04/30/25 12:12:00
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04/30 00:10 CDT Mattias Janmark's goal sends dominant Oilers past Kings 3-1.
They take a 3-2 series lead to Edmonton
Mattias Janmark's goal sends dominant Oilers past Kings 3-1. They take a 3-2
series lead to Edmonton
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --- Mattias Janmark scored the tiebreaking goal at 7:12 of the
third period, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 Tuesday
night for their third consecutive victory and a 3-2 lead in their first-round
series.
Evander Kane and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored and Calvin Pickard made 20
saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who can advance
with a win in Game 6 in Edmonton on Thursday.
Edmonton was finally rewarded for dominating possession and shots throughout
Game 5 when Janmark converted a rebound of Viktor Arvidsson's shot.
After some fraught final moments, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added an empty-net goal
to finish the Oilers' franchise-record third consecutive comeback playoff
victory.
Andrei Kuzmenko scored and Darcy Kuemper stopped 43 shots for the second-seeded
Kings, who are one loss away from their fourth consecutive first-round playoff
exit at Edmonton's hands despite winning the first two games of this series at
home and blowing third-period leads in the next two.
The home teams won the first four games in this series, but the Kings then
faltered badly in the building where they had the NHL's best home record this
season. Los Angeles also led in the final minute of Game 4 before losing in
overtime, allowing Edmonton back into the series.
After mounting a third-period comeback to take Game 3, the Oilers have tilted
the series decidedly in their favor since midway through Game 4, utterly
dominating possession and shots. Edmonton has outshot the Kings 79-34 since the
start of the third period of Game 4.
But Kuemper made 19 saves in the first period of Game 5 to keep it scoreless,
and Los Angeles went ahead early in the second when Kuzmenko tipped home
captain Anze Kopitar's shot during a power play. Kuzmenko recorded his sixth
point of the postseason and his 23rd point in 27 games since joining the Kings
less than two months ago.
The Oilers answered less than three minutes later with Kane's second goal of
the series from the slot. Kane went unpunished later in the period for a
knee-on-knee hit on Kings scoring leader Adrian Kempe.
Edmonton's 33 shots in the first two periods were the most allowed all season
by Los Angeles, which was shut down after scoring 19 goals in the first four
games of the series.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
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