By Canadian Press

Draisaitl propels Oilers past Kings, into 2nd in Pacific

Apr 4, 2023 | 10:41 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leon Draisaitl broke a tie with 7:20 left and the Edmonton Oilers vaulted into second place in the Pacific Division with a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night in a pivotal game for playoff seeding.

The win not only put the Oilers one point ahead of the Kings, it gave them 100 points for the second straight season. The last time Edmonton reached the century mark in back-to-back seasons was 1987 under a different points structure.

The teams split the four-game season series and are on course to possibly meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second straight year. Edmonton had home ice in last year’s series and won in seven games.

Draisaitl, who also had two assists, extended his points streak to 13 games with 10 goals and 27 points during that span.

Draisaitl had the go-ahead score on a power play when he put in a rebound past Pheonix Copley in front of Los Angeles’ net. It was Draisaitl’s 51st goal of the season and his league-leading 31st on the power play.

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Edmonton leads the league with a 32.7% success rate on the power play, the highest by a team since 1977-78.

Los Angeles’ Viktor Arvidsson, who tied it 1 and snapped a 171:58 shutout streak by the Oilers, was called for the penalty that resulted in Edmonton’s deciding goal.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse also scored for the Oilers while Stuart Skinner stopped 20 shots. Copley made 30 saves for the Kings.

With the Oilers on their second power play, Nugent-Hopkins got the pass from Draisaitl, skated into the left faceoff circle and snapped a shot under Copley’s arm on his glove side at 11:30 of the second period. It was Nugent-Hopkins’ 36th goal.

It also gave Nugent-Hopkins 15 goals with the man advantage. According to the NHL, the Oilers are the first team to have at least four players with 15 power-play goals in a season.

Arvidsson evened it at 10:26 of the third with a one-timer from the point off the pass from Trevor Moore.

Nurse put it away with an empty-net goal.

LACK OF SHOTS

There were five combined shots on goal in the first period, which was tied for the least since 2015-16 according to Sportradar. The last time it happened was Pittsburgh vs. Vancouver on Dec. 21, 2019.

The Kings had three shots in the first 20 minutes, which was the fifth time since 2015-16 they had three or fewer. The Oilers had two shots, which was the third time in the last eight seasons that happened.

UP NEXT

Oilers: At Anaheim on Wednesday night.

Kings: At Vegas on Thursday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Joe Reedy, The Associated Press