EDMONTON, Alberta — Fact: The Kings held the NHL’s leading scorer, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, to one point in two playoff games on his home ice.
Conventional wisdom: The Oilers would seem to be in deep trouble.
But conventional wisdom doesn’t account for the skill and will of the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl, who was the star of Game 2. He factored into the first two goals and created a turnover in the neutral zone to set up Klim Kostin’s game-winner at 2:20 of the third period and then assisted on Evander Kane’s empty-netter with 23 seconds remaining to give the Oilers a 4-2 victory that tied the best-of-seven first-round series on Wednesday night at Rogers Place.
Kostin, a bottom-six forward, used Kings defenseman Sean Durzi as a screen and beat goalie Joonas Korpisalo with a wrist shot to the glove side.
The series moves to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday.
The Kings had fought their way back into the game with two second-period goals after a desultory opening period, in which they didn’t record a shot on goal until 2:02 remaining in the frame.
They trailed 2-0 after first-period goals by Derek Ryan at 2:34 (assisted by Draisaitl) and Draisaitl on the power play at 12:06. Kings forward Alex Iafallo had gone off for tripping defenseman Evan Bouchard.
The Kings, however, have been nothing but resilient in the first two games of the series even when things were going off the rails, managing to hang around and preventing things from getting out of reach.
It took nearly 35 minutes into Game 2 before they managed to solve Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner. Kings center Phillip Danault broke through on a strong second effort, converting his own rebound at 14:38 to cut the deficit in half.
Then Gabe Vilardi managed to make something out of nothing and tied it at 2-2 off the rush with 44 seconds left in the second period.
It took Vilardi less than 10 seconds into his first NHL shift to score in February 2020. Playoff success finally arrived three years later.
Then again, Vilardi has gotten used to stops and starts and fortune and misfortune since the Kings selected him in the first round of the 2017 NHL Draft.
This season was another example of his up-and-down career. He got off to a fast start and finished with 23 goals but missed the stretch run of the season, out since March 26 with an upper-body injury.
Special teams was a factor in Game 2 as the Kings went 0 for 4 on the power play, including 16 seconds of 5-on-3 time. Edmonton, courtesy of Draisaitl, converted its only power play.
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