This will be the fourth straight season the two teams have met in the first round. The Oilers won each of the previous three while holding home-ice advantage.
“Our goal was to make the playoffs, that was our first goal, and then go from there,” Oilers forward Corey Perry said. “We know who we’re playing. We open up on the road, so we’ll go out and do a job on the road.
“It’s not the first time or the last time we’re going to open up a series on the road. We’ve been decent on the road (22-16-2) and we know how to play just a boring style of hockey.”
Kempe had a goal and two assists, and Kevin Fiala and Warren Foegele each had a goal and an assist for the Kings (47-24-9), who have won three in a row and seven of their past eight. Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves before being pulled midway through the third period for David Rittich, who stopped all five shots he faced.
Calvin Pickard made 31 saves for the Oilers (47-29-5), who were coming off a 4-1 win at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
Edmonton played without forwards Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, as well as defensemen Mattias Ekholm and Jake Walman.
“I think overall we didn’t execute and play as well as we did the night before,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Obviously, L.A. brought a lot more to the table than Winnipeg did the night before."
The Kings went 2-for-8 with the man-advantage. Edmonton was 0-for-6.
“Not exactly our lineup and we spent most of the night in the box, so tough to diagnose,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said.
Foegele put the Kings ahead 1-0 shortly after a power play expired at 2:55 of the first period. He tapped in the puck at the right post after his initial redirection of Phillip Danault's shot caromed back off the end boards.
Quinton Byfield made it 2-0 on a power play at 9:26, deflecting Kempe's shot from the point in the high slot. It was Byfield’s fourth straight game with a goal.
However, Byfield left the game late in the second period after getting hauled to the ice and cross-checked in the back of the helmet by Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse, who was assessed a game misconduct on the play.
“No update,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He wasn’t able to finish, that’s all. It doesn’t matter how I saw it.”
Vladislav Gavrikov extended the lead to 3-0 at 18:45 of the first. He received a cross-ice pass from Trevor Moore as the trailer on a rush and beat Pickard's glove from the top of the left circle.
Fiala made it 4-0 on a power play at 7:43 of the second period, burying a one-timer glove side from the right circle after taking a cross-ice pass from Kempe. Fiala has five goals in his past three games.
“We got behind early. They score about three power-play goals, I know one was after it expired, but pretty much a power-play goal, and that was just too much for our group to overcome," Knoblauch said.
