The Edmonton Oilers took a 1-0 lead in their first-round series with a 7-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place on Monday. Zach Hyman recorded a hat trick and four points, while Connor McDavid provided five assists to drive Edmonton's offense.
Hyman opened the scoring at 6:52 of the first period with a wrist shot, followed by Adam Henrique's snap shot goal less than three minutes later. Edmonton pushed the lead to four in the second period. Hyman scored his second goal at 4:50, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins redirected a shot on the power play at 8:24. Los Angeles answered back before the intermission, getting goals from Mikey Anderson on a slap shot at 10:56 and Adrian Kempe on a wrist shot at 17:56 to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Edmonton restored control early in the third period with two power-play markers. Leon Draisaitl scored on a snap shot at 1:08, and Hyman completed his hat trick by tipping in a shot at 6:17. The Kings responded with late third-period wrist shots from Pierre-Luc Dubois at 16:56 and Trevor Moore at 18:49 to pull within two. Warren Foegele sealed the outcome with an unassisted empty-net goal with 26 seconds remaining.
Special teams played a central role in the result, with the Oilers scoring on 3 of their 4 power plays while holding the Kings scoreless on 2 opportunities. Stuart Skinner stopped 33 of 37 shots to earn the win for Edmonton. At the other end, Cam Talbot made 38 saves on 44 shots as the Oilers outshot the Kings 45-37.
The victory gives Edmonton an early edge in the best-of-seven series, having also won three of the four regular-season meetings between the clubs. Evan Bouchard contributed four assists in the win, while Draisaitl finished with a goal and an assist.
