FIRST PERIOD
Just like the night prior in Anaheim, the Oilers got off to a hot start against the Kings with a pair of early goals from Ty Emberson and Vasily Podkolzin.
Emberson put together perhaps his most impressive shift of the season as he crushed former Oilers teammate Corey Perry in the corner of the defensive zone and then jumped up in the rush, received a pass from Jack Roslovic and ripped a wrist shot top corner glove side on Darcy Kuemper at the 7:25 mark.
Less than a minute later, Podkolzin got a pass from Andrew Mangiapane and powered a wrist shot through Kuemper that snuck between the goalie’s gear and trickled across the line for his 13th of the season.
Wednesday’s game script from Anaheim continued to repeat itself as the home side cut the Oilers lead in half 12:15 into the period when former Oilers forward Warren Foegele redirected Joel Edmundson’s point shot past Ingram. Edmonton’s coaches considered challenging that Foegele’s deflection was made with a high stick, but they opted to play on with a 2-1 lead.
Speaking of high sticks, Darnell Nurse was dealt a double-minor for clipping Brian Dumoulin with his blade late in the frame but the Oilers killed off all four minutes and took their one-goal margin into the break.
“A big turning point in the game was that four-minute kill,” Hyman said. “Your goalie is your number one penalty killer and (Ingram) played great on that, and the guys who killed it did a huge job for us there.”