POST-GAME: Draisaitl all-around dominant in deciding victory

EDMONTON, AB – Leon Draisaitl hopped over the boards with 90 seconds left in Wednesday's Game 5 against the Los Angeles Kings with one objective in mind – end the series and end it now.

Having just cut the Oilers lead to 4-3 with an Adrian Kempe deflection, the Kings were back pressing in the Edmonton zone with a six-on-five advantage after David Rittich exited for an extra attacker.

The home side was able to hold off the attack for a full minute until a stick-less Derek Ryan threw his body at Kevin Fiala along the boards, creating a loose puck that Draisaitl pounced on before bursting out of the zone. He beat Phillip Danault in a race through neutral territory, forcing the Kings forward to hook him and prevent him from scoring into the empty net.

As the referee raised his arm and blew his whistle, Draisaitl dropped to his knees from the stick infraction and gave an emphatic fist-pump to match the enthusiasm of the erupting Rogers Place crowd. He had earned the Oilers a power play with 19.7 seconds remaining, all but securing their first-round triumph over the Kings for a third straight year.

"Draisaitl a man on a mission," declared Sportsnet play-by-play announcer Harnarayan Singh moments before the German superstar lost the ensuing offensive-zone faceoff but immediately stole the puck back and killed the remaining seconds on the clock to close out the win.

"I think Leon doesn't get enough credit for how well he plays defensive hockey," Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said after his first playoff series win as an NHL bench boss. "Whether it's regular season or the playoffs, he's good at it, and in this series I think that was a huge difference, how well he played at both ends of the rink."

Earlier in the night, Draisaitl scored his fourth and fifth goals of the series to give him 10 points in the five games. The centreman also won 63 percent of his defensive-zone faceoffs (5-for-8) on Wednesday and secured 57 percent of his total draws in the series.

"Great," Oilers captain Connor McDavid said when asked about Draisaitl's Game 5 performance. "Winning big draws out there at big moments, winning a big battle there at the end of the game to not only get the puck out, but draw a penalty. Those are huge things.

"He's a big man, and when he's got his feet moving and he's playing hard on both sides of the puck, there's not many guys better than him in the whole world. It's impressive to watch, and he always seems to bring that game this time of year."

Draisaitl's defensive excellence was aligned with a full-team commitment to keeping the puck out of their net as the Oilers allowed just four goals in the final three games of the series – and one of them in Game 5 was Alex Laferriere scoring on an empty cage after the dumped-in puck took an unexpected ricochet in the corner and stranded Stuart Skinner behind his net.

"Over the years you learn that those things sometimes are more important in playoff hockey than scoring on the power play or whatever it may be," Draisaitl said of his efforts without the puck. "I take big pride in defending. Sometimes it gets away from me a little bit, but when it matters most I enjoy it. And I think our whole group has done a really good job of defending and doing it the right way. We're going to score enough, so it's about keeping the puck out of our net."

Draisaitl and the Oilers will look to maintain their commitment to defence in the second round. The Kings were tied for 16th in total goals-for during the regular season, but their two potential next opponents, the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators, ranked sixth and 10th respectively.