GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Kings 4 (Game 6)

LOS ANGELES, CA - With a spin and a flick, Kailer Yamamoto clinched a first round series win over the Kings.

The 24-year-old scored the winner with 3:03 left in the third period to give the Oilers a 5-4 victory in Los Angeles, eliminating the Kings for a second straight season.

Edmonton was led by a two-goal performance by Klim Kostin, while Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid also scored to set up Yamamoto's eventual game winner.

The Kings showed the same resiliency on Saturday night that they have all series, battling back from a two-goal Oilers lead, but Edmonton's offence proved to be too much in the first round series. Los Angeles saw goals by Sean Durzi, Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala, and Phillip Danault in Saturday night's loss. 

Stuart Skinner was stellar in the Edmonton crease -- besides one unlucky break late in the third period -- turning away 40 of Los Angeles' 44 shots in the evening. The one unlucky 'break' was a literal break in Skinner's stick that allowed the Kings to tie the game 4-4 late in the contest. However, the Oilers captain and the playoff experienced Oilers knew how to handle the unfortunate turn of fortune. 

"It's funny, I was having flashbacks to game 4 against Calgary last year. It's good that we've been in that situation before where a weird one kind of goes in where you feel like you're doing a lot of good things and it kind of feels funny that the game's tied," McDavid said. You didn't really do anything wrong, but tough break. Credit to Skin to shut the door down after. We weren't exactly solid in front of him coming down the stretch, but he just gave us a chance to win and obviously the little guy (Yamamoto) steps up over here, so it's credit to both those guys."

The Oilers will now face the Pacific Division champion Vegas Golden Knights next week in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"Their rink brings a lot of energy, I'd expect some physicality," McDavid said about his upcoming opponent. "They're a big group. I would expect lots of energy, lots of emotion, like every playoff series brings. They're a real good team and we have a couple of days to get ready here and go from there."

Video: OILERS TODAY | Post-Game 6 at LAK 04.29.23 

In a series where space has been at a premium, Connor McDavid found a soft spot in the Kings defence to get the Oilers on the board early.

The Oilers captain snuck away from Matt Roy and set a target for Evan Bouchard who made the heads-up slap pass to the tape of McDavid. A soft touch by the Rocket Richard winner and the puck was tucked between the pads of Korpisalo for the game's first goal.

The opener was McDavid's third goal of the playoffs and his ninth point, but the first of his goals to come at even strength. Head Coach Jay Woodcroft continued to utilize the trio of McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evander Kane to great effect early in the game, with the unit causing havoc in the Kings zone prior to the eventual goal and nearly adding another on a 2-on-1 a few minutes later.

"I think that's one of the tools in the coaches toolkit. There were times this year where they played together, times when they've played apart," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said about the trio. "I, probably out of all the coaches that have coached them, have played them the least together. But I see why, when they do play together, it's magic."

The first period goal came just 1:25 Into the game and was the fastest goal of the series.

Video: POST-RAW | Connor McDavid, Kailer Yamamoto 04.29.23

After the Kings equalized midway through the first period with a Sean Durzi wrister that found its way through a screened Stuart Skinner, a Russian rocket gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead before the end of the frame.

It was Klim Kostin who notched his second of the playoffs, weaving his way across the Kings blue line before firing a laser of a wrist shot from the slot by Korpisalo. The wicked wrister was a seeing eye attempt that whizzed past both Durzi and Sean Walker before reaching the twine behind the Kings netminder.

Kostin wasn't done in the evening. After the Kings had tied the game 3-3, the burly forward followed up on a rebound created by sneaky tip by Kailer Yamamoto and banged his second of the game into the Kings net to give Edmonton the lead through 40 minutes. 

The 23-year-old's other goal of the postseason was another rocket of a shot that eluded Korpisalo and held up as the game winner back in Game 3.

"For Klim, first of all, he didn't play much in Game 4,  but he found a way to score the winner in Game 2. He came up with some big goals here in Game 6. He's a big body that's tough to handle and complements his linemates," Woodcroft said. 

Video: POST-RAW | Jay Woodcroft 04.29.23 

Timing was everything when it came to Stuey's sensational second period stop.

With the Oilers on a power play following an Alex Iafallo tripping call on Connor McDavid, the Kings were sprung on a shorthanded 2-on-1 with their leading goalscorer Adrian Kempe in possession of the puck. The Swedish sniper fired a wicked shot on Skinner that was labelled for the top corner, but the rookie netminder challenged and blockered the attempt out of danger.

The stop proved to be massive for the Oilers, who would take the 3-1 lead less than a minute later. McDavid set up Draisaitl at his trademark spot for the onetimer and the German superstar's seventh goal of the playoffs.

The power play has been a series swinger at times in the first-round matchup between the Oilers and Kings and its importance was once again felt in Game 6. Both squads had already combined for 13 power-play goals entering the night and they continued to rack them up on Saturday.

After Draisaitl's special team's marker gave the Oilers a 3-1 advantage, a pair of penalties by Nick Bjugstad for holding and Mattias Ekholm for high-sticking allowed Los Angeles to creep back into the contest.

First, Adrian Kempe scored his fifth of the series, whizzing a top corner shot by the earhole of Skinner's mask to cut the lead to one. Then it was Kevin Fiala who notched his first of the playoffs with an inch perfect shot to tie the game 3-3 with 11:44 remaining in the second. The top-corner shots were the type of efforts needed to beat Skinner through two periods, who turned aside 30 of 33 Kings attempts through 40 minutes.

Video: EDM@LAK, Gm6: Draisaitl, McDavid combine for a PPG

The Oilers had the perfect opportunity to take a stranglehold on the game with 13-minutes left in the third period, but disaster struck.

