Edmonton Oilers turning L.A. Kings into dead men skating – Edmonton Journal

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Not quite dead. Not quite buried.

But keep the shovels and flowers handy because the Los Angeles Kings are running out of lives.

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Their last best chance to make a series out of this and really turn the pressure up on the Edmonton Oilers came and went in a 1-0 defeat late Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena.

The Oilers have Los Angeles in a 3-1 choke hold with a chance to turn the lights out for good at home on Wednesday night.

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“It’s playoffs, these are the types of games you have to win in the playoffs,” said Oilers winger Corey Perry, who played his 200th career post-season game. “It’s not going to be 6-5 or 7-4 every night. You’re going to have to dig deep and play defence and grind one out and we found a way tonight.”

Some people might make a comparison to the Oilers 1-0 win over the New York Islanders the year Edmonton won its first Stanley Cup, but this wasn’t that. The shots in that game were 38-34. It was close.

This one wasn’t. The Kings deserved better — they outplayed Edmonton all night and outshot the Oilers 33-13 — but couldn’t find the one goal they needed.

“It’s a real strength of ours, showing we can win games this way,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “They had more shots than us but I thought we limited the chances that were quality Grade A’s. It didn’t feel like they had those unbelievable looks in front of our goaltender.”

They didn’t. Stuart Skinner posted the shutout behind an Oilers team that clogged the front of his net and played ferocious defence, keeping L.A. at long range for most of the night. Skinner didn’t have to make many spectacular saves, but he got in the way of everything in some high-traffic, high-pressure situations for his first career playoff goose egg.

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“I don’t know how many blocked shots we had, but the guys were grinding for me, getting to every single puck and when we were hemmed in in the D zone we were able to win some battles,” said Skinner. “I think we just really played a man’s game out there and I’m really proud of the group.”

Still, there is a skill to winning this type of game and Skinner showed it brilliantly.

“He’s taken steps as a goaltender, he’s way calmer,” said Ekholm. “And positionally he’s very sound. You have to really make a great play to beat him which is a great feeling for us knowing that he’s the backbone of our team.”

In the end, a cheesy call from referee Jon McIsaac was the difference, opening the door for Edmonton’s power play to step in, score the one goal they needed and steal the game.

Power plays have been the difference in the series. Five on five, the Oilers versus Kings is a dead-even coin toss. Ten goals each. But special teams is a relentless slaughter with the Oilers scoring eight times on the man advantage and the Kings going 0-for-10 through the first three games and 0-1 in a decisive Game 4.

The Kings, looking for some kind of spark, started David Rittich in goal in place of Cam Talbot, who allowed 17 goals in the first three games of the series. He was as good as a goalie needs to be when he only faces 13 shots, but Skinner was better.

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“If you don’t let in any goals you’re going to win the game,” said Evan Bouchard., who scored the lone Oilers marker. “He was great for us.”

An early storm that the Oilers knew was coming hit hard and lasted the entire first period. The Kings unleashed the urgency and intensity you’d expect from a team one loss away from doom and swarmed the Oilers end, outshooting Edmonton 10-4 and hitting anything that moved.

Los Angeles doled out 23 hits in the opening 20 minutes, with Brett Kulak, Bouchard, Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid among the Oilers who got rocked.

Every inch of ice was a combat zone in this one, with nothing coming easily for either side. Edmonton mustered just four shots in the first period and two shots in the first 10 minutes of the second period. They couldn’t breathe.

Then they caught a massive break in the second period when McIsaac absolutely booted the first call of the night. McIsaac’s soft, soft holding call on Andreas England, egregiously out of place in a hard-hitting, playoff battle, set up Bouchard’s 1-0 power-play goal and changed the course of the contest, and the series, for good.

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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