GAME RECAP: Oilers 6, Kings 0 (Game 2)

EDMONTON, AB - If anyone had questions about the Edmonton Oilers ability to rebound from a poor performance, those questions were answered on Wednesday night.
The Oilers took Game 2 over the visiting Los Angeles Kings in front of a rocking Rogers Place crowd, winning 6-0 to tie their best-of-seven series at one game apiece. Edmonton saw an offensive explosion, with tallies by Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Ryan McLeod, Jesse Puljujarvi and Evander Kane (2) on the night.
Oilers goaltender Mike Smith bounced back from an unfortunate Game 1 mistake with a near-flawless night, turning aside all 30 Kings shots directed his way for his fifth playoff shutout.
"Another one of our unsung heroes that is a true pro," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said about his starting goaltender. "I thought he made some really good saves in Game 1 as well. It was an unfortunate puck handle, but when that game was played we moved on to preparing for Game 2 and he led the way in his preparation."
After a scoreless first period, the Oilers turned up the heat in the second, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the frame. It was a feat Edmonton would match in the third, doubling their advantage on their way to the blowout win.
Kane continued his strong performance in Blue & Orange since his midseason acquisition on Feb. 5. The 30-year-old forward scored twice and led the Oilers with three points on the night. Kane potted his first in bizarre fashion, batting a puck out of mid-air which sailed up and over Jonathan Quick for the fourth goal of the night. He would later score a laser on the powerplay to cap off the six-goal night for Edmonton.
Edmonton will now head down to Los Angeles with the series even at 1-1 for a Friday night matchup with the Kings in Game 3.
"We're going to return to our baseline," Woodcroft said. "We realize this was a really good hockey game for our team, there is lots to build on, but we're going to refocus, reenergize, replenish and be ready for the next game in Los Angeles."

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FIRST BLOOD

After a scoreless first period, the Oilers were gifted a powerplay 36 seconds into the second courtesy of a careless goaltender interference penalty by Andreas Athanasiou.
It was Leon Draisaitl from his trademark spot who sent the Rogers Place crowd into a frenzy. The German absolutely wired a Tyson Barrie one-time pass through Quick to break the scoreless tie. The goal was Leon's second of the playoffs, both markers coming on Oilers powerplays.
"Leon scored the game-winning goal when the game was in the balance," Woodcroft said. "You talk about a heck of a shot, holy cow he threaded that through the eye of a needle."
Draisaitl has been a popular name in the playoff boxscore for the Oilers throughout his career. His 13 goals and 16 assists in 23 games give the 6-foot-2 centre the fourth-highest point-per-game average in Edmonton Oilers post-season history.

THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU

Darnell Nurse showed no signs of rust in his second game back from injury.
The defenceman showed his trademark physicality, dumping Phillip Danault with the hip check in the first period and was a constant presence in his 18:57 of ice time.
The Doctor scored his first career playoff goal, while the Oilers were shorthanded no less. With Yamamoto in the box for slashing, the Oilers penalty kill streaked in on the odd-man rush with McDavid finding Nurse with the cross rink pass, which he snapped high on Quick for the Oilers second goal in less than five minutes.
The tally was the first shorthanded playoff goal scored by an Oilers defenceman since Steve Smith did the deed back in Game 4 of the 1990 Smythe Division semi-finals against the Winnipeg Jets.

SECOND PERIOD MAGIC

After a nervy first period with few chances few and far between for either side, the Oilers came out in the second with a renewed vigor. Edmonton was able to jump out to an early 2-0 lead courtesy of goals from a couple of the usual suspects in Draisaitl and Nurse.
Edmonton extended their lead to three with 3:53 remaining in the second period, off the stick of Ryan McLeod for his first-ever playoff goal. The rookie centre showed off some stellar hand-eye coordination, deflecting the Evan Bouchard point shot past a helpless Quick.
The Oilers racked up a whopping 19 shots on route to their trio of second-period goals, putting the pressure on an anemic Kings offence -- Los Angeles' 235 goals scored during the regular season is the second least among playoff teams and was 50 less than the Oilers potted during the 2021-22 campaign.
The waves of offensive pressure in the frame was enough to bring the Rogers Place crowd to their feet, with multiple standing ovations from a frenetic Oilers faithful.

'SPECIAL' SPECIAL TEAMS

The Oilers special teams were once again immaculate on the night. Edmonton followed up their 2-for-4 performance on Monday night on the powerplay with an even better 2-for-3 on Wednesday night. Draisaitl scored his second power-play goal of the playoffs in as many games, while Kane rifled a wrist shot through an under siege Quick at the 9:05 mark of the third period.
Edmonton's four power-play goals are a big departure from their regular-season performance against Los Angeles in which they were unable to score with the man advantage in any of their four games against the Kings.
"It seems that special teams in these first couple games throughout the league have been very important," Kane said. "In Game 1, we won the special teams battle but lost the game and that doesn't happen very often. Tonight we did a great job again and that is going to have to be continued through the rest of our journey here."
The Oilers penalty kill has carried the momentum of their April dominance into the post-season. In addition to Nurse scoring a shorthanded goal, Edmonton repeated their perfect 4-for-4 performance from Monday night and have killed off eight straight Kings opportunities to start the series.
"Those two penalty kills in the first period really set us up obviously, we scored a shorthanded goal which is a huge thing to create momentum," Woodcroft said. "The powerplay has been good and it was a factor in the team winning the game."

