GAME RECAP: Oilers 3, Kings 2 (SO)

LOS ANGELES, CA – Make it four straight wins for the Blue & Orange after another gutsy comeback on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Connor McDavid recorded a goal and assist in his 600th career NHL game, while Derek Ryan scored the shootout winner as the Edmonton Oilers came from behind to claim their fourth straight victory with a 3-2 shootout win over the Los Angeles Kings.

After Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe scored in the first period to make it 2-0, McDavid helped lead the charge in Edmonton's comeback over the middle frame with a tight-angle finish on the power play for his 13th goal of the season before he set up Leon Draisaitl to make it 2-2 with 4:31 remaining in the middle frame.

• POST-GAME: McDavid marks milestone with marquis performance

After overtime solved nothing, Derek Ryan sealed the extra point for the Oilers in the fourth round of the shootout after Stuart Skinner stopped Anze Kopitar beforehand to set up the Spokane, Wash. product's deciding goal the day after he celebrated his 37th birthday.

Skinner turned in another stellar performance, making 27 saves to outduel former Oilers netminder Cam Talbot, who stopped 25 of 26 shots in defeat.

The Oilers close out their three-game California road trip with the final game of a back-to-back against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

FIRST PERIOD

The Kings certainly remembered the last time these two rivals faced one another.

It was almost exactly eight months ago to the day on Apr. 29, 2023 in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the Oilers eliminated the Kings from the postseason for the second straight year with a 5-4 victory in Game 6.

Those memories certainly contributed to the Kings coming out of the gate strongly to try and rectify those wrongs in the first of four meetings between the two Pacific Division clubs this season, and part of Edmonton's story on Saturday would be about how they dealt with that early pressure in a building they have plenty of experience playing hard games.

"Every time we're in this building, it feels like the exact same game," McDavid said. "It's the same game over and over again, and we know that and it's a grind. They're a great team and I thought we did a good job of just hanging in there.

"Obviously, we didn't like our first period and just kind of talked about hanging in the game and sticking around, and I thought we did that all night."

Skinner had to be sharp early with a couple of key stops to quell Los Angeles' quick start, with none bigger than his reactionary glove save on Pierre-Luc Dubois in the opening two minutes that had Edmonton assessing the early threat posed by the hosts, who were 20-8-4 with a league-best +73 goal differential coming into Saturday's match.

"In the first period, they wanted more than us," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "They were prepared and won a lot of battles. We didn't have the puck very much."

The Kings prevented the Oilers from recording a shot until the 12-minute mark before their bright start was rewarded on their first power play, where Kevin Fiala stepped into a one-timer and went bar down to deliver the Kings their much-deserved opening goal with 5:16 left in the first period.

Just over four minutes later, Adrian Kempe took a pass along the benches from Anze Kopitar before skating in on the right side sniping one off the right post and in to make it 2-0 after LA's formidable 1-3-1 forecheck forced the turnover that led to the fast break.

"I think that through the first part of the game, the neutral zone was a speed bump for us," Ryan said. "Their 1-3-1 was stymying us. We weren't able to get pucks back on the forecheck. We were turning it over the neutral zone."

"I think once we started rimming pucks and having a little more structure and winning battles down low in their zone, we got some pucks back, created some offensive zone time, and subsequently created some momentum and built the game from there."

SECOND PERIOD

In his 600th career NHL game, McDavid began taking over after the Oilers settled in from a 24-minute stretch to begin the game where they were outshot 16-2 by the Kings.

The captain marked his milestone night by recording a goal and an assist to help orchestrate a comeback for the Blue & Orange that began with their first power-play opportunity after Drew Doughty tripped up Zach Hyman in the first five minutes of the middle frame.

McDavid took the only shot that was afforded to him along the goal line and placed a tight-angle shot off Talbot's mask and under the crossbar for a terrific goal on the power play that got Edmonton on the board at the 14:25 mark of the middle frame.

The Dynamic Duo doesn't always get on the ice together at even strength, but 10 minutes after McDavid made it a one-goal game, they were out there together at 4-on-4 for an offensive-zone faceoff that led to Edmonton's equalizer.

After winning the draw, McDavid had the puck along the half-boards and turned to the inside before connecting on a pass to Draisaitl, who buried his 16th goal of the season beyond Talbot to tie the game at 2-2 with 4:31 left before the second intermission.

"I thought our second period was really good," McDavid said. "Obviously we got ourselves back in the shot-clock game. Not that it really matters, but the majority of the play was in their end and we found a way to score a couple of goals and give our goalie a bit of a rest. He was stellar in the first period and made some huge saves throughout the night."

THIRD PERIOD & OVERTIME

"I thought the third period was kind of back and forth and could have gone either way," McDavid added.

After being thoroughly dominated in the opening period, the Oilers were firmly on the offensive in the final 40 minutes of regulation plus overtime – returning the favour from their 11-2 shot disadvantage in the first frame by outshooting Los Angeles 23-7 over the final two periods.

"I thought it was all effort-based," McDavid said. "They play a unique style of game and when you're not prepared to play that way, it can make for a long night. We saw that in the first 20 minutes and then, I thought we did a good job of not being denied and upping our work ethic; keeping it a little bit simpler and playing more into the game that we want to play."

Skinner stood tall between the pipes to keep his blemishes limited to only two stellar shots from Fiala and Kempe as the contest went to an exciting overtime period. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins made the biggest involvement in sudden death by using his hand to prevent Kopitar from getting the game-winner on a wrap-around from behind the net, but ultimately, the shootout would be required.

"I thought in overtime there were some big plays," Skinner said. "Nuge made a glove save on that wrap-around, which is pretty impressive. There were so many big plays in there, so I'm really proud of the resiliency in the group."

When Head Coach Kris Knoblauch looked down his bench before the shootout for someone who he thought could follow up McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl, the bench boss picked out the reliable Derek Ryan.

"Knobber just looked at me and said I was going, so I just tried to settle down a little bit, make my reads and go through my checklist on the way in and I found a hole," he said.

In the fourth round, Ryan delivered the put-away wrist shot past Talbot to complete the comeback and claim the extra point in favour of Edmonton – much to the excitement of his teammates on the Oilers bench who were jumping in celebration for the 37-year-old who celebrated his birthday on Friday.

"I was thrilled to see him score that. Obviously, a big goal," McDavid said. "It was his birthday yesterday as well, so I'm just happy for him. He's a guy that brings it every single day, never complains and just does his job every single day.

"He's a leader in this room. He really is. His voice carries a lot of weight and he means a lot to this group, so that was a big goal."

PARTING WORDS

Skinner on experiencing a turnaround and his 10-2-0 record over his last 12 starts:

"I can't really point out the exact moment, but I think just being able to stick with it and persevere myself individually was really big. There are a lot of things that go into it. Seeing gratitude instead of thinking about all the bad things that are happening in your life – thinking about your family and that you got loved ones with you at all times – that really helped me a lot. And obviously, being around this group, the guys haven't lost faith in me. They believe in me and that's been a huge reason why I'm still able to have confidence in myself as well."

McDavid on the Oilers continuing to battle and improve from a slow start to their season:

"Obviously, it was a tough start, No question about that. But we felt like our game was getting there and we felt like it was right at the cusp there when we made the coaching change. We've been able to play some good hockey and string some wins together."