Kings fail to gain ground on Oilers
Edmonton’s best effort in last 10 games halts L.A.’s momentum at the outset of its trip.
EDMONTON, Canada — Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard each had a goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Kings 4-2 on Monday night to end a three-game skid.
Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored, and Connor McDavid had two assists to help the Oilers move two points up on the Kings for third place in the Pacific Division. Stuart Skinner stopped 38 shots.
Trevor Moore and Alex Laferriere scored for the Kings, who had won five of their previous six games. David Rittich made 27 saves.
“We were in a good spot going into the third and they had a better jump than we did at the start and we couldn’t get our momentum back there,” Moore said. “We took a couple of penalties and after that it was a tough night. I thought we had a good 40 going and it goes to show you how fast it can flip, but we’ll rebound.”
The Kings scored first 6:45 into the opening period as the puck came off the back boards to Quinton Byfield and he shoveled it to Moore, who beat Skinner with a wrist shot for his 22nd goal.
Hyman made up for an earlier miss with 24 seconds to play in the first, taking a feed from McDavid at the left faceoff dot and blasting a one-timer past Rittich for his team-high 38th goal.
The Kings moved back in front at 7:34 of the second period as Oilers defenseman Bouchard badly missed a check to allow a two-on-one, which was finished off by a glove-side shot by Laferriere for his eighth goal.
The Oilers evened it up again on the power play with four minutes to play in the second as Bouchard sent a shot from the point that was deftly deflected by Draisaitl for his 29th goal.
Bouchard continued to atone for his earlier gaffe, putting the Oilers in front for the first time just 1:25 into the third as he unleashed a bomb from the point that beat Rittich high to the glove side for his 15th goal, moving him into a tie with Calgary’s MacKenzie Weegar for the league lead for goals by a defenseman.
The Oilers put it away with 3:29 to play as Connor Brown made a great pass to Nugent-Hopkins and he chipped in his 16th goal.