The Edmonton Oilers could not have drawn up a better start to game 3 against the Los Angelese Kings. The Oilers opened up this game scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. After that the Kings were able to score 3 straight to take the lead. The Oilers were once again able to tie it only to give it back up less than 10 seconds later. The Oilers then were able to get control of the game before adding 2 empty netters at the end of the game.
The big story heading into this game was the fact the Calvin Pickard is getting the start over Stuart Skinner. After watching this game, I do not think there is a chance that Skinner gets back in any time soon. While Pickard's SV% was only 0.863 he was able to make some bigger saves. After he made the big save, I found myself thinking "I don't think Skinner would have saved that". This goes to show that even though you have a low save percentage you can still leave the game feeling good about a goalie if he makes a couple of big saves and most importantly gets the win.
Coaching mistake by Kings ended up costing them
The big moment from this game that will be talked about around the watercooler, was the challenge made by Jim Hiller on the Evander Kane 4-4 tying goal. The goal was already reviewed once because the original call on the ice was that Kane kicked it in. Upon review he ended up hitting it with his stick before the puck finally crossed the line. After that Hiller made the decision to challenge the goal for goaltender interference.
After a fairly short review the officals determined that there was no goaltender interference on the play. This resulted in a delay of game penalty and a powerplay for the Oilers. On that powerplay the Oilers wasted no time scoring just 10 seconds in on a nice give an go between Draisaitl and Bouchard. The Kings did have a couple good chances in the closing seconds, but the Oilers were still able to add 2 empty net goals, making the last couple of moments not so nerve racking for us fans.
The Oilers will have a chance to even up the series on Sunday back down at Rogers Place. The best thing about this win is it not only gives the Oilers players some confidence, but it should start to put some doubt in the mind of some of the Kings players. After beating the Kings in the last few season the Oilers will look to do it again by parlaying this one win into 3 more.