Game 6 FINAL – Kings 4, Oilers 6 – Kopitar, Kempe, Hiller

The LA Kings saw their 2024-25 season come to a close in Game 4, after a 6-4 defeat on Thursday evening at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Just 79 seconds into the game, the Kings jumped out to an early lead, the fifth time in six games they’ve scored the game’s first goal. The Kings executed well in transition, with forward Alex Laferriere finding forward Kevin Fiala with a bank pass off the wall, before Fiala fed forward Quinton Byfield on a breakaway. Byfield deked to his forehand and beat Edmonton goaltender Calvin Pickard on the blocker side for his third goal of the series and a 1-0 lead.

The Oilers answered less than two minutes later, however, capitalizing off a netfront scramble to tie the game at one. After forward Connor Brown had his shot blocked down in front, he collected the rebound and worked his way up towards the slot. His shot from between the circles deflected off forward Adam Henrique and in, past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, to equalize things early.

The Kings restored their lead on the very next shift, however, taking a 2-1 lead still inside the first four minutes of the game. Attacking off the rush, forward Phillip Danault fed defenseman Brandt Clarke down the right wing. The young defenseman picked his spot and sent his shot past Pickard, top shelf over the blocker and in for his second goal of the series, with the visitors pulling back on top by a goal.

Once again, Edmonton pushed back to tie things up, with the fourth goal of the game inside the first six minutes of play. Skating on the game’s first power play, forward Connor McDavid controlled the puck in the right-hand circle and threaded a pass into the slot to forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who collected and shot quickly, beating Kuemper for his third goal of the series and a 2-2 score.

Edmonton took its first lead of the game just shy of 13 minutes into the game, with forward Zach Hyman scoring his second goal of the series. Off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, the Oilers controlled the puck back to defenseman Darnell Nurse at the left point. Nurse’s shot was deflected by Hyman on the way through and in as the hosts pulled in front for the first time in Game 6.

After the second period went back-and-forth for nearly three-quarters of the 20 minutes, Edmonton took a multi-goal lead off the rush. Skating in 4-on-3, the Oilers made three correct reads and eventually hit defenseman Darnell Nurse as the trailer. Nurse beat Kuemper clean on the blocker side with his wrist shot, uncontested in the slot, as the hosts took a 4-2 advantage.

The hosts opened up a three-goal advantage just over 90 seconds after the Nurse goal, capitalizing again off the rush. Driving the net, forward Trent Frederic worked his way into the top of the crease, where he finished inside some traffic in front of Kuemper’s net for his first goal of the series and the largest lead of the game for Edmonton.

With just inside two minutes remaining in the second period, the Kings pulled a goal back to get within a pair heading into the second intermission. Off the rush, Fiala fed a charging Jordan Spence through the slot, where the defenseman fired a shot first time past Pickard and in, with forward Samuel Helenius providing the screen in front. With the secondary assist, Helenius picked up his first career playoff point, with the Kings pulling to within 5-3.

With Kuemper on the bench for the extra attacker, the Kings moved back to within a goal as defenseman Drew Doughty snuck a shot through from the right point, which evaded everyone in front, except the stick of forward Anze Kopitar, deflecting in for his second goal of the series, bringing the score to 5-4. Edmonton added an empty-net goal with just one second on the clock to bring us to a 6-4 final.

Hear from Kopitar, forward Adrian Kempe and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s season-ending defeat.

Anze Kopitar

Adrian Kempe
On if this is the hardest of the four series to take for him, with the team they had
Yeah, I think so. I mean, most recently too, for sure, but I think this year……previous two seasons, two playoff series, I feel like we weren’t maybe close enough to be as good as they were. This series felt like, besides the last home game we had, it felt like we were the better team. Yeah, we couldn’t close the games out that we should have. So that came back and bit us hindsight.

On if it ultimately will be Games 3 and 4 he looks back on as the deciding part of the series
Yeah for sure. I think Game 4 was maybe our best game in the series overall. Yeah, three as well, I think after two periods, we were really solid. It’s tough, it sucks when you play that well over five out of six games, to come out like that. We have to regroup.

