GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Kings 4 (OT - Game 4)

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Oilers needed a hero and his name was Zachary Martin Hyman.
Edmonton erased 3-0 and 4-3 deficits to earn a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory in Game 4 on the road against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, tying their first-round series at 2-2 and creating a best-of-three scenario starting Tuesday back at Rogers Place.
Hyman scored the sudden-death winner at 10:39 of the first OT frame, receiving a stretch pass from Evan Bouchard and sniping a wrist shot under the blocker-side arm of Kings goalie Joonas Korpisalo for his well-timed first goal of his playoffs.
"It's my first overtime playoff winner, so probably the most important goal in my career to date," Hyman said following the thrilling finish to even the series.

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FIRST BLOOD

Just before the midway mark of the opening frame, Sean Durzi made a lengthy pass from behind the Kings net to Alex Iafallo just past centre ice, and he found Kevin Fiala streaking down the left wing with a backhand pass.
Fiala, playing his first game of the series after returning from injury, fired a shot on net that Stuart Skinner kicked aside, but Gabriel Vilardi knocked home the rebound for his second goal in the last three games after missing Game 1 due to injury.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Coming off a career-best season that saw him score 36 goals and 83 points, Hyman had just one power-play assist through three games in the series, but he picked the perfect time to regain that scoring touch with his sudden-death snipe, placed with precision under Korpisalo's armpit.
The Kings had made a clear into the Edmonton zone and Bouchard went to collect it before stopping behind his own net. He opted to break out to his left and immediately launched the pass to Hyman at the Los Angeles blueline, with the winger catching defenceman Drew Doughty by surprise, allowing him to skate in and deliver the winning shot on net.

"Great breakout pass from Bouch from behind the net to spring me," Hyman said, recalling the goal. "I think we caught them on a line change, I think it was a half two-on-one type of deal and I was looking for the pass a little bit, and then as I crept in, it turned into a Grade-A scoring chance. And in OT, you've just got to put as many pucks to the net as you can, so I was able to get it up and over, and I think it went through him and that was the game."

SAVE OF THE GAME

Jack Campbell, who took over for Skinner to start the second period, made a highlight-reel pad stop on Viktor Arvidsson with 5:48 to go in the third to keep the Oilers within a goal at 4-3. The Kings forward burst in alone on Campbell after an Edmonton turnover in the neutral zone, but the netminder did not bite on Arvidsson's initial fake shot and stuck his left pad out to deny the forehand deke.
"He made a good move, I thought he was going to take 'er backhand, but he cut back and I just tried to battle and stay with it, and fortunately it stayed out," Campbell said of the pivotal stop.

Campbell finished with 27 saves on 28 shots in the relief performance, which was his first playoff appearance since he stopped 25 of 27 for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning last May.
"Let's go, let's get er done," Campbell said, when asked what his reaction was when he was informed by the coaching staff he'd be entering the game in the second.

TURNING POINT

Hyman may have been the overtime hero, but Evander Kane had a massive goal as well late in the third period to tie the game at 4-4 and give the Oilers a chance to win in sudden death.
With just 3:02 left in regulation, the winger collected a pass from Connor McDavid on an Edmonton rush and rifled a wrist shot over Korpisalo's glove for his second goal of the series and 15th in 19 post-season appearances with the team.

TOP PERFORMER

Evan Bouchard was an absolute machine for the Oilers on Sunday, scoring their first goal to spark their three-goal comeback in the second period after they fell behind 3-0 in the opening frame. The defenceman also set up Hyman's overtime winner and assisted on Leon Draisaitl's 3-3 goal.
Bouchard led all Edmonton defencemen in ice time at 28:25 and also battled through a hard cross-check into the end boards by Adrian Kempe in overtime, staying in the game to orchestrate the winning goal just a few minutes later.

PARTING WORDS

Kane on the Oilers falling behind 3-0 through 20 minutes:
"We were getting out-skated, out-worked, we were slow, and when we decided to play to our standard and our tempo, you saw what we could do in the second. I thought we did a great job after that first period of playing at our tempo and our pace, and we got rewarded."
Kane on Campbell's performance in his relief appearance:
"He made a couple of huge saves when he came in, and obviously he hadn't played in a little bit. And coming in cold in the middle of a playoff game, down 3-0, can be tough. But he's a veteran guy. He's been around the league a long time and he has a lot of experience, and that provided him some help tonight."

Campbell on the team's ability to claw back and win the game:
"It just speaks volumes. I think we've been battling hard like that all year and faced some adversity. They came out hot in the first, but nobody got down. We came out and just worked hard all night and got a big goal against a good team in overtime."
Campbell on the leadership displayed during the comeback win:
"Guys were saying the right things like they always are. We've got great leaders in here. Not just one single guy. It's so many guys and pretty much everybody. Each guy stepped up at certain times throughout the year and no different tonight."

Draisaitl on what was said in the locker room after the first period:
"Nothing. We've been there before and we've got lots of time. You want to put a period like that behind yourself and not dwell on that. So I thought we had a good meeting, came out really strong and gave ourselves a chance."
Draisaitl on the team's resilience in erasing a pair of deficits:
"It says a lot. I think we showed that tonight. I think we've shown that all year that we love playing for each other and we are a very resilient group and we're not going to quit ever, no matter what. I'm really proud of the guys. But that's only two. It's first to four. Move on."
Hyman on the back-and-forth nature of the game and series:
"There's a lot of momentum swings. That's playoff hockey. It's the nature of playoff hockey. I look at the game today, they're up 3-0 and then we tie it up. That's playoff hockey. And the refs, the calls, the bounces are all a part of that. There are some things you can't control. You have to give yourself the best opportunity and put yourself in the best position that you don't need to worry about those bounces as much."

Coach Woodcroft on his message to the team after the first period:
"The key point there is that we have a lot of really proud hockey players, proud people who relish in working for each other, and none of us felt good about that first period. Not one of us. Now saying that, we hit two posts and we're in alone on the doorstep and we didn't convert. But at the end of it, we were down 3-0. And that was probably our worst period of the series. It was in a series where we haven't given up a whole heck of a lot. So for us to kind of regroup and get things back on the rails, it started with one, and we built it from there."
Woodcroft on the decision to replace Skinner with Campbell:
"I've constantly touted that we have a good goaltending tandem. I have belief in both of our goaltenders, and that's not assigning any blame on Stuart for the way the first period went. But I felt that our team needed a little bit of a change in momentum, give us a different kind of look. And the only debate I had was when I was going to do it, which was: were we going to try and get to the end of the period or were we going to do it after that third goal? We decided to wait until we could get into the room. Once we did that, we kind of took off from there."

Woodcroft on Hyman and Kane scoring after slow starts to the series:
"It's Game 4. It's not like they weren't doing lots of good things. They were, it just didn't go in the net for them. We talked about those. I think tonight it was two posts, one crossbar, and a couple alone on the doorstep. Kaner ended up finding that tying goal in the third period off of a shot from distance. I see a lot of our players all around it, and we have a belief that if you do things harder and longer than the opposition, that eventually you get rewarded. I said this yesterday. Our mindset is to continue pounding on that rock until it splits."