GAME RECAP: Oilers 6, Kings 1 (Game 3)

LOS ANGELES, CA – Tenacious and unrelenting, the Oilers couldn't be contained in Game 3.

Evander Kane recorded a Gordie Howe hat trick with a goal, assist and a fight while Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman each scored twice for the Oilers, who owned the full 60 minutes on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena to earn a character 6-1 victory and retake the lead in their first-round series against the Kings.

"It means just as much to me as it does to everybody else on our team," Kane said about securing the Game 3 victory. You know, it was a big win for our group. You know, we've had some success against these guys in game threes. It's been like. So it was good to follow that up and obviously we want to get greedy on Sunday and get another one.

Hyman & Draisaitl scored at even strength in the opening 20 minutes before the forwards picked up power-play goals on separate two-man advantages in the final frame, with the Kings' undisciplined approach leading to the Oilers' power play finishing 3-for-7 on a night where Edmonton matched the physical demand of a hard-fought playoff victory.

The Oilers' penalty kill kept the Kings off the scoresheet for the third straight game, going 5-for-5 on Friday night to improve their efficiency to a perfect 10-for-10 this series.

Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played provider with three helpers in the victory. Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner had a strong bounce-back night with 27 saves to outduel Cam Talbot in the other crease, delivering the performance Edmonton needed between the pipes while his team's offence went to work in front of him.

"I thought it was a good win. I thought we did a lot of good things," said the Oilers captain. "Obviously, special teams were great. I thought Stu was a rock back there for us. The penalty kill did its thing, and five-on-five we were solid I thought, so a lot of positives. But it just counts as one win – that's all. We've got to be ready for a big one on Sunday.

The Oilers will look to replicate Friday's effort in Game 3 back at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday with the opportunity to take full command of the series heading back to Edmonton.

"You learn your lessons and whatnot from the first three games, but you park everything fast and just take it one game at a time," Darnell Nurse said. "So we have a good opportunity to reset here tomorrow and just come back with a fresh mindset here for Game 4 on Sunday."

FIRST PERIOD

Knowing full well the Kings were going to come out of the gates strongly on home ice, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch recognized this morning during his pre-game media availability the importance of the first 20 minutes toward determining who'd be coming out of Game 3 ahead in the series.

With the effort that his team delivered on Friday in the first period, the Oilers were firmly on their way.

"It's always so much easier to play when you have the lead," Knoblauch said. "They have to open things up, and with the way we play, we love it when another team opens things up and it just gives our guys a little more room."

While the turnovers went against them in the early going of Game 2 on Wednesday, it was the Kings this time who gifted the Oilers an early lead when Drew Doughty tossed an errant back pass off a faceoff right onto the tape of Mattias Ekholm, who quickly passed it back through the Kings' long-time defender to a wide-open Zach Hyman parked – where else? – in front of the opposition crease.

"Especially when you're on the road, I think scoring first changes a little bit of the environment that you're in," Darnell Nurse said. "So I thought for us, we came out, we had a strong start and just built off that."

Hyman tried a backhand and took a few whacks at the puck against Talbot before reinforcements arrived behind him from Vladislav Gavrikov, but the winger had done enough to get one more chance and push it in near the netminder's left pad to open the scoring 6:42 into the opening frame.

"I thought we had good performances from a lot of guys. I thought everybody tonight was really good," McDavid said. "Obviously, Zach is always around the net and he's always going to be there to bang those in, and he gets us going with a big goal and a great play by Ek, and that's a big one getting the first one on the road and their building. That's big, and credit to him. He's always willing to go there and pay a price, and he's done so far."

With his fifth goal of the 2024 Playoffs, Hyman is now just the fourth Oiler in franchise history to record at least five goals in the first three games of a series and is also just the third Oilers player in the last 25 years to score in each of the team’s first three post-season games.

The other two on that 25-year list include Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and the two halves of the Dynamic Duo would have a part to play in the Oilers scoring two more times before the second intermission.

"The first period was great for us and we get that, we regroup, and we've got to be even better come Game 4," Nurse added.

