GAME RECAP: Kings 6, Oilers 5 (Game 1)

LOS ANGELES, CA – It was a terrific comeback at Crypto.com Arena – until it crashed.

After fighting back with three straight goals in the third period, the Edmonton Oilers would have their late heroics undone in the final minute of regulation, losing 6-5 to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of their first-round series on Monday after Phillip Danault notched the winner with 42 seconds left in the third.

"This is the playoffs. This group has been through games like this numerous times," Zach Hyman said. "Sometimes, games aren't scripted like you think they're going to go, and you have to find a way to win. We fell short today, which sucks, and nobody's happy about it, but we have a history of bouncing back and I'm sure we'll play a lot better in Game 2."

"We don't quit. We believe in ourselves. We've got some really talented players who can wheel us back in the game, and they did that."

Oilers captain Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists, earning the primary helpers on goals from Corey Perry and Zach Hyman in the final frame that made it a one-goal game with over two minutes left in the third period before he tied the contest at 5-5 to complete the comeback just 36 seconds later.

But on the Kings' final rush, Danault managed to find the late winner when he scraped a shot from between the circles that fluttered its way through the air and past Stuart Skinner to erase Edmonton's late heroicsafter they fought hard to come all the way back from a 5-2 deficit in the third period.

Evan Bouchard produced three helpers, Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry each recorded a goal and an assist, and Stuart Skinner stopped 25 of 30 shots in the heartbreaking defeat for the Oilers that was their third Game 1 defeat to the Kings over four straight meetings in the first round of the playoffs.

The Kings scored twice on five power-play chances, which included one conversion on two different five-on-threes in the third period, while the Oilers man advantage was unable to capitalize on their two opportunities.

The Oilers and Kings will wage Game 2 of their first-round series back at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday night.

FIRST PERIOD

The Kings lifted themselves into their first lead of the series 2:49 into the opening frame after defenceman Brett Kulak was assessed a holding the stick penalty that didn't seem to deserve the two minutes when you consider that the threshhold for infractions usually goes up in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It was the first of six penalties from the Oilers that made their job ins hostile territory at Crypto.com Arena a lot harder on Monday night, along with having a few players in Zach Hyman, Leon Draisaitl and Trent Frederic playing their first games in a while for the team after finishing the regular season injured.

"Could've been sharper," Hyman said. "Obviously gave up too many opportunities. They were better than us on the special teams. In playoffs, special teams are huge and we took too many penalties – some I didn't think were penalties – but it is what it is. As a group, we could definitely be a lot sharper."

Kulak was called for grabbing the stick of forward Jeff Malott below Edmonton's goal line, and Los Angeles capitalized on their opening man advantage to make it 1-0 just under three minutes into the first period when Andrei Kuzmenko was at the left post to redirect in Kevin Fiala's shot from the right circle.

Vasily Podkolzin nearly got it back on another deflection from ebtween the hashmarks a few minutes later, putting his stick on Evan Bouchard's point shot that forced Darcy Kuemper into his first big save of the contest as the Oilers tried to put more pucks and bodies around the Kings' crease.

A Drew Doughty crosscheck into the numbers of Mattias Janmark before the eight-minute mark sent the Oilers to their first power play, where the Blue & Orange had some chances but were unable to really test Kuemper on their opening man advantage other than one dangerous one-timer from Leon Draisaitl.

Edmonton's power play looked a bit disconnected on its first opportunity with their top unit playing together for the first time in 15 games, which dates back to the last time that McDavid and Draisaitl were both in the lineup in a 7-1 win over Utah Hockey Club on Mar. 18. The Kings also have an aggressive penalty kill that did its job on the first try as they attempt to limit the impact Edmonton's power play that went 54.1 percent in 2023-24 and 46.1 percent in 2022-23.

Late in the period, the Kings doubled their lead on a bank shot from Quinton Byfield when the puck was dug out along the boards and moved across the blueline to Doughty, who put it on goal and had the rebound buried by Byfield from a tight angle off the back of Stuart Skinner's arm with 27 seconds left.

The Kings were victorious in Game 1 in two of their previous three playoff meetings, and the hosts had the start they wanted on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena where they had the NHL's best home record at 31-6-4 this past regular season.

SECOND PERIOD

After things didn't go the way of the Blue & Orange late in the middle frame with the Kings building their lead to 4-0 off goals from Adrian Kempe and Phillip Danault, Draisaitl was able to spark his group before the intermission when he got the Oilers on the board in the dying seconds of the period.

Stuart Skinner had to make a big stretching save early in the frame to kick Andrei Kuzmenko's wrap-around off the goal line, but the Oilers netminder wasn't getting a lot of help going the other end after it took Edmonton's offence until 9:13 of the frame to fire their first shot of the period against Kuemper.

"Just getting in and creating some more chances. I think that was it," Adam Henrique said of the missing element in the second period.

"I thought we got to that as the game went on, but you have a game plan going in and sometimes, depending on how the game goes, that kind of adjusts and coaches make adjustments on the fly or in between periods. I thought we adjusted as the game went on with all the guys coming back into the lineup."

Before the five-minute mark, the Oilers committed their first of two turnovers that would result in the Kings adding to their lead when Bouchard's backhand up the boards was picked off by Kempe, ultimately resulting in him scoring on his second opportunity by rounding Stuart Skinner and putting them up 3-0.

