*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
Series tied 1-1
When the Oilers need them, their star players are always there. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, Klim Kostin scored the game winning goal, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 on Wednesday night.
After giving away a two goal lead in game one, the Oilers did the same thing in game two, but they were able to respond to get back in the lead for good. It wasn't Connor McDavid doing the heroics, but it was Draisaitl thanks to a 3 point game.
Draisaitl said of the lead changes that "We don't want it to happen every game. But these situations happen in playoffs, the momentum swings seem to be a lot bigger, a lot more dramatic and up and down than in the regular season. Get back out there and get back on our game and do it the right way."
Starting the scoring for the Oilers was Derek Ryan, lighting the lamp 2:34 into the game, making it 1-0 with assists from Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse. On the power play at the 12:06 mark of the first, Draisaitl scored his 3rd goal of the playoffs to make it a 2-0 Oilers lead, assisted by McDavid and Evan Bouchard.
In the second period, the Kings fought back. Phillip Danault started the scoring 14:38 into the period, making it a 2-1 game with assists coming from Mikey Anderson and Adrian Kempe. Gabriel Vilardi scored for the Kings with 44 seconds left in the second, making it 2-2 with Vladislav Gavrikov and Trevor Moore getting assists.
To start the 3rd period, Klim Kostin scored the eventual game winning goal 2:20 into the period, scoring unassisted to make it 3-2 Oilers. With the net empty and 23 seconds left in regulation, Evander Kane sealed the win for the Oilers, making it 4-2 with an empty net goal assisted by Draisaitl.
Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game that "For us, we have a team that I thought played a really good hockey game today, say for maybe a few minutes in the second period we would have liked to have back. I thought we controlled the bulk of the play, in both games."
Getting the start once again for the Oilers was Stuart Skinner, who earned his first playoff win with a solid outing. Skinner stopped 22 of the 24 shots he saw from the Kings, which was good for a .917 save percentage.
In net for the Kings for the second time was Joonas Korpisalo, who couldn't win his second game in a row. Korpisalo turned aside 33 out of the 36 shots on goal the Oilers had, also recording a .917 save percentage in the game.
Vilardi said of the loss that "I think it was pretty obvious. The first period, we can't come out like that. It's tough to climb back when you're down 2-0. We fought back, but we weren't able to come through."
Game 3 of the series is in Los Angeles on Friday night, where both squads look for the win and the 2-1 series lead that comes with it.
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