EDMONTON – Philip Dano scored a goal in the third period to give the Los Angeles Kings a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the first round of the Western Conference of Rogers Place on Monday.
Danault scored at 14:46 in the third, moments after the Oilers goalkeeper Mike Smith turned the puck, trying to clear it in the middle, which was knocked down by Alex Jaffalo.
After a collision in front, the puck reached Sean Dursey at the point and his shot went from Danault.
“I was just trying to make something happen; “I was obviously trying to do too much there,” Smith said. “In such a tense match, you can’t afford to make such mistakes. In the end, it costs us the game. We’re obviously disappointed, but it’s a match and we’re moving on.”
Video: LAK @ EDM, Gm1: Danault deflects on goal to overtake
Trevor Moore scored a goal and two assists, Jaffalo had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick made 36 saves for the Kings, the third placed in the Pacific Division.
Game 2 of the best-of-7 series is in Edmonton on Wednesday.
“I think obviously, no matter how it ends, if you have another goal, that’s the best ending,” Danault said. “We stayed with him. They came back into the game and had a good PP. I think we showed the character again tonight and we stayed with him and a big win.”
Kyler Yamamoto and Connor McDavid had goals and assists, and Smith made 31 saves for Oilers, the second in the Pacific.
“There’s a lot of emotion with the fans in the building and I thought we just didn’t do well; they jumped us, “McDavid said. “I thought we did a great job to get back in the game and give ourselves a chance. In the end, this is a rebound. We didn’t have a great start. We gave up several chances and proved to be insufficient by two. Not a good enough start in our home building. That’s something to work on. “
[RELATED: Complete Oilers vs. Kings series coverage]
Moore gave the Kings the lead with 1: 0 at 11:00 in the first period. He took a pass from Jaffalo and scored from the high slot.
Jaffalo made it 2-0 at 16:48. He makes a pass behind Moore’s net.
“I thought we did a good job, like all year, just relying on our leadership,” Moore said. “You know these guys are going to have a boost. With two of the best players in the world, they’re going to have their moments. I thought Quicky made great saves when we needed them and did a good job.”
McDavid made 2-1 at 19:17. He circled Kings defender Olli Maata on the right wing, cut inside and scored from the right circle to straighten.
Video: LAK @ EDM, Gm1: McDavid’s speed halves deficit
Yamamoto tied 2-2 in the power game at 2:39 of the second period, redirecting on a Duncan Keith pass.
“I liked our special teams, I thought our powerful game kept us in it,” said McDavid. “I liked how we fought in the game again; we didn’t give up on it. There are things we like and things we don’t like. We’ll learn from that and apply it in Game 2.”
Brendan Lemieu regained the Kings’ lead at 3-2 at 3:50. He took a pass from Adrian Kempe on leaving and scored from the high slot.
“I thought we did the things we had to do for the most part,” said Kings coach Todd McLellan. “We used the word ‘identity’ a lot during the year and got back to it. It gives us a chance.”
Leon Drysight tied 3-3 in the power game at 9:56. He took a pass from McDavid in the right circle of the face after hitting a broken stick in the ice and choosing the corner of Quick.
“I didn’t like the way we started the game, we obviously gave up the chance in a neutral meeting, we took an early penalty, the things that made them feel good at the start of the game,” said Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft. “I thought we made our way and found a way to compete, but in the end we made a mistake in the third period and they took advantage of that.”
NOTES: Victor Arvidson did not play for undisclosed reasons. “Obviously he couldn’t go tonight, we’ll see how he is tomorrow,” McLellan said. … Oilers defender Darnell Nurse is back after missing the last four games of the regular season with a lower body injury. The sister had an assist at 20:27 ice time. “There were some good things from Darnell tonight,” Woodcroft said. “Obviously, he’s been off the ice for a little over a week and there are times when he just goes back to speed. We tried not to overuse him tonight, but he was racing and he’s very good at our penalty shootout.”
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