*Photo from ABC7*
Series tied 1-1
Another edition of this series is off and running. Adrian Kempe had two goals, Anze Kopitar scored the winning goal, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Edmonton Oilers with a 5-4 overtime victory Wednesday night in Edmonton.
After giving up 7 goals in game one, the Kings were able to come out on the other side of a back and forth battle of game two, tying the series and forcing at least a 5th game. Quinton Byfield had two assists and Kopitar had a goal and two assists along with Kempe's two goals.
Kempe started the scoring 3:19 into the game, giving the Kings a 1-0 lead. He scored again at the 14:57 mark of the first to double the Kings lead to 2-0. Brett Kulak got the Oilers on the board and cut the deficit to 2-1 before Drew Doughty scored his first goal of the playoffs to make the Kings lead 3-1 after the first period.
Dylan Holloway cut into the Oilers deficit 7:51 into the second period, making it 3-2. Zach Hyman scored on the power play to tie the game 3-3 after two periods. Holloway and Kevin Fiala scored in the 3rd period, making it a 4-4 game. Kopitar sealed the 5-4 win for the Kings when he scored 2:07 into overtime.
Kopitar said of his goal that "Honestly, it was kind of a whacky play where Mikey throws it up the boards, and I think it was Byfield who tipped it, or was trying to tip it just to prevent the icing. Next thing you know, I had it right on my stick, so I figured I’d make the most of it."
It was Cam Talbot who got the start in net for the Kings, beating one of his old teams to get the win. Talbot made 27 saves on the 31 shots the Oilers offense sent his way, giving him a .871 save percentage in the win.
Kings head coach Jim Hiller said of Talbot that "He had a big hand in winning us the hockey game tonight. I heard the chants prior to the game, so what do you say? The fans are on him, he goes in there, he wins us the hockey game. You get to overtime, he makes some big saves, and the guys leave with the win and now we’re squared up. So, I would say he’s done his job pretty well."
Getting the start in goal for the Oilers was Stuart Skinner, who couldn't outduel Talbot and got saddled with the loss. Skinner made 21 saves out of the 26 shots on goal the Kings sent his way, recording a .808 save percentage.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said of the loss that "In the first period, we dug ourselves a big hole being down 2-0 and 3-1, but after that I thought we played a lot better, especially in the second period. I felt like if we were ever able to get the lead we could have finished the game, but we were never quite able to do that."
The series shifts to Los Angeles for games 3 and 4, with game 3 on Friday night. With the series tied 1-1, both teams try to take the 2-1 series lead on the other.
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