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Do you believe in miracles?
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Neither do the Los Angeles Kings.
So they shut Edmonton’s stunning comeback attempt dead in its tracks Monday.
After letting a 5-2 lead deteriorate into a 5-5 tie on last-minute goals from Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid, the Kings spoiled one of the greatest rallies in Oilers history with a flukey game-winner with 41.1 seconds left in regulation.
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And, in the end, a third period for the ages ended up in a heartbreaking 6-5 loss in Game 1 of their Pacific Division playoff series.
It was wild. The Oilers were down 2-0 after the first period. They were down 4-1 after the second. They were down 5-2 in the third. They were two men short for two full minutes with the score 5-3.
And they almost pulled it off.
But just as fans in Los Angeles were asking themselves if what they were watching was real, Phillip Danault’s floating knuckler grazed Stuart Skinner’s shoulder and sent the Oilers to defeat.
Tough loss, but after the first 40 minutes it will at least give the Oilers some hope moving forward. And that wasn’t the case in the second intermission.
The hope going in was that the Oilers would tear open the curtain, unleash a healthy lineup, flick the switch and pick up right where they left off in last year’s playoffs.
Instead, they picked up right where they left off during the regular season.
Losing to Los Angeles.
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All of the bad things that had people worrying during the regular season showed up and burned them badly.
They started slowly and dug a hole. They fell into a long second-period lapse (four shots). They made the big mistakes to give up goals against. Skinner gave up four goals on the first 17 shots.
And Evan Bouchard’s habit of burying his team with careless mistakes cost them two goals in three minutes and ultimately led to the defeat.
First, it was a blind, backhand pass up the boards to an L.A. player, then he chased the puck behind the net, leaving Adrian Kempe all day and night to make it 3-0 at 14:47 of the second period.
A couple of shifts late,r he slid a pass from behind his net right to Philip Danault in the slot to make it 4-0 at 17:43. Those are the kind of mistakes that can kill you in the playoffs, and they did in Game 1.
Edmonton made a furious push, with Draisaitl scoring in the final seconds of the second period, Mattias Janmark and Corey Perry scoring at 2:19 and 7:43 of the third period, and then Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid scoring with Edmonton’s net empty to tie it.
But it wasn’t meant to be.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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