Edmonton was on the power play after Quinton Byfield put the clamps on Yamamoto in front of the Kings goal. The Oilers PP that was operating at 60.0 per cent at the time tried to go to work, but after Skinner collected a clearing attempt and looked to make a simple outlet feed to Evan Bouchard, but his stick gave out and Phillip Danault was able to bury the loose puck into the wide-open cage.

The stroke of luck was exactly the break Los Angeles needed, tying the game 4-4 and setting up a nail-biting finish to Saturday night's game.

"I noticed when it actually broke, but when I got the puck, I didn't feel like it was anything different. I felt like I was totally fine and just tried to hit Bouch with a nice hard, crisp pass and just kind of snapped it on the bottom there," Skinner said. "Free goal for that guy, but that stuff happens. It's about how you bounce back from that. It's about how you respond to moments like that and I thought we did a great job in how we responded."

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft on winning in six games:

"What I do think is that every game in the playoffs takes a toll -- a physical, mental, and emotional toll. By not extending the series, you build up a little rest time in between series and I think that benefits us. So taking care of business on the road to find a way to beat this team three games in a row, I think it was important for that very reason."

Woodcroft on Yamamoto's game winner:

"When he walked into our dressing room, there was a real loud cheer because everyone cheers for him because he's a little engine that could play in the National hockey League at his size without having an unbelievable amount of determination and will. So while it didn't go in the net for him early in the series, he stuck with it. He stuck with it and eventually he ended up scoring the series winner."

Woodcroft on his team's ability to overcome adversity:

"I think to discover is superior to being told, so sometimes you have to go through something like this in order to see what you're made of. I think the first round of the NHL playoffs is a unique experience. I can't compliment the LA Kings enough because they played a hard series. They're a very unique team in the way they play the game, but were prepared for it. We altered our game to try and meet this challenge and in the end we're moving on. So I'm proud of our group."

Woodcroft on the adjustments the Oilers made in the series:

"I'll let you go over the film if you want to do that, but I'm not going to give any secret sauce or any insight into how we think as an organization or team. Those are trade secrets, but needless to say, we had to do some things in order to meet the challenge of the LA Kings. As I said, it was a huge challenge, hard fought series, and I'm just happy that we came out on top."

Video: POST-RAW | Stuart Skinner 04.29.23

Stuart Skinner on winning the series against the Kings:

"Yeah, obviously an exciting day, but when the sun comes up tomorrow morning, it's a different day, different challenge. We got a long road ahead of us and we have a great team ahead of us and it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to take everybody. It's just a new challenge, so it'll be nice to enjoy this one, but we got a lot more work to do.

Skinner on Yamamoto scoring the winner

"Yeah, I was very excited, obviously, but I still knew there's a lot of time on the clock. I think it's 3:02 and I know that I had to get my mind right for those three minutes. Yeah, it's a great goal. Very happy about it. Won us the game, won us the series, and now we're just moving forward from that."

Skinner on what Connor McDavid told him after the game:

"He told me that next time I should check my stick. We had a little giggle and then we had a big hug there. Obviously, I'm very proud of him and what he's done, and as a leader, as a person, as a player, and I think the same goes for him towards me. The message is that it's hard to win and we have a lot more to give. I've got a lot better, he's got a lot better, we all have a lot better. Just as a team, it's going to be hard. So we got to giddy up here and get excited for this next series.

Mattias Ekholm's thoughts on the win:

"Stu stood in there for us. I've never seen any like it with the stick break there, but talk about resiliency in this team and coming back, finding the goal, digging one out late and be able to defend it at the end there was huge. Everybody was sacrificing and as you said, I thought we kept them from setting up, we kept them from pressure towards the end there we got the pucks out and yeah, huge win for us."

Video: POST-RAW | Mattias Ekholm 04.29.23

Ekholm on winning the series in six:

"I have some experience in this. I think we had a pretty good team in Nashville, not sure what year it was, but went seven games with Anaheim, went seven games with San Jose and then game seven in San Jose. We were all just so gassed. That's the reality of it. It is hard, especially the travel part of it too and that would have been the same thing here. It's still a three-hour flight going back home to Edmonton. So for us to be able to get a couple of days here to regroup and reset. I think it's huge."

Kailer Yamamoto on his line and the game winner:

"I played with Klim the whole game. He was firing on all cylinders tonight. He had two tonight, so I know once we were buzzing around in the O-zone, something good was going to happen. He had a great net front, I think there was like 2-3 bodies there, but I just shot it and thankfully it went in."

Connor McDavid on the Oilers showing their resiliency:

"I think a lot of people look at the Oilers and think it's a two-or-three man team. It's not at all. It couldn't be further from that at all. Up and down the lineup, we've got contributions. Both goalies stepped up huge in the series. You know, we had seven D-men play and a bunch of different forwards stepping up at crucial times. That's what playoff hockey is all about. It's a good sign for a group."

McDavid on being able to beat a defensively sound Kings squad:

"We always talk about a time when that would happen (losing to a defensive team). We beat them in a long series last year too. We're comfortable playing in these games, we said that. I think we showed that they're a good team. They're stingy. They're better offensively than I think people give them credit for. They've got some elite players and some real solid defencemen, so they're a good team and it's a credit to us to get the job done here."

McDavid on the job Jay Woodcroft has done as Oilers coach:

"I really believe that Woody's right in the top five top three coaches in the league. I really believe that. We've had him here in edmonton for a number of years. He's been part of the organization ever since I've been here and he knows us all really well. He's a great leader, great communicator, has us playing a certain way that seems to be working. And the whole coaching staff honestly deserves a lot of credit.