April 30 – EditorsNote: Minor rewording in lede and 4th graf; changed to “goal” in 5th graf; added “Leon” in 9th graf;
Kailer Yamamoto scored with 3:03 left and the visiting Edmonton Oilers held on to eliminate the Los Angeles Kings with a 5-4 win in Game 6 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series on Saturday night.
Klim Kostin had two goals and an assist, Connor McDavid and Yamamoto each had a goal and an assist and Stuart Skinner made 40 saves for the Oilers, who won the final three games of the series.
Kevin Fiala had a goal and two assists, Sean Durzi, Adrian Kempe and Phillip Danault also scored and Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves for the Kings, who had a 3-2 series lead against Edmonton in the first round last season before losing the final two games.
The Oilers went on the man advantage at 6:42 of the third period while holding a 4-3 lead. The puck came to Skinner, and he had time to clear it, but his blade had cracked, allowing Danault to skate in and score short-handed to tie it 4-4 at 7:46.
Yamamoto brought the puck from below the goal line and above the left faceoff circle before spinning and shooting through traffic to score the game-winner, his first goal of the series.
Edmonton took a 1-0 lead at 1:25 of the first period when McDavid redirected a pass between Korpisalo’s pads.
The Kings tied it 1-1 at 8:13 on Durzi’s wrist shot through traffic from above the left circle.
Kostin gave the Oilers a 2-1 lead at 12:12 of the first period with a wrist shot off the rush from the high slot.
Leon Draisaitl scored with a one-timer from the right faceoff dot while on a power play to extend the lead to 3-1 at 4:06 of the second period, his seventh goal of the series and third on the power play.
The Kings answered with back-to-back power-play goals 1:40 apart to tie the score.
Kempe made it 3-2 at 6:36, and Fiala tied it 3-3 at 8:16.
The Oilers quickly regained the lead when Kostin shot into the net to make it 4-3 at 10:54 of the second.
–Field Level Media
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