relenting with only five seconds left.

It only took 2:49 of this year’s series for the Kings to score more power-play goals than they did in all five playoff games last season. Fittingly, it was Kuzmenko, their trade-deadline bargain turned offensive catalyst. The Kings’ five-forward unit overwhelmed the Oilers to the point where Fiala’s seam pass could have been tipped past Skinner by Byfield almost as easily as it was by Kuzmenko at the back post.

Byfield made it 2-0 when he knocked Drew Doughty’s shot out of the air with his glove and shoveled it toward the net, where it banked home off Skinner’s back with 33 seconds left.

The Kings’ shot suppression game, fueled by Vladislav Gavrikov but moved forward by practically every skater, took hold late in the first period, carrying into the second, when they struck twice more.

At the 14:47 mark, Bouchard’s Teddy Ruxpin-soft clearing attempt was gobbled up by Kempe, who nearly scored unassisted. Instead, he had to await a recovery and Kuzmenko’s feed for a goal that sent the Swede skipping across the ice with his tongue out like Michael Jordan.

Bouchard served up another pizza, this time to Byfield in the slot. He slid the puck a few inches to Danault, whose wrist shot made it 4-0. Byfield and Fiala had applied forecheck pressure to key the sequence.

The Oilers went 16 minutes without a shot on goal and had just 10 through 40 minutes, but their 10th got them on the board with 4.7 seconds showing on the second-period clock. McDavid pivoted hard off Anže Kopitar to force an abrupt defensive rotation, opening up Draisaitl for a one-timer from the right circle. McDavid and Draisaitl now have 74 points in 19 playoff games against the Kings over four postseasons.

Edmonton got another goal off Janmark’s crease-crashing effort 2:19 into the third period.

After Hyman illegally checked Brandt Clarke in the head and Jake Walman cross-checked Danault in the face, the Kings had a two-man advantage and their second power-play marker of the evening. It was Kempe serving up Fiala’s one-timer from high in the right circle. Kempe and Kuzmenko, who had the secondary assist, both earned their third points of the night.

That goal proved even more critical when McDavid made another play off a powerful turn, this time shaking Gavrikov and sliding the puck across for Perry’s redirection at 7:43.

Edmonton soon found itself facing another two-man disadvantage, this time for a full two minutes after Walman shot the puck out of play and the Oilers lost a subsequent challenge. Though the Kings sustained pressure for 90 seconds, they did not extend their edge.

McDavid made things even more interesting when with 2:04 to play in regulation he weaved into the slot and slipped the puck past a prone Doughty to Hyman to make it 5-4.

Then McDavid did it himself, driving the net and knifing the puck past Kuemper with 1:28 left.

With overtime looming, a Kings’ counterattack initiated by Gavrikov and Trevor Moore found a trailing Danaut for a clean look at the net with 41.1 displayed on the clock that won the game.