FINAL – Kings 2, Oilers 4 – Danault, Vilardi, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped Game 2 of their opening-round series by a 4-2 margin on Wednesday evening in Edmonton, equalizing the series at one game apiece.

Forwards Phillip Danault and Gabriel Vilardi scored second-period goals for the Kings, the first of the postseason for both players. Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves on 36 shots in defeat.

For the second straight game, Edmonton scored twice in the opening period to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

First, less than three minutes into the game, forward Derek Ryan scored his first goal of the series to open the scoring. A shot from forward Leon Draisaitl went wide of the net and deflected off the endboards, directly to a charging Ryan, who finished from close range for a 1-0 advantage. Draisaitl made it another multi-point night as he scored on the power play, his third goal of the series, pushing the score to 2-0 through 20 minutes.

The Kings pulled a goal back late in the second period, reducing their deficit to 2-1 through Danault. Stationed behind the goal, forward Adrian Kempe fed Danault in front, where he deked to the backhand and eventually buried his own rebound for his first goal of the series. Kempe’s point was his first helper of the series, with defenseman Mikey Anderson also tallying an assist.

With less than a minute remaining in the second period, the Kings tied the game at two. Vilardi did well to create space off the rush and a nifty set of hands in tight created an opportunity down low, which he finished from a near-impossible angle at the near post for his first career goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Edmonton pulled back ahead, by a 3-2 margin, 2:20 into the third period. Forward Klim Kostin forced a turnover in the neutral zone, gained the offensive blue line and fired a wrist shot inside the far post from the left-hand circle. Kostin’s unassisted goal was his first tally of the playoffs as the Oilers pulled in front by a 3-2 margin.

Forward Evander Kane picked the empty net with less than a minute to play in regulation to seal Game 2 by a 4-2 final, evening the series in the process.

Hear from Danault, Vilardi and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault

Danault gives his thoughts on game two in Edmonton 🔊@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/ednhvOHdjj

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 20, 2023

Gabriel Vilardi
On his assessment of the 60 minutes tonight
I think it was pretty obvious, first period we can’t come out like that. It’s tough to climb back when you’re down 2-0. We fought back, but we werent able to come through.

On the team not putting together 60 minutes yet in the playoffs
We’re 1-1 and we haven’t put together 60 minutes yet. I mean, I can’t speak on the first game obviously, but tonight, the first period was terrible, there’s no excuses for that. Like I said, we’re 1-1 now and we’re heading home.

On his play in his first game back from injury
I think just the first period for me, I haven’t played in a month, you come back and it’s 100 miles an hour, playing in this arena too, they’re fast. For me personally, the first period was really tough, just everything’s happening really fast, but I think I settled in well as the game went on.

On getting his first career goal in the Stanley Cup Playoffs
Yeah, that felt good. I mean, obviously, it’s bittersweet, it doesn’t feel as good, but it is nice to get one. Now it’s on to Friday.

Todd McLellan
On the start to the game tonight that saw Edmonton surge out to a 2-0 lead
Couple of things. One, they weren’t happy with the way the game ended, so they were going to take it up a notch. Two, we didn’t handle it real well. So, the difference between them going up and us falling off a little bit is the answer to your question.

On if he felt coming back from 2-0 down in Game 1 gave the group confidence in doing so again tonight
That’s the positive you can take from it, but it’s a poor recipe for taking a swing at this team, is falling behind. When you’re ahead, you have a much better chance of checking and not taking as much risk as you have to to comeback. Obviously the start, as we talked about in the first question, wasn’t where it needed to be. Again, a resilient group worked its way back in. The frustrating thing for me is that there were some things that we needed to do early in the game and we didn’t decide to do them until the second and third periods. It was very similar to Game 1. [Reporter: What were those things that need to be fixed]. They know those things, so we’re going to have to fix them.

On the differences in getting a split in Edmonton this year versus last year
6-0 last year. Big difference. It’s still a split. Both teams are better than they were last year and both teams have more experience. Last year, we were quite excited about winning the first one, took it on the chin in the second. This year, the game tonight didn’t feel like it was as even as it turned out to be, obviously in the first period, but last year’s that wasn’t the case, that’s the difference.

On Gabe Vilardi’s performance in his first game back from injury
I thought Gabe was a little bit like our team, he hadn’t played in nine or 10 games. He came out in a very fast-moving first period and had to get his legs and his timing underneath him. As the game wore on, similar to the team, he got better with the team.

On if he felt Danault’s line helped to drag the team back into the game
We had a good group of players that had energy, it was the ones that didn’t that really lacked it and brought the team down in my opinion. Phil’s line had it. It wasn’t perfect by any means, they got hemmed in at different times, but the commitment for them to continue on and push through was much greater than some others on our team.

Notes –
– Phillip Danault scored his sixth career playoff goal and his first of the 2023 postseason.
– Gabriel Vilardi tallied his first career playoff goal with 44 seconds remaining in the second period. Vilardi’s goal is the second game-tying goal scored by a Kings skater with under a minute to go in any period this postseason (Anze Kopitar, 19:43 of P3, April 17 at EDM).
– Mikey Anderson, Vladislav Gavrikov, Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore all collected assists, giving Kempe points in both games so far in this series.
– Moore was a team-best +2 in the defeat, while Vilardi, Gavrikov and defenseman Matt Roy were all +1.
– Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves on 36 shots on the evening.

The Kings are scheduled to travel back to Southern California tomorrow morning and will not hold a team practice. The team will return to the ice on Friday for morning skate at Toyota Sports Performance Center at 10:30 AM.