Kane began Game 3 on the second line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl and was looking hellbent on making the most of his promotion when he made the bank-pass behind the Kings' cage that led to Leon making major history by scoring Edmonton's second goal.

"I thought he was great. He made a huge play on the 2-0 goal," McDavid said. "Great play to Leo there to come through their neutral zone, which has always given us headaches. We found a way to get through there with possession, and he makes a great play to Leo to get another big goal. He was around the net, he was tough to play against and he was everything that was asked of him."

Following the move, Draisaitl saw the puck slide directly onto his stick in the left circle for him to quickly fire top shelf past Talbot, who'd been fooled by the deceptive move from Kane and didn't have time to recover before the damage had already been done to give the Oilers a 2-0 first-period advantage.

With his second of the playoffs, the German is now the fastest player in NHL history to 20 playoff road goals – achieving the feat in only 26 games.

Before we reached the first intermission, a two-hand slash by Doughty into the hands of Nugent-Hopkins set up the Oilers' second power play and McDavid would make quick work of it by powering through his first goal of the 2024 Playoffs just 10 seconds into the man advantage.

Upon not liking any of his looks from the bottom of the right circle, the Oilers captain took it towards the crease himself and tried to jam it past Talbot, who eventually gave in to the captain before it was banged in at the right post to compound the former Edmonton shot-stopper's frustrations in the first period.

But the Oilers were liking their game, up 3-0 on the scoreboard and firmly in control of Game 3 through 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

Welcome back to the playoff scoresheet, Evander Kane.

The 32-year-old would go on to have an even bigger role in Game 3 after providing the bank-pass on Draisaitl's goal in the first period.

After the Kings got a goal back from Drew Doughty 5:32 into the middle frame, Kane would be lifting his hands to the sky just over two-and-a-half minutes later to celebrate getting a piece of Cody Ceci's point shot to mark a big goal for the winger with his first of the playoffs.

Ceci dumped the puck in which led to a turnover by the Kings that was pounced on by Draisaitl, who after setting up Nugent-Hopkins for a look in the slot had the puck below the goal line to begin working it back up to Ceci for a quick one-timer. Kane was involved in a hard net-front battle with Anze Kopitar before he shoved off the Kings' captain and had Ceci's shot go in off his shoulder pads.

"Those are the momentum shifts that everyone talks about all the time, right?" Draisaitl said. "Those are big – especially in away buildings in the playoffs – so it was a big goal."

THIRD PERIOD

With Game 3 looking mostly settled through two periods that were dominated by the Oilers, there was nothing left to settle but the 'unofficial' score.

"I think any time a game gets out of hand, one team tries to impose their will a little bit," Hyman said. "I thought we did a really good job of sticking up for ourselves - starting with Evander. He got a Gordie Howe hat trick, and not many guys have done that in the playoffs."

If Kane hadn't been awakened before, he was over five minutes into the final frame after Andreas Englund delivered a high check to his head in the neutral zone check that would lead to a two-man advantage for the Oilers and every player on the ice getting involved in the post-hit scrum.

But the sequence was far from over – in fact, it was just ramping up – as Kane went after the defenceman and dropped the gloves in a quick but solid scrap to earn himself the Gordie Howe Hat Trick. The chirping for the dangerous check continued in the penalty box, and upon his return to the Oilers bench, Kane was commended by his teammates for his physical contributions.

"Everyone got in there and defended each other," Nurse said. "That's what this time of the year is about. In the full 82-game season that you play before, that's what brings everyone together. I think this group is really tight. We've been through a lot this year, and that was just a good example of what everyone means to each other in here, so it's a good sign."

The Kings were down two men after the dust settled and the Oilers made the most of their first five-on-three when McDavid set up Hyman's second of the night on an easy redirection from the slot, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picking up his second of three assists on the night.

The penalties continued to roll in until the final buzzer sounded, and Edmonton's efficiency on the two-man advantage continued to tick on their next opportunity after Draisaitl delivered another dart from his power-play office in the right circle, locking down his team's 6-1 victory and a 2-1 lead in the series.