Los Angeles Kings centre Phillip Danault, centre, celebrates his goal with teammate right wing Arthur Kaliyev, left, as Edmonton Oilers goalie Mike Smith looks away during third period NHL playoff hockey action in Edmonton. The Kings won 5-4 in overtime on May 10, 2022.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
As a franchise with a proud history of playoff performances, and one synonymous with some of the biggest names in hockey history, spring has often brought a certain smile to the faces of Edmonton Oilers fans.
Eager to see their team return to the high-powered offensive machine that had blitzed the Los Angeles Kings with 14 goals in Games 2 and 3 of their first-round series, it was hoped that Tuesday’s Game 5 would provide yet another postseason moment to be etched long in the memory.
While the contest itself didn’t disappoint, it’s Kings fans who will be the ones looking back fondly on this night in the months and years to come.
Despite fighting back with two goals from Leon Draisaitl in a span of 2:35 to force overtime, Adrian Kempe scored the first two playoff goals of his career – with the second pertinently coming 1:12 into overtime – as the Kings grabbed a 5-4 win to take a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven series that now heads to Los Angeles for Game 6.
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Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft bemoaned his club’s second consecutive slow start, putting his team behind the 8-ball for most of the night, and now facing elimination on Thursday.
“I think we would like to bottle the energy that we have in the third period, the chemistry that we found in the third period,” he said afterwards. “In bringing that into the start of the game, we’re looking for a complete 60, and in order to have a complete 60, we need all 20 [players].”
Decked out in orange, blue and white, with many wearing the seemingly ubiquitous Oilers fan chain around their necks – a Northern Alberta take on the Miami Hurricanes’ infamous turnover chain from the 2017 NCAA football season – Edmonton fans filed into the team’s official tailgate party in the hours leading up to puck drop. They were hoping – naturally – for an Oilers win, while some took the opportunity to get a selfie from former Oiler Ladislav Smid.
For a team that counts Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson – the top four playoff point producers in NHL history – maybe the special guest appearance for this pivotal Game 5 could have been reserved for someone other than a defenceman who played exactly zero playoff games in seven full seasons in Edmonton.
Many of the fans in attendance would likely have pined for any of the aforementioned quartet for much of Tuesday’s game, with the Oilers trailing for almost all of regulation, ultimately being outshot 43-28.
Fresh off the first shutout loss of his three-month tenure as the Oilers head coach – Sunday’s 4-0 defeat in Los Angeles was just the third time Edmonton had been held off the scoresheet all season – Woodcroft decided to make some changes, “shuffling the deck chairs,” as he put in after the morning skate.
So Kailer Yamamoto replaced Jesse Puljujarvi on Connor McDavid’s wing, with the Finnish forward dropping down to the third line alongside Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Versatile forward Derek Ryan also drew back into the lineup in place of Derick Brassard after missing Game 4 through injury, while Ryan McLeod moved up to the second line.
Connor McDavid said that the Kings had a greater compete level in Game 4, and the Oilers needed to play “desperate” hockey to pick up a win in Game 5.
History certainly bears out the Oilers captain’s call to arms. For just the second time ever, four Stanley Cup playoff Game 5s were played out the same day all with teams looking to break a 2-2 tie, and the difference between winning and losing at this stage of a best-of-seven series is stark.
When a series is level, the winner of Game 5 has a .791 series winning record, with teams that won Game 5 in such situations going 6-0 in winning series in last year’s playoffs. On top of that, the Oilers’ history in breaking a 2-2 tie at home has been overwhelmingly successful, with the Edmonton crowds bearing witness to three Game 5 victories versus just one loss.
Veteran blueliner Duncan Keith, a leader on all three Chicago Blackhawks championship teams in the 2010s, had called for a better start to Game 5 after an iffy first period in Sunday’s loss. However, his words clearly fell on deaf ears, as the Kings outshot the home team 16-5.
Worse still, the Oilers fell behind when Troy Stecher was given acres of space in the Oilers defensive zone to receive a pass from Alex Edler and one-time the puck past Mike Smith in the Edmonton goal. Smith would ultimately make 38 saves on the night.
Given the pattern of the series – with the team scoring the opening goal winning the first four games – conceding that early goal not only put the Oilers behind, but put a previously raucous crowd in Rogers Place on edge.
Despite having little to cheer for in an underwhelming first period, the crowd was quickly back into the contest in the second. Just 2:32 was on the clock when McDavid drew Jonathan Quick out of his net, quickly wrapping around the back to feed Zack Kassian, with the winger potting his first of the playoffs to knot the score at 1-1.
The period tilted back in LA’s favour just before the halfway point though, with Kempe taking a pass from pass from Anze Kopitar and rifling a shot past Smith. And fate rubbed some cruel salt into the wound barely four minutes later. Dustin Brown intercepted Brett Kulak’s attempted defensive zone clearance, and quickly got the puck to former Oiler Andreas Athanasiou at the side of Smith’s net, who happily flipped the puck home.
But 2:50 into the third period, with Blake Lizotte in the box for high-sticking, McDavid got the Oilers – and the fans – back into the game, taking a pass from Zach Hyman and deking Quick to his knees before backhanding a shot into the roof of the net. Quick finished with 24 saves.
Philip Danault restored the Kings’ two-goal advantage at the 11:06 mark, capitalizing on a double-minor to Ryan McLeod, with assists from Kempe and Sean Durzi.
With McLeod still in the box though, Draisaitl restored some hope with an unassisted shorthanded goal with 7:27 remaining. And a little extra dose of optimism arrived seconds later, when Danault, who at one point looked to have scored the game-winning goal, received a penalty for interference.
With the Kings centre in the box, it took just 31 seconds for Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid to work the puck to Draisaitl, who fired the puck into the net for his fifth goal of the playoffs to tie the score at 4-4. The assist was McDavid’s third point of the night.
But the Oilers never got a sniff in overtime, with both shots in the extra period coming off of Los Angeles stick blades. Happily for the Kings’ head coach, the second of those fell to his team’s leading goal scorer in the regular season.
“He’s become a big time player for us,” Todd McLellan said of Kempe. “He’s led us in goals this season. He’s got really good legs. He’s got a physical element to his game and you know if there’s a player I can pick coming down the wing with any type of speed taking it to the to the net, especially with a team that was tired a little as they couldn’t get guys off the ice, it would be Adrian.”
Heading back home, the Kings will now have a chance to eliminate the Oilers when they play host to Game 6 on Thursday.