Kings rout Oilers, clinch home-ice advantage against them for playoffs
EDMONTON, Alberta — The Kings couldn’t avoid their postseason nemesis again this season, but they now have something in their favor that they didn’t have in any of the past three years: home-ice advantage.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and two assists and Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and an assist as the Kings beat the depleted Edmonton Oilers, 5-0, on Monday night and officially clinched home-ice advantage against them for their first-round playoff series.
Quinton Byfield and Vladislav Gavrikov also scored and Trevor Moore and Anze Kopitar both notched a pair of assists for the Kings (47-24-9, 103 points), who have won seven of their last eight games and earned the right to play the first two games of their best-of-seven series at Crypto.com Arena, where they have been dominant all season (31-5-4).
“It means a lot. We’ve established our home game well all season. We have really good confidence there, and we’ve shown over the last couple of weeks that we can play better on the road as well,” Kempe told NHL.com. “I think considering they were missing a lot of guys tonight, we still played to our strengths and played a consistent and solid game.
“We weren’t cheating for offense, and special teams have been really good over the last couple of weeks, too, which is going to be really important going into the playoffs. I think we’re pretty happy with our game right now.”
Darcy Kuemper had 16 saves before being replaced by David Rittich before the midway mark of the third period. Rittich finished with five saves.
The Kings won three of their four regular-season meetings with Edmonton and hope to carry that success into the postseason, where the Oilers have eliminated them in the first round each of the past three years. The Oilers needed seven games to knock out out the Kings in 2022, eliminated them in six games in 2023 and were victorious in five games last year.
With the Lakers opening their first-round NBA playoff series at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night, Game 1 of Kings-Oilers series will presumably be played on Sunday.
Calvin Pickard had 31 saves for Edmonton (47-29-5, 99 points), which saw its three-game winning streak come to an end. The Oilers were without several key players, including Connor McDavid (rest), Leon Draisaitl (undisclosed), Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed), Trent Frederic (ankle), Zach Hyman (undisclosed), Evander Kane (hip, knee), Troy Stetcher (undisclosed) and Jake Walman (undisclosed). All but Ekholm are expected to either start the playoffs or be available within the first couple of postseason games.
At least one Oiler did not sound concerned about the Kings securing the home-ice edge.
“Our goal was to make the playoffs, that was our first goal, and then go from there,” Oilers forward Corey Perry told NHL.com. “We know who we’re playing. We open up on the road, so we’ll go out and do a job on the road.
“It’s not the first time or the last time we’re going to open up a series on the road. We’ve been decent on the road (22-16-2) and we know how to play just a boring style of hockey.”
Foegele, a former Oiler, opened the scoring at the 2:55 mark of the first period when he converted a rebound for his 23rd goal of the season.
Byfield doubled the lead near the midway point of the opening period by deflecting the point shot for a power-play marker. Byfield has scored in four consecutive games and 23 times on the season.
Gavrikov made it a three-goal lead at 18:45 of the first period by joining a rush, taking a pass in the slot and whipping home a shot.Fiala added another power-play goal at 7:43 of the second period, converting with a rocket of a one-timer from the right faceoff dot to net his career-high and team-leading 35th goal of the season.
The chippy game turned ugly late in the second period when Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse delivered a cross-check to the back of Byfield’s head as the Kings forward was lying on the ice. Nurse was handed a major penalty and game misconduct, and Byfield did not return due to an upper-body injury.
“No update,” Kings coach Jim Hiller told reporters. “He wasn’t able to finish, that’s all. It doesn’t matter how I saw it.”
Kempe made it a five-goal edge at 8:13 of the third period with another one-timer, this one set up by Kopitar during an odd-man rush.
Rittich relieved Kuemper in net for the Kings following that goal.
“Just late in the game. We thought once we got five that we were pretty comfortable, and ‘Ritter’ is going to play tomorrow (at Seattle). He hasn’t played in a long time (March 30), and it was a chance to get him a few pucks before he plays back-to-back,” Hiller told NHL.com. “It probably serves both purposes, to get him warmed up a little bit and to give Darcy a rest.”
NOTES
Byfield, who has goals in four consecutive games and seven points in that span, is one point short of tying his career high of 55 set last season. Since Feb. 1, he leads the team with 31 points in 31 games. … The Kings’ 47 wins this season are tied for the second-most in franchise history, trailing only the 2015-16 team (48 wins). … The Kings (3-1-0) won the season series against the Oilers for the first time since 2015-16.
UP NEXT
The Kings play at Seattle on Tuesday night in their final road game before closing the regular season on Thursday night at home against Calgary. Edmonton has just one game left, Wednesday night at San Jose.