EDMONTON, AB – APRIL 22: Edmonton Oilers Left Wing Leon Draisaitl (29) celebrates his incredible goal in the third period of the Western Conference First Round Edmonton Oilers game versus the Los Angeles Kings on April 22, 2023 at Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB. (Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The third time might not be the charm for the Los Angeles Kings.
Zach Hyman scored a hat-trick and the Edmonton Oilers routed the Kings 7-4 in Game 1 of their first-round series at Rogers Place on Monday night.
Connor McDavid did not score but had a playoff-record five assists in the victory.
“I thought we had a good start, I thought we were good in the first period, worked our way to a 2-0 lead and I thought we showed good energy and we played really well in the first,” McDavid said.
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Adam Henrique, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Warren Foegele also scored and Evan Bouchard chipped in with four assists for the Oilers, who had lost the first game of their last seven playoff series and had not won Game 1 of a series on home ice since 1990.
“I thought it was a great overall performance,” Bouchard said. “We got on them early like we wanted to do. They pushed, but we battled back and it worked out in our favor. ... Whenever you can get up in a series it’s always a good feeling, especially the way we did it.”
Monday's opener marked the third consecutive meeting between the two teams in the playoffs.
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Edmonton is 21-3 all-time when taking a 1-0 lead in a best-of-seven series.
Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings, who were eliminated in the opening round by the Oilers in each of the previous two seasons. Cam Talbot had 38 saves for Los Angeles and Oilers' goalie Stuart Skinner finished with 33 saves.
“That’s not our model. That’s not the way we play. It’s frustrating,” veteran Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We just have to put that game in the past and get back to doing what we do best and that’s playing good two-way hockey.
“We’re down 1-0, but we can easily win and make it 1-1 next game. We have to put it behind us, and learn from what we did wrong and fix what we did wrong and bring it into the next game.”
Hyman, who rang a shot off the post a few minutes earlier, started the scoring 6:52 into the opening period. McDavid spun off a defender and then sent a backhand pass in front to Hyman, who beat Talbot. Hyman had 54 goals in the regular season.
Edmonton made it 2-0 less than three minutes later as Henrique, who was picked up at the trade deadline from Anaheim, fired a perfect wrist shot top corner for his first goal in his first postseason appearance in six years. Henrique set a Stanley Cup playoff record for the longest span between goals, his last goal coming 4,333 days earlier when he was in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final in 2012 with the New Jersey Devils.
McDavid continued to work his magic 4:50 into the second period as he once again spun out from behind the net and sent another pretty backhand pass in front to Hyman for his second of the night. The goal came right on the heels of the Kings’ best opportunity to that point when Viktor Arvidsson was stopped on a breakaway by Skinner.
Edmonton added another goal on the power play 8:24 into the second period as Draisaitl spotted Nugent-Hopkins at the backdoor to make it 4-0.
The Kings finally got on the board with 9:04 to play in the second period as Anderson sent a long shot through traffic that got past Skinner for his first career playoff goal.
Los Angeles looked to have struck again less than two minutes later, but was waved off a video review indicated that a shot went off of Trevor Lewis’s glove and was directed into the net.
The Kings did score with 2:04 to play in the middle period as Kempe sent a shot on net that deflected off of defender Bouchard and into the Oilers net to make it 4-2.
Draisaitl scored from a tough angle on a power play at 1:08 of the third.
The Oilers scored a third power-play goal at 6:17 of the third period as Hyman took up position at the side of the net and allowed McDavid to bank it off his stick to finish the hat trick.
Oiler fans peppered the ice with 1,131 hats.
“It is good for the Oilers Store,” said a laughing Hyman, who had four hat tricks during the season. “That is crazy. I have never seen so many hats. It is pretty special to do it here in front of the fans.”
Dubois and Moore scored late to make it 6-4, before Foegele had an empty-netter to seal the win.
Anze Kopitar played in his 93rd career playoff game, passing Dustin Brown, Dave Taylor and Jonathan Quick for second- most in Kings franchise history. He is only one game back of all-time playoff leader Luc Robitaille.
Game 2 of the best of seven series is on Wednesday night in Edmonton.
