Draisaitl records the OT winner & three assists while Bouchard tallies two goals including the late equalizer on Sunday to even the series with a 4-3 victory over the Kings in Game 4 at Rogers Place
EDMONTON, AB – You can take a breath now, Oil Country.
This series is all tied up heading back to California.
Evan Bouchard tied the game with 29 seconds left in regulation, and Leon Draisaitl converted on the power play with 1:52 remaining in overtime as the Edmonton Oilers tied their first-round series with the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night in dramatic fashion with a 4-3 victory in Game 4 at Rogers Place.
Bouchard scored twice for the Oilers, notching both goals in the third period and making a game-saving stop at the blueline on a potential Kings clearance during the last minute with Edmonton’s net empty before he unleashed the bomb from the point in the last minute that tied the game at 3-3 to force overtime.
The Oilers dominated sudden death and were rewarded with a power play in the last three minutes, where Draisaitl converted an unassisted marker with the finish from the right side of the Kings’ crease to lift the Oilers to victory and even the series heading back to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Tuesday night.
Draisaitl tallied the OT winner and contributed three assists to push his post-season point streak versus the Kings to 18 straight games, including 15 goals.
Corey Perry scored his second of the playoffs in the second period, and McDavid added a helper on Draisaitl’s decisive winner to give him 44 points (10G, 34A) in 21 career playoff games against Los Angeles.
Goaltender Calvin Pickard held down the crease in his second straight postseason start for the Oilers by stopping 38 of 41 shots in the victory.
The series will shift back to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Tuesday, where the Oilers will try to win on the road to give them the chance to advance to the Second Round on home ice at Rogers Place in Game 6 on Thursday.
Bouchard scores twice & Draisaitl ends it as the Oilers even the series
Despite the Kings being in command up 1-0 at the end of the first period and leading 14-6 in shots, the Oilers still felt they had plenty to build off in the opening 20 minutes after killing two penalties against Los Angeles’ power play that was 7-for-12 in the series coming into Game 4 on Sunday night.
The Oilers gave up two odd-man rushes in the opening minute and a half of the contest, with Kevin Fiala missing wide on an open net on the Kings’ first chance before Connor McDavid showed great hustle on the next one a few moments later to lift the stick of Alex Laferriere and break up the two-on-one.
However, before the end of his shift, McDavid was tagged for a hooking penalty on Joel Edmundson, awarding Los Angeles the chance to exploit the early opportunity with their potent man advantage that was the difference in Games 1 & 2 of this series. Even in defeat on Friday in Game 3, the Kings went 2-for-2 on the power play, but the Oilers felt a lot better about their penalty kill after both of their goals were converted late in the two-minute infraction.
The Oilers held the Kings’ power play to only two shots on their first two opportunities in the first period to give their team some early confidence, and Calvin Pickard, who was making his second straight start after making 24 saves in Friday’s Game 3 win, was looking sharp with 11 saves in the opening 10 minutes.
Edmonton pushed back after their first successful kill and nearly found the breakthrough on a sneaky fake shot from Evan Bouchard that opened up a shooting chance for Zach Hyman in the left circle, but the winger fanned on his shot and missed an open net.
That miss ultimately proved costly, as Trevor Moore was able to give the Kings the lead by escaping with the puck from a battle along the boards and going five-hole on Pickard from inside the right circle with 9:25 left in the period to make it 1-0 for Los Angeles.
The Oilers killed off Mattias Janmark’s tripping call in the final five minutes of the frame, but trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes at Rogers Place.
Connor speaks after the Oilers 4-3 overtime win over the Kings
What a swing that turned out to be early in the middle frame.
But unfortunately, it didn’t go in favour of the Blue & Orange.
Leon Draisaitl was staring at an empty cage in the first minute of the second period after Viktor Arvidsson rounded the Kings’ net and threw it across the crease to the German, who had a wide open net but couldn’t get all of his shot as he scraped his effort wide to provide Los Angeles with a huge early let-off.
Instead of it being a 1-1 game early in the stanza, it quickly became 2-0 for the Kings.
Under a minute later, it was Warren Foegele who was the benefactor of Phillip Danault’s pokecheck off the stick of Connor Brown inside Edmonton’s own blueline to push Los Angeles’ lead to 2-0 only 91 seconds into the period.
Danault’s pokecheck landed fortuitously on the former Edmonton forward’s stick behind their defence, allowing him to take one shot against Pickard on a breakaway before he pushed through the rebound on the second effort to score his first of the playoffs and extend the Kings’ advantage early in the frame.
