Kings hope to learn after recovering for ‘little bit scary’ win in Game 1

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Kings were relieved that an extremely valuable lesson came in a victory.

A little more than 43 years after the “Miracle on Manchester” took place in a Stanley Cup Playoff game between the Kings and Edmonton Oilers, there was nearly the “Fold on Figueroa” on Monday.

Los Angeles blew a 4-0 lead before recovering late for a 6-5 win against Edmonton in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round at Crypto.com Arena, which is located along Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles.

The game brought back memories of a 6-5 overtime win by Los Angeles against Edmonton in Game 3 of the 1982 Smythe Division Semifinals, when it stormed back from a 5-0 third-period deficit at Great Western Forum on Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood, California.

“That was a little bit scary,” said Kings forward Phillip Danault, who broke the 5-5 tie at 19:18 of the third period. “There were ups and downs, we were up 4-0 and they come back. We know they have an offensive machine and we have to learn from this and move on.”

Playing the Oilers for the fourth consecutive time in the first round, the Kings know they cannot afford to let their guard down against Connor McDavid, although they got another reminder of it.

McDavid almost single-handedly mounted the improbable comeback in the third period, making for a wild finish. He set up Corey Perry to make it 5-3 at 7:43, Zach Hyman to cut it to 5-4 at 17:56 and scored to tie the game 5-5 at 18:32.

The game looked destined for overtime before Danault flubbed a shot over Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner on an odd-man rush in the final minute of the third period.

“I don’t think we took the foot off the gas,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “That’s a high offense powered team over there and when you give them a sniff, they’ll take it, and they certainly did. Obviously, being up 4-0 and 4-1 going into the third period, we want to make sure we lock it down and not make it too interesting like we did tonight.”

Prior to McDavid taking over the game, the Kings were in complete control. They took a 2-0 lead in the first period and were up 4-0 with time running out in the second.

McDavid set up Leon Draisaitl at 19:54 of the second period to make it 4-1, giving the Oilers a spark. McDavid and Draisaitl were playing in the same game for the first time since March 18. Both missed extended time with injuries in the last few weeks of the regular season.

Mattias Janmark then cut the lead to 4-2 at 2:19 of the third, but Kevin Fiala restored the three-goal lead on a 5-on-3 power play at 4:59.

At that point, it appeared the Kings were going to lock things down and cruise to a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. But they were reminded just why McDavid is considered the most dynamic player in the NHL.

“Obviously, you always want to keep pushing,” Fiala said. “We can learn from today, so hopefully that doesn’t happen next time.”

Heading into the series, Los Angeles was confident it could get past the Oilers despite losing the previous three years. The Kings have home-ice advantage on this occasion, though, after finishing second the Pacific Division, four points ahead of the Oilers.

“It’s not ideal how it happened,” Kings forward Quinton Byfield said. “We let our guard down a little bit and it’s a great team over there and they have world-class players. They’re never going to stop going and it happened, and it was a big goal for us there.”

It was only the fourth time a team has come back to tie a game after trailing by four goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The five-goal comeback by Los Angeles on April 10, 1982, is among them.

On that night, Daryl Evans scored the winning goal in overtime to give Los Angeles the 6-5 win in Game 3 of the best-of-5 first round series. Evans is now a commentator for the Kings and was in the dressing room after the game.

“We made a couple of mistakes and they made a couple of good plays,” Los Angles coach Jim Hiller said. “We’re going to make some good plays and we’re going to make some mistakes, and we did in those moments and they took advantage.”

Lesson learned for the Kings, who will look to extend their series advantage in Game 2 on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; FDSNW, MAX, TBS, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“When you’re up 4-0, we have to do a better job of closing that game off, but a win’s a win and we’ll take that,” Byfield said. “We’ll enjoy it and move on tomorrow. This happened before when we had [a three-goal lead in Game 4, 2023] and they came back on us and ended up winning that game. No lead is safe in the playoffs and they’re coming all the time, and we have to learn from that and learn to defend that a little better.”