Los Angeles Kings thrash Edmonton Oilers 5-2
Jarret Stoll lit the lamp twice as the Los Angeles Kings registered a convincing 5-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at the Staples Centre on Saturday night.
Drew Doughty and Marco Sturm each scored a goal and had an assist, while Anze Kopitar also tallied a goal for Los Angeles, who had lost seven of their last eight games. Jonathan Bernier was solid with 24 saves in the win.
Andrew Cogliano and Dustin Penner recorded goals for Edmonton, who have dropped three of their previous four games. Devan Dubnyk gave up four goals on 22 shots in defeat.
The Oilers opened the scoring in the seventh minute of the opening period to take a 1-0 lead. Penner skated to just outside the left post, from behind the net, and bounced the puck in behind Bernier.
Sturm tied the play-off at 1-112th minutes into the first period, when he picked up a bouncing puck at the left circle, and swept a shot into the right corner of the net.
Los Angeles then gained a 2-1 lead with five minutes left in the first period. Justin Williams took the disc off the boards in the Los Angeles zone after a wide shot by Tom Gilbert and moved down to Edmonton zone. He skated in front of the net and passed
the puck over to the left side, where Anze Kopitar knocked it into the net.
Los Angeles Winger Justin Williams said after the game, “We have a lot of offensive weapons on this team, and the only way we’re going to be able to use them is with our speed. They’re a team whose defensemen are very active in the offensive end, so if you’re
smart and play well in your own zone, you might get some odd-man rushes. We had a few and we were able to capitalise on them.”
However, Edmonton evened it at 2-2 a minute later, when Liam Reddox got in the way of clearing pass by Rob Scuderi behind the net. Ryan Jones picked up the loose puck and sent it to Cogliano, who ripped it home for his sixth goal of the year.
Oilers Coach Tom Renney was critical of his team’s performance. He said, “We had a decent start, and we felt after the first period that we might be able to come after this team and get ourselves a win. But too many turnovers allowed L.A. to feel a little
more comfortable about their game. They got some odd-man rushes and spent too much time in our own end.”
Los Angeles scored the only goal in the eighth minute of the middle stanza to take a 3-2 lead. Dustin Brown received a bounded pass from Sturm off the boards in the neutral zone and rushed down the right side. He slipped the puck to the front of the net
where Stoll collected it and went backhand to forehand before blasting it into the goal.
Bernier stopped 10 shots in the second period to help the Kings take their one-goal advantage into the final frame.
Los Angeles had an insurance goal for a 4-2 lead in the third minute of the final period. It began when Doughty got the puck in the neutral zone, moved up the middle and banged a wrist shot into the right corner of the net.
The Kings sealed the win with two minutes left in the final period, as Jarret Stoll added an empty-net goal against his former team, to seal the game 5-2.
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