EDMONTON, Alberta — Adrian Kempe scored the lone goal in a shootout and the Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3, on Saturday night in their first meeting since the first-round of last year’s Western Conference playoffs.
Corey Perry, Andre Lee and Alex Laferriere scored in regulation, Brandt Clarke picked up a pair of assists and Anton Forsberg made 21 saves to help the Kings rebound from a 5-1 loss in Winnipeg on Friday night and avoid a third straight defeat. With the win, the Kings (19-15-10) improved to 5-1-1 in the second half of back-to-back sets this season.
“I think the back-to-backs test the character of your team, those are back-to-backs. We got in really late last night, you can kind of build in an excuse a little bit, but we don’t do that,” Kings head coach Jim Hiller told NHL.com. “We haven’t done that, and I’m just really proud of the effort. It was a hard-fought game last night despite the score.
“Get in late, first time against Edmonton, and we came out from the drop of the puck ready to play.”
Leon Draisaitl scored twice, Connor McDavid scored his 30th goal of the season, and Evan Bouchard had a pair of assists for the Oilers (22-16-7), who had won two straight but have yet to win three games in a row in eight opportunities this season. Connor Ingram stopped 27 shots.
McDavid tied it 3-3 on a 5-on-3 power play at 9:20 of the third period, sneaking a wrist shot under the Forberg’s blocker to extend his points streak to a career-high 18 games. The Oilers’ captain has 19 goals and 23 assists during the streak.
Draisaitl opened the scoring, one-timing a Kasperi Kapanen feed past Forsberg at 9:12 of the first period. Draisaitl was honored prior to the game in an on-ice ceremony for earning his 1,000th career point on Dec. 16.
The Kings knotted the score at 1-1 on a power play at 17:50 when Perry banged home the rebound off Clarke’s point shot for his 10th goal of the season. The 40-year-old Perry spent the previous two seasons with Edmonton, which has eliminated the Kings in the opening round of the playoff each of the past four seasons.
“He’s going through a tough time, and this is a hockey player through and through,” Hiller told NHL.com of Perry, who missed the two previous games for personal reasons. “He comes, he shows up here, he wants to play hockey, he wants to help his team, and in difficult circumstances.
“And then he goes out and scores a goal, and plays 15, 16 minutes, a lot of times against McDavid’s line. It’s pretty incredible.”
Draisaitl gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 1:07 of the second period, one-timing a Bouchard cross-ice feed between the pads of Forsberg. Saturday was Draisaitl’s 71st career multi-goal game, surpassing Mark Messier for the fourth most in Oilers history.
The Kings responded 2:35 later when Lee tipped in a cross-ice feed from Quinton Byfield for his first goal of the season. Byfield attempted to pass him the puck in the slot, only to have it go off of the stick of Oilers forward Isaac Howard, but Lee still managed to catch up with it and get it past Ingram.
“Mikey (Anderson) made a quick play up the wall to (Taylor) Ward, who slid it in to ‘Q’ there,” Lee told NHL.com. “‘Q’ passed it over to me and I got a little piece of it, so it was good.
“It was a team effort, we never let off the gas. It feels like every game against these guys is going to be a tight game, especially in this barn. The fans are loud, but I think we did a great job.”
The Kings took their first lead of the night at 6:21 of the third period when Laferriere redirected a pass by Clarke through Ingram’s legs.
“I wanted to bear down and win the face-off, and then anything that happened after that was positive for me,” Laferriere told NHL.com. “I won that face-off and just kind of tried to get my body to the net. Clarke made a great play to get it to the net there, and I got a tip on it and luckily it went in.”
McDavid, Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins failed on their shootout attempts for the Oilers.
“It was a huge character win for us, a couple of huge guys out of our lineup,” Laferriere told NHL.com. “A tough game last night, and then to come in here into a barn that’s pretty hard to win in, and play like that. It was a great game.
“We don’t win that game without ‘Forsy’ too. I thought he played unbelievable, stood on his head for us there and gave us a chance to win it in the end. It was a huge team win.”
Saturday was the first of three regular-season meetings between the Pacific Division rivals.
UP NEXT
The Kings host Dallas on Monday at 7 p.m.