LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mattias Janmark scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 Tuesday night for their third consecutive victory and a 3-2 lead in their first-round series.
Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored and Calvin Pickard made 20 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who can advance with a win in Game 6 in Edmonton on Thursday.
Edmonton was finally rewarded for dominating possession and shots throughout Game 5 when Janmark converted a rebound of Viktor Arvidsson’s shot with 12:48 to play.
After some fraught final moments, Nugent-Hopkins added an empty-net goal to finish the Oilers’ franchise-record third consecutive comeback playoff victory.
“I think the feeling was really there after the first period that we’re outplaying ’em, we got them where we want, and now we’ve just got to push,” Janmark said. “Keep pushing the gas. And even when they scored, just try to get back, and Kaner got it right back, and away we went.”
Andrei Kuzmenko scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped 43 shots for the second-seeded Kings, who are one loss away from their fourth consecutive first-round playoff exit at Edmonton’s hands despite winning the first two games at home and holding third-period leads in the next two. Los Angeles led in the final minute of Game 4 before losing in overtime.
After a slow start, the Oilers have tilted the series decidedly in their favor. Edmonton has outshot the Kings 79-35 since the start of the third period of Game 4.
“They executed way better than us tonight,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “They were stronger. They beat us in every area of the game, except for the special teams, oddly enough. The goaltender was great for us to give us a chance. They were just better in every way. We can’t look to one part of our game and think that was acceptable.”
Kuemper made 19 saves in the first period, and Los Angeles went ahead early in the second when Kuzmenko tipped home captain Anze Kopitar’s shot during a power play. Kuzmenko recorded his sixth point of the postseason and his 23rd point in 27 games since joining the Kings less than two months ago.
The Oilers answered less than three minutes later with Kane’s goal from the slot. Kane went unpunished later in the period for a knee-on-knee hit on Kings scoring leader Adrian Kempe.
Edmonton’s 33 shots in the first two periods were the most allowed all season by Los Angeles, which was shut down after scoring 19 goals in the first four games of the series.
“We wanted to be desperate, like we were in the third period and overtime the last game,” Pickard said. “And we did it for 60 minutes.”
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