PARTING WORDS

Ryan on Smith's performance after all the chatter coming out of Game 1:
"It's a fresh new game. We have all the confidence in the world in Smitty and he had a bounce-back game like no other. I expect nothing else. He's a competitor and he was leading the troops tonight. It was fun to watch."
Smith on his calming 30-save performance:
"To be honest, I didn't even feel too bad in Game 1. I made one bad play and it cost us the game, so I think I just carried the same kind of mindset into tonight and obviously wanted to put in a good showing, especially after you feel like you were the cause of a loss. I think a bounce back is always important, and obviously tonight, the team played more up to the capabilities of how we're able to play. We got rewarded because of it."
Smith on the physicality brought by the Oilers tonight:
"When your leader goes out and he's banging bodies, it's easy for everyone else to do it too. It's playoff hockey. You want to get touches on guys as much as you can when they're going back for pucks and it pays dividends in a long series, so I think we did a good job with the physicality. It started in the first period and carried throughout the game and we got a big win."
Smith on the noise from fans outside and inside Rogers Place after five years without fans in the stands for playoffs:
"Unbelievable. Obviously, you feel the energy around the city. Everybody's got Oil jerseys and hats on. You can't help but get excited about coming to the rink and playing hockey for this loyal fanbase that we have here, so obviously you see the people outside right now. It's an exciting time to be an Oiler right now, but it's a long series. There's a lot of work left to do, we tied the series, but it's going to be some hard work going to LA."
Smith on the atmosphere of the playoffs at Rogers Place and in the Ice District:
"It is incredible, to be honest. They're about 30 deep out there (beside the Hall of Fame Room) and I don't know how long it goes on for, but it's pretty incredible when you have a fanbase like this and they're that excited about us having the chance to play for a Stanley Cup. We want to do anything possible to make that happen, and obviously it's only one game, but it's great to see the city feeling it because they deserve it. It's been a long time coming since they've been back in the building during playoffs in Edmonton, so hopefully we can just keep this going and it's a long road ahead, but you can't do it without loyal fans."

Smith on Ryan's play on the penalty kill and what he means to this team in that area:
"He's a consummate pro. He puts the work in, he's a veteran player that's played on some teams that have done some good things, and obviously, he means a lot to our kill. We got into some penalty trouble and he was there to make some great plays. He's obviously responsible in his own end and the whole 200-feet of ice, so he's an important piece to the puzzle and he'll continue to put the work in and get the job done."
Ryan on the success of the special teams (4-for-7 on PP, 8-for-8 on PK) early in the series:
"To be honest, there's been more penalties than I expected at the beginning of playoffs, but we all know special teams are huge come playoff time. You only get so many powerplays and we want our powerplay to be lethal; if they're not scoring, they're creating momentum for us right now which is good. The penalty kill has been doing the same creating momentum by killing it off, and I think in the last couple of months we've kind of laid a good foundation in what we want our special teams to look like. That rolled into playoffs."
"I think there are stretches (of the regular season) where things aren't going your way, and I think that we got back to our structure a bit, started blocking shots, winning faceoffs at the start of kills and getting the puck down the ice. I think we're all kind of on the same page now whereas before we were a bit disjointed."
Darnell Nurse on his shorthanded goal:
"We're patient. We didn't try to force anything, we kind of just waited for opportunities to open up and when they came we made the most of them. It's going to be important to play that same way because it's a good team we're playing there in LA."
Nurse on staying even-keeled:
"We stayed calm, believed in our structure and believed in the way we can play. In the end, it's one game and there is a lot of hockey left to be played in the series. It's a game that we can build off of and look back at some of the positives within our structure and how we played. Now we get to LA and reset and get ready for the next one."
Nurse on the energy of the fans:
"This an electric building around this time of the year. As players you feed off the energy that they bring. For us, we want to be playing as long as possible to enjoy this as long as possible. It's a lot of fun to have fans, not only in the rink, but around after celebrating."

Nurse on managing the excitement at the start of the game:
"Early in the game we weren't trying to force too much. We just tried to settle in and play. Now we head to LA and another team's building where it won't be as friendly as it is here. It's a different type of challenge and we have to take some of those lessons from today of just staying calm. We've been talking about staying even keel all season and this is just another one of those steps we have to take."
Woodcroft on the fans:
"I think we have the best fans in the NHL. The most passionate, the most knowledgable. Our team feels everybody's support. I think it drives us forward and pushes us. For us, I said this when Dave and I came up that we want to make this community proud of this team, We want to embody the values of this community. It's a credit to the players because they are working their tails off."
Woodcroft on Puljujarvi's goal providing him confidence:
"I think he had a good game tonight, a full 200-foot game. I'm happy for him that he scored that goal and finished off that great feed from Connor for his own personal confidence, but I think he played a good game. That line was dangerous every time they were on the ice. For him, what happened a few days ago was the new season started. He should feel good about his game, he's got the confidence of his teammates and his coaching staff."
Woodcroft on having to play a chip and chase style against the Kings:
"That team plays a certain brand of hockey. They make it hard and want to put up roadblocks for you and you have to navigating your way through. Part of doing that is placing the puck properly, when we do it gives us a chance and a chance to play physical. You have to understand that sometimes you have to take what's given and trying to make a good play."