EDMONTON, Alberta — The Kings need to figure out how to hold third period leads against the Edmonton Oilers — it’s hurting them.
For the third time in four games, the Kings couldn’t close it out, and Edmonton came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game at 3-3 and win it 4-3 in overtime on a power play goal from Leon Draisaitl with 1:42 remaining in the first OT.
What once was a comfortable 2-0 series lead is now deadlocked at 2-2, as the best-of-seven series shifts to Crypto.com Arena for Game 5 on Tuesday, which is now a best-of-three.
Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard scored twice, including the game-tying goal, bombing a shot through traffic and past Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper with 29 seconds left, while forward Corey Perry rounded out the scoring for Edmonton in the win.
Trevor Moore, Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala scored for the Kings in the loss.
It looked like the Kings were inching closer to exercising their playoff demons against the Edmonton Oilers, but now it’s series on. Game on.
The Kings played near a perfect road game through 40 minutes, but Edmonton’s high-powered offence chipped away. Bouchard cut the Kings’ lead to 2-1 with just over 12 minutes left, and then he would get the equalizer with the goalie pulled.
After a tough start in Game 3 that saw the Kings get punched in the mouth and fall behind 2-0 early, the Kings reversed the tables and took a 1-0 lead and dominated the Oilers in all facets outshooting Edmonton 14-6, and if it weren’t for Calvin Pickard coming up with a couple big stops the Kings lead could’ve been bigger.
Moore would give the Kings a 1-0 lead midway through the opening frame when Phil Danault won a board battle and chipped the puck out to Moore, who wasted no time ripping a snap shot through the five-hole.
After getting outplayed by the Kings, Edmonton came out with some juice in the second and almost tied the game at 1-1 when former King Viktor Arvidsson would come out from behind the net and feed a pass to Leon Draisaitl, who let a one-timer go, but Kuemper was able to get a piece of it.
Moments later, the Kings took a 2-0 lead when Foegele drove the net and took a pass from Phillip Danault and was able to get behind both Oilers D-men and beat Pickard with a quick move to his backhand.
Perry was able to cut the Kings in half at the 4:14 mark of the second when he scored his second of the series on the power play. The veteran winger was stopped by Kuemper on his initial shot, but he was able to bat it out of the air, and jam the puck in when it landed in the crease.
Edmonton smelled blood in the overtime session and were buzzing in the opening five minutes, really pushing the Kings on their heels.While the Kings had some decent looks in OT, the Oilers had the momentum, and they capitalized on their second power play goal of the game late in OT with defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov in the box.
Now the Kings have to pick themselves up off the mat after two gut-wrenching losses in Edmonton and regroup and make sure they can continue their winning ways on he ice for Game 5 on Tuesday.
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