On if he felt like the team had enough in the tank in Games 5 and 6, after investing so much into Games 1-4
Yeah, I think so. Obviously it’s tough if you play a lot and you’re maybe not used to playing as much in the regular season, but once you get a couple of games in, you know, I feel like everybody was fine, hopefully everybody was fine. I’m pretty used to it, so I feel like I had enough gas at the end of the games and at the end of the periods, for sure.

On if struggles to pinpoint why the Kings cannot find a way past the Oilers
No. I think this series it was because we couldn’t close the games out. We couldn’t hit the empty netters. We had about 9 or 10 tries at it where we didn’t get it. I’m not saying that we win those games, we win the series, but it would have been different momentum going into Game 5 and Game 6 for sure. That was the biggest difference maker. That’s all I’ve got to say.

Jim Hiller
On if this season is the hardest to accept of his three series here
They’re all hard, I can tell you that, but yeah, based on how we started the series, how we had played the last couple months of the season, how we started the series, how we failed to close a couple out, how we had a real tough Game 5 for our team, we played so uncharacteristic of our team. We then came in there tonight, [reporter] says they scored a lot of goals, I thought that we probably deserved more than four myself. We had a lot of chances, especially in the third period. It happens sometimes when you’re trailing, it’s easier.

On if he sees this as a missed opportunity for his team
100 percent. It’s a missed opportunity. It’s very clear. Yeah, it’s a missed opportunity for us. Especially we had a great buy in from our players. We believe we could have won the series. We believe we should have won the series. We didn’t.

On if he feels there is a mental block, with all four defeats coming against Edmonton
No, no, I’m not going to go there. We had our chances to get it done and we didn’t get it done.

On how tough it was to get momentum back, after Edmonton took control of the series.
I thought we got it back tonight, to be honest, I thought we played well. I know they had some 2-on-1’s when we were pressing at the end. I don’t know what the chances were in the end. They outplayed us, in my mind, in one game and the overtime, I’ll give them the overtime too, there’s no question. We lose the series, that part doesn’t really matter.

On if he regrets deployment of certain players earlier in the series, in hindsight
No.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) scored his third goal of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, his fourth point (3-1=4) of the series, to open the scoring in tonight’s Game 6 at Rogers Place. Per NHL PR, the center’s goal came 1:19 into Game 6, marking the second-fastest to begin a potential elimination game in Kings history, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (0:52 in Game 7 of 1989 DSF vs. EDM).
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (1-0=1) fired home his second goal of the postseason, tied for the second most among skaters selected in the 2021 NHL Draft with Carolina’s Logan Stankoven (2G) and Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston (2G) behind Toronto’s Matthew Knies (3G). Clarke is the first blueliner among his draft cohort to find the back of the net in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and is joined by New Jersey’s Luke Hughes (0-2=2) as the only defender with multiple postseason points.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence (1-0=1) scored his first career playoff goal, assisted by forward Samuel Helenius (0-1=1), who recorded his first career postseason point on the play.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the 2025 playoffs, his ninth point (2-7=9) of the postseason.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) tallied his third and fourth helpers of the series, bringing him to seven total points (3-4=7) .
• Fiala has recorded 30 points (14-16=30) in his 49-game playoff career and is one of just three skaters of Swiss nationality to record as
many, joining Nashville blueliner Roman Josi (12-33=45) and Winnipeg forward Nino Niederreiter (17-21=38), both of whom have played over 90 postseason games.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) picked up his second assist of the playoffs, his fourth career postseason point (1-3=4) to tie for 10th most points and eighth most assists amongst skaters selected in the 2020 NHL Draft.
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) registered his sixth assist of the series on Clarke’s goal. With the helper, the native of Victoriaville, Quebec,
increased his postseason career total to 19 points (7-12=19). In doing so, he tied Steve Kasper (6-12=18) for fourth most assists and broke a tie with Kasper for sole possession of fourth most points by a skater born in Quebec in team playoff history.
• Defenseman Drew Doughty (0-1=1) registered his third assist of the postseason on Kopitar’s closing-minute goal.
• Per NHL PR, the Kings and Oilers combined for four goals in the opening 5:55, marking the third fastest four goals to open a potentialclinching game, following Game 6 of the 1965 Semifinals between the Canadiens and Maple Leafs (3:49) and Game 5 of the 2016 Stanley Cup Final between the Penguins and Sharks (5:06).

The Kings will hold exit interviews in the coming days, following the conclusion of the 2024-25 season.