4/25 GAME 5 FINAL Kings 3, Oilers 6

The Kings were back in Edmonton for Game 5 with series the best-of-7 series tied at 2-2 apiece. It's a game the Kings will want put behind them as the Oilers quickly had the Kings on their heels. 

For the third time in Edmonton in the series, the Oilers came out firing on home ice and netted the game's first two goals. Coming eight and 10 minutes into the game, an Oilers power-play goal by Evander Kane opened the scoring and a net front Leon Draisaitl goal from Connor McDavid doubled the home team's lead. Unlike Game's 1 and 2, the Kings were able to fight back in the first period and get on the scoreboard. Adding to a chaotic and eventful first period, Alex Iafallo scored his third goal of the series to get the Kings back within one, burying a rebound off of an Adrian Kempe shot with 6:38 to go in the opening period. The five-goal first period saw an Oilers goal by Brett Kulak respond to the Kings goal just 59 seconds later to take back the two-goal lead, but the Kings responded again before period's end. Kempe netted his team-leading fourth goal of the series with a beautiful in tight tally to make the game 3-2. With the goal, Kempe extended his postseason-opening point streak to five games (4-3=7), the longest by a Kings skater since 2014 (Anze Kopitar: 10GP and Jeff Carter: 5GP). 

Down a goal after 20 minutes, the Kings were unable to to even the score and saw the Oilers lead grow. After a Nick Bjugstad tip with 8:01 to go in the second period, Head Coach made a goalie change and in came Pheonix Copley for Joonas Korpisalo. Korpisalo's night ended with 15 saves on 19 shots. 

The Oilers then extended their lead on a fortuitous bounce as a point shot from Evan Bouchard found the face of Zach Hyman and deflected into the Kings net for the opposition's second power-play goal of the night giving them a 5-2 lead. 

Into the third period trailing by three, the Kings allowed another Bjugstad goal to make it 6-2 before finding back of the net themselves. A significant goal did come for the Kings as Quinton Byfield notched his first career playoff goal off of a nice in zone cycle between he, Gabriel Vilardi and Kevin Fiala. the goal for Byfield was his first in 20 games and was his third point of the series. 

The 6-3 loss now puts the Kings down 3-2 in the series and will have them a loss away from elimination. Game 6 doesn't come until Saturday at crypto.com Arena, time TBD/TBA.