Game 5 FINAL – Kings 1, Oilers 3 – Kopitar, Edmundson, Hiller

The LA Kings saw their season move to the brink of elimination in Game 5, following a 3-1 defeat on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Neither team found the back of the net in an opening period which saw Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper stop all 19 shots he faced. Kuemper was under siege for the bulk of the frame but came up strong throughout, highlighted by a right-to-left glove save on Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard off the rush, preserving the tie game through 20 minutes.

Early in the second period, the Kings converted on a power-play opportunity to open the scoring against the grain. Off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, forward Adrian Kempe found forward Anze Kopitar with space at the center point. Kopitar sent a wrist shot towards the Edmonton net, with forward Andrei Kuzmenko deflecting it past Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard and in for his third goal of the series and a 1-0 advantage.

Just shy of three minutes after the game-opening goal, Edmonton knotted the score at one. The Kings had a successful penalty kill but shortly after, defenseman John Klingberg worked the puck to forward Evander Kane in the high slot, where he shot first time, past Kuemper on the glove side and in for his second goal of the series and a 1-1 game.

Edmonton took its first lead of the game just over seven minutes into the third period, as forward Mattias Janmark scored his second goal of the series. Off the rush, forward Viktor Arvidsson had his shot saved by Kuemper with the blocker hand but Janmark drove the net down the left wing and cashed in on the rebound for his second goal of the series, putting the visitors ahead by a 2-1 margin.

With Kuemper pulled for the extra attacker, the Kings sustained an extended shift in the offensive zone but were unable to find the game-tying goal. After a couple of minutes playing 6-on-5, the Oilers broke out and forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins picked the empty net to secure the 3-1 victory on the road.

Hear from Kopitar, defenseman Joel Edmundson and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s defeat.

Anze Kopitar

Joel Edmundson
On the level of frustration with that performance in that situation
I think we’re all frustrated with the effort we gave. Throughout the whole season, we’ve been playing hard at home, we love playing in front of these fans, huge game for us and we come out like that. So yeah, frustrating.

On what he can pinpoint as the areas that went wrong in the game
There’s lots of things. I think we could have been quicker in the d-zone and I don’t think we were moving our feet quite enough in the o-zone. They played a good game over there, they made it hard on this, but we’ve got to be better.

On if he felt the team had the energy coming into the game
Yeah, we were excited for the game. We left the last two games behind and we were excited for this game and everyone was feeling good. We had the energy but it obviously didn’t show on the ice.

On if it’s been a challenge for the Top 4 to log as many minutes as they have in this series
No, I don’t think so. Obviously with the overtime game, we played a lot and we’re trying to get the matchups, but we’ve been playing a lot of hockey all year. I think we feel good.

On Edmonton’s play at the netfront and getting second and third chances offensively
They’re doing a good job of that. It doesn’t matter if we keep them to the outside, they’re just kind of chucking them in there and pucks are bouncing around and stuff for Darce to cover them up and they’re just whacking away. I think going in the next game, we’ve just got to take the body, clear clear out the front of the net and let Darce cover it up.

Jim Hiller
On the Kings struggles throughout tonight’s Game 5
They executed way better than us tonight, that was the first one. They were stronger, they beat us in every area of the game, except for the special teams, oddly enough. The goaltender was great for us to give us a chance. They were just better in every way. We can’t look to one part of our game and think that that was acceptable or that was good enough.

On what he felt the impact of fatigue was in tonight’s defeat
If you think about it, it’s right from the start. So, I could see as the game were on, I think we can talk about that, they had us from the start of the game, that’s the bigger concern. It didn’t take us to get fatigued, right out of the gate. You’re not fatigued in the first period, you shouldn’t be anyway. Maybe later in the game we didn’t generate enough, you can maybe point to that, but I don’t think out of the gate. They were just better.

On what was missing from the team’s connectivity tonight
What I can tell you is we weren’t connected defensively either. I think you’re connected on both sides of the puck and we were not connected defensively. I don’t think we gave ourselves a great chance. We turned the puck over, you guys watched the game, how many times we turned the puck over, so we were disorganized, they came racing at us. We probably give them more odd-man rushes in the first period tonight than they might have in the whole series to this point. We’re just not going to win that way. Maybe some other teams can win that way, we’re not going to win that way and that’s why we play the style that we do. We have to keep it tight and then grind you for one or two.

On the volume of shots against tonight and in Game 4
I’ll just take you back to going into the third period in Edmonton in Game 3. I don’t know what they had, 15 or 16 shots at that point. Scoring chances, they might have had some shots in the third period but they didn’t have many looks at all. So, I’m not worried about shots so much as the quality of chances. Tonight, they got shots and quality chances. In the overtime, they had quality chances, that’s a different story. It’s [been] four periods. Prior to that, we were on them and we’ve got to get back to that.

On how Edmonton found inside lanes in tonight’s game and how to counteract that
They got on the inside, so we can’t let them get inside. So much of it was disorganized from us that we were just overwhelmed. We were outnumbered at our net, that doesn’t even happen. When you’re outnumbered and they’re hungry, they’re going to get banging on your pads. There’s just so much, I can’t explain it here. It just was not a good, you can say offensive game for us, but we’re a solid, checking team, that’s where our game starts. You can see it, if we just want to try to play a pure offensive game, that doesn’t work.

Notes –
• Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (1-0=1) scored his third power play goal to record his sixth point (3-3=6) of the postseason. Kuzmenko is only the fourth Kings player to score at least three power play goals in the first five games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since Michal Handzus did so in 2010 against the Vancouver Canucks (3PPG). He is joined on that list by Marcel Dionne (4PPG) in 1982, Chris Kontos (6PPG) in 1989, and Paul Coffey (4PPG) in 1992.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up his seventh assist of the playoffs, tying him for the League-lead in assists this postseason. Kopitar (1-7=8) becomes the 10th different skater in NHL history aged 37 or older to record eight points in any five game span in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the first to do so since Joe Pavelski posted eight points (7-1=8) from May 2 – 11, 2023 as a member of the Dallas Stars.
• Kopitar is joined by Nicklas Lidstrom (3-5=8; April 18 – May 3, 2009) as the only skaters born outside of North America to accomplish the feat.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) picked up his team-leading 10th point (4-6=10) of the playoffs with his sixth helper and League- leading sixth power play point. With the assist, Kempe extends his home-ice playoff point streak to a third game, dating back to Game 1 last week Monday, April 21.
• Kempe’s eight points (3-5=8) mark just the second time in Kings history that a skater has recorded as many in the first three home games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, joining Wayne Gretzky who posted nine points (2-7=9) against the Calgary Flames from April 8 – 14, 1990.
• Kempe’s five-game span also tied Gretzky (5 GP in 1991) and Daryl Evans (5 GP in 1982) for the fewest games to 10 points in a postseason in Kings history, per NHL PR.
• The native of Kramfors, Sweden, becomes the fourth Kings skater to record 10 points in a single postseason series in the past 30 years, joining Jeff Carter (11 in 2014 CF), Marian Gaborik (10 in 2014 R2) and Anze Kopitar (10 in 2014 R1).
• Defenseman Drew Doughty skated in his 100th career Stanley Cup Playoff game tonight. Doughty has made the most postseason appearances in franchise history by a defenseman and becomes the 15th active blueliner and the 50th active skater to play 100 career games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Kings will not practice tomorrow and will travel to Edmonton in advance of Game 6. The team will return to the ice on Thursday, May 1 for morning skate at Rogers Place in Edmonton.