Just 2:57 later, Bouchard coughed up a bad pass from behind the Edmonton net that found its way onto the tape of Danault, making it 4-0 and leaving the Oilers with a sizeable deficit with under two-and-a-half minutes remaining in the second period.

Despite the pair of errors, Bouchard will continue to be relied upon with Mattias Ekholm set to be out for the entire first round, and the Oilers were essentially running four defencemen for the final two periods of Game 1 after Josh Brown finished with 4:54 of total ice time and Ty Emberson with 13:10.

But there was still plenty of time left for Bouchard to try and make up for his mistakes.

"We had many games where four of our defencemen played over 25 minutes, and it was very similar tonight," Knoblauch said. "We'd like to have Mattias back with us, but obviously he's not going to be, so we're going to need big performances out of those four."

"I saw Evan give us an excellent opportunity to win tonight. He made a lot of nice plays," Knoblauch added. "Was his game perfect? I'm not sure anybody's game was perfect tonight, so I think Evan's a very important part of our team. If we're going to have success, especially when we're missing one of our key defencemen, our top four really has to step up."

Draisaitl took action on the final shift of the period, the German superstar would combine with McDavid and Bouchard to cut into the Kings' lead.

Pressing hard in the dying stages of the period, the Oilers got on the board when McDavid took a pass from Bouchard near the top of the zone and cut around Anze Kopitar before finding Draisaitl as he opened up on the right side for a one-timer that beat Kuemper inside the right post to make it 4-1.

The Oilers were going to need to carry that late momentum into the third period, where we were in store for an exciting and eventful finish to Game 1.

Coach Knoblauch was still tweaking his lines during the second period attempting to find the right formula with a number of players returning from injury, including Trent Frederic, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman up front, and some of those changes helped contribute to their heroic comeback over the final 20.

"We maneuvered the lines quite a bit tonight. A lot in the second period," he said. "We went a long stretch spending a lot of time in the offensive zone, but not generating many shots, so we did some line juggling there. In the third period we had a little more momentum, but I was just trying to figure out which guys were going and who could help us."

THIRD PERIOD

It was heartbreaking way for the Oilers to come up short in Game 1 – especially after they came all the way back in heroic fashion – when the last bounce didn't go in their favour to leave them nearly no time left on the clock to find another clutch equalizer.

Mattias Janmark cleaned up a loose puck 2:17 into the final frame that made it 4-2 before Kevin Fiala scored quickly on a five-on-three advantage almost two-and-a-half minutes later that restored the Kings' three-goal lead with over three quarters of the third period remaining.

"We stayed with it even though there's a lot of opportunities to quit," Hyman said.

Corey Perry pushed aside Vladislav Gavrikov in front of the Kings' goal and put away McDavid's pass that slid under the defenceman to make it 5-3 with 12:17 left in the third period before Jake Walman was controversially given a delay of game penalty over a minute later for putting a puck out of play.

Walman's attempted clearance appeared to tick the glass, prompting a coach's challenge from Coach Knoblauch that was upheld by the officials to put the Oilers on another two-man disadvantage that their penalty kill was able stop in heroic fashion to keep the deficit at two midway through the frame.

That provided momentum for the Oilers that ultimately wound up being the catalyst to a determined push over the final 10 minutes of the third period that saw them come all the way back to make it 5-5 before it was all unjustly erased late in regulation by a lucky bounce for Danault.

"I liked our effort," Knoblauch said. "We had an important penalty kill and they were able to do that at five on three, and after that, it carried a lot of momentum for us. Connor and Leon made some really good plays to get us back in that game. Five on five, I thought we had a lot of time in the offensive zone, didn't get enough chances, and then just some breakdowns that led to goals against."

With Edmonton's net empty, Hyman found space in front during the final three minutes of regulation to cut the lead to one goal by putting away McDavid's pass, setting up the moment for the captain to equalize only 36 seconds later and bring things back to a tie game with 1:28 remaining in regulation.

The Oilers captain took a pass with speed in the neutral zone from Leon Draisaitl and bounced the puck off the boards past Gavrikov inside the blueline before he came in along the left side one-on-one against Kuemper and buried the late equalizer five-hole, seemingly doing enough to get the game to OT.

But them's the bounces when you're in the playoffs.

After it was looking like sudden death would decide Game 1, the Kings had one more rush opportunity in the final minute of regulation that saw Danault score the deciding goal in cruel fashion to condemn the Oilers to defeat.

Danault scraped his shot from the top of the circles on a late three-on-two opportunity for the Kings that managed to flutter through the air and avoid the sights of Stuart Skinner before knuckling into the back of the net to condemn the Oilers to a 6-5 defeat in Game 1.

"Danault fanned on the shot and it just fluttered towards the net," Knoblauch said. "Absolutely there was a screen in front of our goalie and it got through."

Though it may have ended in defeat, Knoblauch said the resilience of their team was on display over the final 20 minutes after the first two periods didn't yield too many positives for the Blue & Orange. But there's a lot to build on from that final period heading into a crucial Game 2 on Wednesday night.

"I'd seen it many times last year. They never give up," Knoblauch said. "They're resilient, they stay composed, and they focus on what needs to be done. We've seen a lot of adversity over these last two playoffs, and guys stick with it. They're a mature group. They can handle a lot of adversity. They've seen a lot and they don't get too rattled when things aren't going well, and the first 40 minutes, things hadn't gone very well for us."