EDMONTON, Canada—Leon Draisaitl scored two goals as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 4–3 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, May 1, to capture their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
The Oilers eliminated Los Angeles in the opening round for the third straight year, having come out on top in six games in 2023 and seven in 2022.
The Oilers move on to the second round, where they will face the winner of a matchup between the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators. Vancouver leads the series 3–2 heading into Game 6 on Friday in Nashville.
The Kings, meanwhile, face a multitude of questions after yet another season with much higher aspirations fizzled out at the hands of the Oilers.
Zach Hyman—with his seventh goal of the post-season—and Evander Kane also scored for Edmonton, which dropped only a 5–4, overtime decision in Game 2 in the best-of-7 series.
Defenseman Evan Bouchard added three assists, and Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had two each as Edmonton’s offense broke out at Rogers Place. McDavid extended his points total to a playoff-leading 12 (one goal, 11 assists).
Goaltender Stuart Skinner made 18 saves after posting a shutout in Edmonton’s 1–0 win at Los Angeles in Game 4.
Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere, and Blake Lizotte scored for Los Angeles, and goalie David Rittich stopped 22 shots in his second straight start.
Down 2–1 in the second period, the Oilers scored three consecutive goals to take 4–2 lead.
Draisaitl had a power-play goal at 7:44, after a couple of exchanges with McDavid, to tie it. Rittich appeared to rob Draisaitl with a desperation glove save, but fans cheered as if it were a goal upon seeing the replay, and a video review determined that the puck had indeed crossed the goal line.
The Oilers’ power play went 1 for 4 but scored twice just after time expired on a penalty. Edmonton finished 9 for 19 with the man advantage in the series. Los Angeles was 0 for 1, going scoreless on 12 power plays in the series.
McDavid and Draisaitl connected again just after a penalty expired with 7:39 left in the period for the German forward’s fifth goal of the playoffs.
The undisciplined Kings put Edmonton up a man again near the end of the period. This time, Hyman tapped home a puck on the goal line to make it 4–2 moments after Kings forward Pierre-Luc Dubois stepped out of the penalty box.
The Oilers hunkered down to hold off the Kings most of the third. But with the goalie pulled, Kempe deflected a shot past Skinner with 2:18 left to trim the deficit to one.
The Kings pressured for an equalizer in the final two minutes until Phillip Danault hooked Draisaitl with 19.7 seconds left—sending Edmonton on a power play and squashing Los Angeles’ long-shot hopes of a comeback.
The Kings limited the Oilers to 13 shots on goal in Sunday’s 1–0 loss and had the same game plan working early, holding Edmonton to one shot through the first 10 minutes of the game.
Kane, however, opened the scoring on Edmonton’s second shot of the night, a soft backhand that slipped past Rittich at 10:17.
Los Angeles tied it with 28 seconds left in the first when the puck caromed around the boards and bounced in front to Laferriere, who shot into an open net with Skinner out to play the puck.
Lizotte then scored 3:08 into the second to give Los Angeles its only lead of the game and quiet Rogers Place before Edmonton replied with its onslaught.
It’s the first time the Oilers have advanced from the first round in three straight years since 1990–92.
The Oilers fell 4–2 in the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Vegas Golden Knights last year.
McDavid became the sixth player, and the first in nearly 30 years, to record 10 or more assists through the first five games of the playoffs. Draisaitl joined McDavid and Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby as the third active player to record 10 points in four or more playoff series.