The Oilers would need to make the most of their power plays from here on out, and it was a good start under three minutes later after Corey Perry showed incredible hand-eye coordination on Edmonton’s first man advantrage to cut into the Kings’ lead at 2-1 with his second goal of the playoffs.
Perry’s hand-eye coordination on the PP cuts the Kings lead to 2-1
Perry had an in-close chance stopped just over a minute into Adrian Kempe’s hooking penalty, but after the rebound went airborne, the veteran showed his former Hart Memorial Trophy winning poise by controlling it with his stick in mid-air below the crossbar and batting it past Kuemper on his second touch.
In his 219th career playoff game (the 12th most in NHL history), the 39-year-old notched his 56th career post-season goal which tied him for fourth among active NHL skaters alongside Florida’s Brad Marchand.
But that one-goal disadvantage for the Oilers only lasted 2:21 before the Kings’ even-strength game continued to produce their offence in Game 4 after their power play was the talking point in the first three games of the series.
Evan Bouchard lost the puck at the top of the Los Angeles zone to produce a two-on-two rush for the Kings, where Alex Laferriere aired it over the top for Kevin Fiala to knock down and create a breakaway that he converted under the right arm of Pickard to restore the two-goal lead at 3-1.
Just like in Game 3, Edmonton was in need of another heroic effort in the third period to avoid heading back to LA while facing elimination.
Corey speaks following the Oilers 4-3 Game 4 win over the Kings
Get on your feet, Oil Country.
We are going to overtime.
The Oilers wouldn’t be denied getting Game 4 to sudden death courtesy of Evan Bouchard, whose lucky bounce off the skate of Drew Doughty with 7:51 gone in the third period made it a one-goal game before his keep-in at the Kings’ blueline with the net empty ended up leading to his unstoppable Bouch Bomb™️ in the last minute that lifted the roof off Rogers Place with the crowd already on its feet trying to will the team to a late equalizer.
Safe to say, everyone did their part in getting this game to overtime.
Bouchard banks a shot off Doughty’s skate & in to make it 3-2
Bouchard tallied his first goal on a lucky bounce off Doughty’s skate in front of the Kings’ net that managed to find its way inside the left post, but there was nothing lucky about his equalizer during six-on-five that wouldn’t have happened without his incredible keep-in to extend his team’s last-minute attack.
Bouchard knocked down what could’ve been the winning clearance for the Kings, extending possession and leading to his big moment where he took a feed from Draisaitl at the top of the zone and uncorked a one-timer that beat Kuemper clean under the glove to tie the game at 3-3 with 29 seconds remaining.
Bouchard’s blast ties the game at 3-3 with 29 seconds remaining
Never in doubt, Oil Country, never in doubt.
California, here we come – all tied up in the series.
The Oilers outshot the Kings 18-7 in the extra period and put together one good sequence after another to earn the opportunity to end the game on the power play, where Leon Draisaitl scored the decisive tally off a rebound to secure the Oilers a 4-3 victory that evens the series at two going back to LA.
Early in overtime, Klingberg’s dump-in nearly led to a disaster for Kuemper as the puck bounced off the boards and in between his skate and the post before landing on the stick of Adam Henrique, who had to be stopped only by a quick reaction stop from the netminder by lunging out and getting in front of it.
At this point, Kuemper was receiving chants from the Rogers Place faithful as he looked shaky inside the Kings’ crease, and the Oilers continued to pour on pressure. Henrique and McDavid both had multiple opportunities in quick succession to take a few whacks at rebounds around the crease that required Kuemper to sprawl out each time to make the saves, and the Kings had only a few chances against Pickard in the frame that came off some wild bounces.
But Edmonton’s persistence paid off in the offensive zone, hemming Los Angeles into their own zone after an icing and forcing Vladislav Gavrikov into taking a tripping penalty on McDavid at the end of a long shift to give the Oilers the opportunity to win Game 4 on the power play.
If you ever needed your historically dominant power play to convert one, it was right here and right now.
McDavid made a terrific redirection on Nugent-Hopkins’ low pass from the right side of the slot that put the puck into the danger area with Kuemper sliding the other way, and despite the puck being cleared by Mikey Anderson, Draisaitl was in the right spot to fire the rebound short side to claim a dramatic 4-3 victory for the Oilers in overtime of Game 4.
Draisaitl evens the series with the 4-3 overtime winner in Game 4
