Kailer Yamamoto scored his first playoff goal with 3:02 remaining, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-4 on Saturday night to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Klim Kostin had two goals and an assist as the Oilers eliminated the Kings for the second straight season. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl also scored in Game 6, and Stuart Skinner stopped 40 shots.
Next up for Edmonton is the Vegas Golden Knights in the next round. The Oilers won three of the four regular-season meetings, but Vegas won the Pacific Division by two points on the way to the top seed in the Western Conference.
Yamamoto got the game-winner after the Kings tied it 7:46 into the third period. Phillip Danault took advantage of Skinner breaking his stick and put in a short-handed goal.
Kevin Fiala had a goal and two assists for Los Angeles, and Adrian Kempe and Sean Durzi also scored. The Kings have been eliminated in their last four first-round series.
Viktor Arvidsson, who was moved up to the top line for this game, had two assists. Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves.
Los Angeles hasn’t won a playoff series since it defeated the New York Rangers in six games in 2014 to capture its second Stanley Cup title in three seasons.
RALLYING BACK
The Kings trailed 3-1 in the second period before tying it on a pair of power-play goals 100 seconds apart.
Kempe went top shelf from the right faceoff circle at 6:36 for his team-leading fifth goal of the playoffs. Fiala evened it at 8:16 when his shot from the back of the left faceoff circle found its way through traffic.
ANOTHER QUICK START
McDavid redirected Bouchard’s shot 85 seconds into the game to stake Edmonton to an early lead. It was the fourth time in the last 17 playoff games that the Oilers scored in first two minutes.
The Oilers are 27-6 when scoring first in potential series-clinching games, including a 12-3 record when doing so on the road.
RECORD BOOK
Evan Bouchard tied an NHL record for most power-play points by a defenseman in a playoff series when he picked up an assist on Draisaitl’s goal. It was Bouchard’s sixth assist and eighth point with the man advantage, joining the New York Islanders’ Denis Potvin (who did it twice), Washington’s John Carlson and Detroit’s Paul Coffey.