opted to challenge the goal and took a two-minute delay of game penalty when the call was confirmed.
While on the man advantage, Evan Bouchard sniped his second goal of the game to put Edmonton on top. Connor McDavid and Connor Brown both scored into the empty net in the final minutes of play and the Oilers sealed the win.
What they said…
Kris Knoblauch on what the Oilers improved from their losses in Games 1 and 2…
“As much as I’d like to say that we’ll never make a mistake and it’s gonna be clean, that’s not gonna be the case. I still thought (Game 3) was much better than the first two games. There were still some things where maybe we didn’t need to give that up. Our reloads to give up an odd-man rush were maybe a little slow. We were hanging around the offensive zone a little bit longer than we needed to.“The turnovers were probably our biggest improvement. I thought we broke the puck out pretty well. I think we’ve done it pretty well throughout the series, but I can’t recall having more than one or two big mistakes tonight. Watching the video, I’ll probably find some that I ignored, but I think our game is getting better.”
Evander Kane on scoring his first goal after missing all of 2024-25 because of injury…
“I shot the puck into the net and knew it was just a matter of them seeing the replay. It felt good, and then they challenged it. You never know what can happen in those situations, but it was a good boost for our team and an important goal.”“Then the power play goes out and does its thing. It’s a big win for our group and hopefully gives us some momentum going into Game 4, and we’ll have a chance to hold serve on home ice.”
Connor Brown on Kane thriving in playoff situations and making an impact for the Oilers…
“He’s one in a million, man. It’s unbelievable what he’s able to do when the lights are on,” Brown said of his teammate. “I thought he had a great game tonight. Not only did he have two big impactful plays, but I thought he was holding onto the puck, forechecking well, and our line was able to sustain some offence and a lot to do with him.”“I missed a full season and it took me about 60 games to score, but it took him six periods.”
Los Angeles head coach Jim Hiller on challenging Edmonton’s game-tying goal…
“We got a good look at it, we took plenty of time, and we felt it was goalie interference. So, we challenged it. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose on those, and tonight, we lost and it cost us big time. No other way around it.”
Two-time Stanley Cup winner Drew Doughty on the Kings looking ahead to Game 4…
“We’re going to forget about this game. We didn’t play poorly, there’s no doubt in my mind about that. They had a good game, they played well, too. But we have to move on and get to the next game.”“I’ve been through a lot of highs and a lot of lows. I’ve learned to keep it more even-keeled, and I think our squad is good at doing that as well. We’ll be ready for the next one.”
Up next…
The Oilers and Kings will meet again in Edmonton on Sunday night for Game 4 of this first-round series. With another win at home, the Oilers would head back to Los Angeles with the series tied at two games each.
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