Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 12: Draisaitl scores twice as Oilers eliminate Kings for third straight season

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Stanley Cup Playoffs Day 12: Draisaitl scores twice as Oilers eliminate Kings for third straight season
Credit: © Perry Nelson

The Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights had a pivotal Game 5 at home, while the Los Angeles Kings looked to keep their season alive with a win in Edmonton.

Stars win third straight to take first lead in series

So far this first round series between the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights has seen the road team win every time. With the Stars able to overcome a 2-0 series deficit and take the series back home tied, would they be able to buck the trend and win at home?

It didn’t start that way. In fact, it started exactly like Game 1 did, with an early power play for Vegas resulting in a Mark Stone goal from almost the exact same spot. That lead lasted all of 62 seconds though, as Evgenii Dadonov responded with a goal of his own to tie the game. The action didn’t stop there in the first period either, as Matt Duchene and William Carrier exchanged goals to make it 2-2 before the end of frame.

Arguably the biggest turning point in the game was when Alex Pietrangelo took a roughing penalty on Tyler Seguin as retribution for Seguin’s earlier hit on Shea Theodore. With the Stars on the power play again, Jason Robertson scored off the rebound of his own blocked shot to give Dallas a 3-2 lead. That would hold as the final score, with Vegas unable to tie it up again, especially when Jake Oettinger was making saves like this.

With the 3-2 win, the Stars take a 3-2 lead in the series and have a chance to move on to the second round and eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champions on Friday. Wyatt Johnston had another strong game with two assists as the lone multi-point player and Oettinger stopped 25 of 27 shots in the win.

Draisaitl’s two goals give Oilers another series win over the Kings

In 2022, the Edmonton Oilers just got by the Los Angeles Kings with a Game 7 win. In 2023, the Kings gave the Oilers trouble early on, but they won three straight to take the series in six. This season, it’s barely looked close, and the Oilers have the chance to end it in five.

Things started out well for Edmonton, as even with the Kings limiting their chances, it only took about 10 minutes for Evander Kane to finally break through and open the scoring for the Oilers. But then it started to look like another game where Los Angeles was going to give them fits, as Alex Laferriere pounced on a lucky bounce off the glass with Stuart Skinner out of the net to tie the game, and then Blake Lizotte gave the Kings the lead 3:02 into the second.

But the Oilers’ big boys took over the game from that point on. Leon Draisaitl scored two straight goals later on in the second, with the first one needing video review to determine if it crossed the line, and then Zach Hyman scored with 53 seconds left in the second to make the game 4-2. Adrian Kempe scored in the final minutes to give them a scare, but that was as close as they would get, and the Oilers would win 4-3 to advance to Round 2. Draisaitl finished the night with the two goals, while Evan Bouchard had another great night on the backend with three assists.

The Oilers advance to the second round of the playoffs for the third straight season, and will face either the Vancouver Canucks or the Nashville Predators, with the Canucks currently up 3-2 in that series. The Kings are eliminated in the first round for the third straight season, and obviously it is once again at the hands of the Oilers.

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