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 The Kings thoroughly dominated the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-2
victory that could have been 8-2 were it not for the work of Oilers
goalie (and former King) Ben Scrivens, who faced 50 shots in the
onslaught.
The Kings are rolling, and they rolled right over Edmonton.
"We're all well aware of how we can play in here," said Kings
captain Dustin Brown. "We've been a lot more balanced in our attack
in the sense that we have contributions from all the lines. That
wasn't the case when we were really struggling, it wasn't a
collective effort. We didn't have a lot of guys producing."
Before Sunday, the Oilers had put together an impressive 7-2-2 run,
their best 11-game stretch in almost three years, despite an
avalanche of statistics that suggested they were not playing that
well. They were outshot in 10 of the 11 games and went just 3-for-30
on the power play during that span.
The numbers caught up with them against the Kings, who broke open a
1-1 game with three goals in the second period and never looked
back.
Los Angeles (37-22-6) owns a 14-1-4 record against Edmonton over the
teams' past 19 meetings.
"They're as advertised, for sure," said Oilers left wing Taylor
Hall, who was not displeased with Edmonton's overall effort. "They
seemed to have a lot of O-zone time and a lot of shots... Those are
the teams we have to get better at playing against, but I thought it
was a pretty good effort for us tonight."
That's not a quote you will hear very often when a team gives up 50
shots.
"They seemed to just come down and fire it a lot," said Hall. "We'll
have to see what the chances were, that's a better indication of
where the game was swinging. They're a good team and they brought it
to us for a lot of the night, but, like I said, the effort was
there."
After each team scored once in the opening period, the Kings scored
three goals during a seven-minute span in the second — defenseman
Alec Martinez at 8:49, center Jeff Carter at 10:16 and center Trevor
Lewis at 15:49 — to all but bury the hosts.
The Kings held a 23-9 shot advantage when Lewis made it 4-1. The
Kings had 33 shots after 40 minutes, marking the 13th time in the
last 18 games that the Oilers gave up 30 or more shots.
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"I'm not going to throw my teammates under the bus," said Scrivens.
"We had no quit right up to the last buzzer. They're a team that
generates a lot of shots, they throw a lot of pucks and drive the
net. I was proud of the way we competed."
He said losing to his ex-teammates is no different than any other
loss.
"These are my teammates," Scrivens said of the Oilers. "I don't care
about the L.A. Kings anymore. I have friends on that team, but once
you're on the ice you're an Edmonton Oiler and that's all that
should matter."
Oilers center Sam Gagner, who assisted on the first goal, scored
early in the third period to give him 11 points in 12 games and
close the lead to 4-2.
Carter opened the scoring 96 seconds into the first period on a goal
that Oilers defenseman Philip Larsen kicked into his own net.
Edmonton (22-35-8) tied the game when Hall converted a beautiful
pass from right winger David Perron at 7:24. The Oilers were
out-shot 12-5 in the first period.
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick finished with 25 saves.
"We are just finding ways to win," said Los Angeles center Jarret
Stoll. "Tonight wasn't our best game by any means, not even close.
But we found a way and just stuck with it.
"We didn't really have our legs at some points, but you have to find
ways to win. Dirty ways, ugly ways, whatever. That's the biggest
thing right now. We are getting timely saves from our goaltenders
like we usually get and we are finding goals."
NOTES: Oilers D Jeff Petry, who left Thursday's game against the New
York Islanders with a rib injury, was back on the ice Sunday against
Los Angeles. ... The Kings were on the second leg of a three-game
road trip that concludes Monday in Calgary. ... LW Taylor Hall's
first-period goal was his second in two games for Edmonton. ...
Edmonton gave up the first goal in 39 of 65 games this season. ...
LW Jeff Carter's two goals give him at least a point in five of the
last eight Kings games. One of his goals went in off a defenseman's
skate, the other off his own, so he wasn't credited with a shot on
net for either goal. ... D Matt Greene was a healthy scratch for the
Kings. ... G Viktor Fasth, expected to start Tuesday in Minnesota,
will be Edmonton's sixth different goalie this year.
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