Exhale, Oil Country. It’s over. On Sunday night, Edmonton came back and won after trailing by three goals in the playoffs for the first time since 1997. There were plenty of moments where the Oilers season was hanging in the balance, but at the end of the night, the series was knotted up at 2. Let’s take a look at how this wild game unfolded
A Rocky Start
The first period was a complete nightmare for the Edmonton Oilers. The Kings came out strong and were aggressively throwing pucks to the net.
In his first game of the series after returning from injury, Kevin Fiala moved wide on Vincent Desharnais and threw a pass off the pads of Skinner onto Gabriel Vilardi’s stick for the game’s opening goal.
After Korpisalo made a few huge saves to keep the game 1-0, Desharnais was beaten by Arvidsson, who slipped one past Skinner on the breakaway to extend the lead. On their first powerplay of the night, the Kings made it a 3-0 game after the puck hopped over Nurse’s stick not once but twice. This game looked like it was over.
A Dominant Second Period
Jack Campbell entered the game to replace Stuart Skinner to begin period 2. A sign that the Oilers were in desperate need of a spark to turn the tide of this game. They started building momentum on the powerplay when Bouchard blasted a slapshot and tickled the twine to make it 3-1. Bouchard finished the game with 3 points and now has 7 in the series, more than Connor McDavid!
As fantastic as Bouchard has been offensively in this series, Draisaitl has been even better. Leon scored back-to-back goals in a dominant second period that saw Edmonton outshoot the Kings 20-8 and outscore them 3-0 to tie the hockey game.
Back and forth
The Oilers shortened the bench for the 3rd period, as Klim Kostin and Vincent Desharnais never saw the ice again in this hockey game. The Kings controlled the play for most of the period, and they were rewarded at 4:38, as Draisaitl blew a tire in the neutral zone. Darnell Nurse didn’t notice that his centreman was in no position to backcheck and made an ill-advised aggressive move on Arvidsson, who shovelled the puck to Matt Roy for a breakaway goal.
Disaster nearly struck for Edmonton again when Hyman turned the puck over in the neutral zone to Philip Danault, who sent Arvidsson in alone for a breakaway. After coming in relief for his first action in about three weeks, Jack Campbell made an incredible, season-saving toe save on the play, keeping the Oilers alive.
With just over 3 minutes to play, when it looked like all hope was lost, McDavid made an excellent pass to Evander Kane, who sniped it high glove for his second goal of the series.
The Oilers OT Hero
Entering this game, the Oilers were 2-10 in playoff overtime games in the McDavid and Draisaitl era. The Oilers were determined to exercise their overtime demons tonight.
Evan Bouchard sent a long breakout pass to Zach Hyman, and on what initially looked like a harmless play, Drew Doughty gave Hyman too much time and space, and he tucked one underneath the right arm of Korpisalo for the game-winner!
Game 4 Takeaways
The Oilers were much more disciplined in this hockey game, and Jack Campbell gave them excellent goaltending when called upon. The secondary scoring also showed up for the first time in the series, with Kane, Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins all contributing offensively in this game.
Draisaitl, Bouchard, and McDavid continued to shine offensively, with 3 points each. These factors combined allowed them to overcome some spotty defensive play and a solid early push from the LA Kings. Viktor Arvidsson and Kevin Fiala made a major impact tonight. Neither of these players was with the team during last year’s first-round series against the Oilers, which highlights just how much more dangerous the Kings have the potential to be offensively.
Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft will have plenty of lineup decisions to make heading into the next one. Will he go back to Stuart Skinner? Will Desharnais come out of the lineup after a rough night? The series shifts back to Edmonton for game five on Tuesday night! It should be another beauty!