Kasperi Kapanen jammed in a rebound at the 7:19 mark of overtime and the Edmonton Oilers advanced to the Western Conference finals for the second straight year with a 1-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday in Las Vegas.
Edmonton sealed the best-of-seven series in five games. The Oilers next will face the winner of the other Western Conference semifinal, in which the Dallas Stars lead the Winnipeg Jets 3-1.
Kapanen, picked up on waivers from the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 19 and playing just his second game in the series, slammed home a rebound of his own shot inside the right post for his second career overtime playoff winner.
“Just excitement, obviously,” Kapanen said of his reaction to the tally. “This team has been playing really hard, and I’ve only played in a couple, but I’m just happy to be a part of this.”
Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner finished with 24 saves for his second straight shutout. The Oilers became the first team to clinch a playoff series with a 1-0 overtime win since the Calgary Flames beat the Detroit Red Wings in the 2004 Western Conference semifinals.
Skinner, replacing Calvin Pickard, who sustained a lower-body injury in Game 2 against Vegas, extended his shutout streak to 127:19. He joined Curtis Joseph (1997) and Cam Talbot (2017) as the third Oilers goalie to notch back-to-back shutouts in the playoffs.
“I thought Stu was great,” Oilers star Connor McDavid said. “He bailed us out whenever we had a breakdown. The (penalty kill) was great. Defensively, really, really good.
“We can defend. We can. We’ve shown that time and time again. We come into a tough building and win a 1-0 game when it matters most. We can play that way, we can score goals, whatever it takes, we can win games.”
Adin Hill made 31 saves for Vegas.
“Any time you have a good team (and lose), you just feel like you didn’t finish what you set out to do,” Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We have a helluva team and a helluva locker room. It’s disappointing. It’s a hard league to win in. We know that. It’s just disappointing.”
Pietrangelo added of Vegas getting blanked in the final two games, “We had chances, we just didn’t capitalize. It’s more on us than probably them.”
In a tight-checking game, the teams combined for just 31 shots on goal and 13 scoring chances in the first two periods.
Vegas, the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference after winning the Pacific Division with 110 points, and the Oilers, who lost to the Florida Panthers in seven games in last year’s Stanley Cup Final, combined for just three shots on goal in the first 11 minutes.
The Oilers, who finished with an 8-5 edge in shots on goal in the period, had the best scoring chance at the 13:55 mark when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fired a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle off the near right post.
Vegas, credited with zero scoring chances in the first period, got its first early in the second period when Jack Eichel hit an open Victor Olofsson at the top of the slot. However, Skinner, coming off a 23-save shutout in Game 4, turned aside Olofsson’s wrist shot.
The Golden Knights, playing without captain Mark Stone, who was scratched due to an upper-body injury, made a strong push at the end of the second period. William Karlsson hit the left post with a wrist shot from the bottom edge of the left circle.
“Every year you don’t win feels like a year wasted,” Karlsson said. “I believed in this team and we got knocked out. Hopefully, in a few days, I’ll just keep looking forward to next year.”
The game opened up early in the third period with Eichel hitting Brett Howden with a pass on the backdoor, but the puck bounced wide off Howden’s stick. Moments later, Leon Draisaitl had a breakaway, but Hill made a blocker save on his wrist shot from the slot.
The Oilers had a chance to win it with 1:07 left when Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman broke free on a two-on-one break, but Hill made a glove save on McDavid’s low wrist shot, his first shot of the game.
–Field Level Media
