Back and rested after the holiday break, the Kings met the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena. Facing off against Oilers for the first of four times this season, it was another classic between the two clubs as the Kings prevailed 4-3 in overtime.
The Oilers struck first on Saturday midway into the first period. A clean zone entry by the Oilers resulted in Connor Brown successfully executing a pass off the pads. Unable to control the rebound, Darcy Kuemper deflected the puck back into the slot and Kasperi Kapanen netted his fifth goal of the season. The Kings evened the score less than three minutes later as Quinton Byfield netted his first goal of the game, beating Stuart Skinner short-side high after gaining possession of the puck behind the goal line. The Kings took the lead late in the first period on a funky sequence in front of the Oilers net. An errant Kings pass deflected off of an Oiler and ricocheted back to Warren Foegele. Foegele poke checked the puck towards the net and a fortuitous bounce ended up with puck in the net. The Kings led 2-1 after 20 minutes, while the Oilers led 10-9 in shots.
The Oilers knotted the game at 2-2 3:20 into the second period and did so on the power play. Coming just eight seconds into the man advantage, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a pass from Connor McDavid in the slot and netted his seventh goal of the season. Just past the halfway point of the game, the former King Viktor Arvidsson gave the Oilers the lead after taking advantage of a defensive zone giveaway by the home team. The Oilers led 3-2 after two.
Trailing to begin the third period, the Kings quickly struck to tie the game. Coming 2:32 into period, Jordan Spence found Tanner Jeannot backdoor to even the game at 3-3. No goals in regulation followed.
Now into overtime, the back and forth 3-on-3 session saw golden opportunities from both sides, but it was Byfield who called game with 1:41 remaining. Byfield took advantage of a tired trio of Oilers after the Kings had controlled possession for over a minute and beat Skinner high glove side for the second time in the game. Byfield’s two-goal game gives him eight goals on the season.
Kuemper stopped 24 of 27 shots in the game and moves to 5-0-2 since returning from injury.
