The big guns came to play for the Edmonton Oilers on Monday as the team opened up the offense with seven goals versus the Los Angeles Kings to take a 1-0 series lead. Connor McDavid had five assists, Evan Bouchard had four, and Zach Hyman scored his first-ever playoff hat trick in a game where the score was not necessarily reflective of how dominant Edmonton was.
Leon Draisaitl and Adam Henrique also had big games with Stuart Skinner playing well in goal. The final two goals of the game were fluke plays, one goal bouncing off of Darnell Nurse’s skate, the other a broken stick by Cody Ceci who made the mistake of trying a hand pass without his stick and handed it right to Los Angeles.
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The Oilers plastered goaltender Cam Talbot with 45 shots, went 3-for-4 on the power play and McDavid danced around the Kings’ defense on the way to the net, making life difficult. LA tried to make a game of it in the second period, cutting the lead in half, but in the third, the Oilers scored on the power play and ran away with it.
Oilers’ Offense Showed Up in Win Over Kings
This was an offensive demonstration by Edmonton. Lots of shots, tons of speed, sound puck movement, and a strong net-front presence took Los Angeles out of the game early. The Kings are going to need to try and find a way to limit Edmonton’s chances if they hope to stand a chance in this series. In a shootout, the Oilers take this easily.
This was the first Game 1 win in a series for the Oilers who have opened the previous two playoffs versus the Kings with a loss.
Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings. Game 2 goes Wednesday night.
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