EDMONTON, CANADA – MAY 01: Zach Hyman #18 of the Edmonton Oilers celebrates his second-period goal against the Los Angeles Kings with teammates Leon Draisaitl #29 and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins #93 in Game Five of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Place on May 1, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)
For the third consecutive season, the Los Angeles Kings have been eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Edmonton Oilers.
Leon Draisaitl scored two goals and the Oilers dispatched the Kings 4-3 in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Rogers Center in Edmonton.
Alex Laferriere, Blake Lizotte, and Adrian Kempe all scored for the Kings in the loss.
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Evander Kane also netted a goal for the Oilers and Zach Hyman scored his seventh goal of the series.
The only game Edmonton lost in the five-game series was a 5-4 loss in overtime of Game 2.
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Edmonton's Evan Bouchard had three assists in the victory and Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each had two. McDavid's two assists gave him a playoff-leading 12 points (one goal, and 11 assists) so far in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Oilers' goalie Stuart Skinner, the hero of Game 4 in Los Angeles, made 18 saves in Game 5.
LA Kings backup goalie David Rittich made his second straight start in the series and had 22 saves in the loss.
The Oilers opened the scoring in the first period, but the Kings leveled the score at the first intermission thanks to Laferriere's first career playoff goal.
Trailing 2-1, the Oilers scored three straight goals to take a 4-2 lead into the third period.
Draisaitl scored on the power play with 7:44 remaining in the second period and scored again five minutes later to give the Oilers the lead.
The Kings went to the penalty box again near the end of the period, giving the Oilers a man advantage. That's when Hyman tapped home the puck on the goal line to make it 4-2, just as the power play was ending.
The Kings did not score a single power-play goal all series (12 opportunities). Edmonton went 9-for-19 on the power play in the series.
Desperate to survive, the Kings pulled their goalie early in the final minutes. That's when Kempe's deflected shot snuck past Skinner to cut the lead to 4-3 with 2:18 remaining.
The Kings kept pushing for the equalizer, but the Oilers' defense did not break. The game was all but sealed when the Kings committed another penalty with 19.7 seconds remaining.
The Kings and Oilers battled to seven games in 2022, six games in 2023, and lost in five games this year.
Edmonton has now advanced out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in three consecutive seasons. That's the first time they've done that since 1990-92 with Wayne Gretzky played for them.
The Oilers now advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs where they will await the winner of the Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks series on Friday. Vancouver leads the series 3-2.
