Zach Hyman notched a hat trick and Connor McDavid had five assists as the Edmonton Oilers sunk the Los Angeles Kings 7-4 Monday night at Rogers Place.
The Oilers lead the best-of-seven first round series 1-0.
The Oilers controlled the play in the first period and earned a 2-0 lead. Zach Hyman broke the ice by whapping in a pass from McDavid just before the game was seven minutes old. Less than three minutes later, Adam Henrique popped a shot up high past Cam Talbot’s blocker. The Oilers outshot the Kings 15-7 in the first period.
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Stuart Skinner stopped Viktor Arvidsson four-and-half minutes into the second. Less than 30 seconds later, McDavid spun from behind the Kings net and fed Hyman for a flick in. On an Oilers power play, Leon Draisaitl popped a pass into the crease for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins whose tap in made it 4-0 Edmonton.
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Mikey Anderson put the Kings on the board with a hard high slapper with 9:04 left in the second. The Kings celebrated another goal less than two minutes later, but after video review the officials rules that Trevor Lewis had directed the puck in using his hand. Adrian Kempe would get on that counted by banking the puck in off Evan Bouchard to cut the Oilers lead to 4-2.
Trevor Moore went off for tripping Vincent Desharnais late in the second, leading to a Leon Draisaitl power play one-timer 1:08 into the third. Hyman completed the hat trick on another power play five minutes later, nudging in a pass from McDavid.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored a late goal for the Kings with a bank shot off Darnell Nurse. Moore scored with 1:11 left shortly after Cody Ceci’s broken stick created a Kings chance. Warren Foegele added an empty netter to put it away.
Skinner finished with 34 saves while Talbot made 38.
The teams will play game two on Wednesdsay (630 CHED, Face-off Show at 6 p.m., game at 8 p.m.).
