The Royal Angels stride into Edmonton

Los Angeles Kings vs Edmonton Oilers 3-2OT (2-0, 0-2, 0-0, 1-0OT)

The Oilers continued their extended home stand against last placed Los Angeles, who were 12 points behind 14th with a 14-29-5 record, despite having quite a strong roster. Edmonton made a goalie change, starting veteran Khabibulin in favor of Hiller.

Los Angeles did not just catch a break, they trapped it as their fortune brought them an early power play goal from a lucky bounce that ended up a gift on Smyth's blade. The 'break' was not released from captivity yet, as Jon Sim's long range effort got by Khabibulin to make it 2-0 shortly before the intermission.

After being royally abused by misfortune during the first, the Oilers battled to get back into the game in the second, though a couple of penalties gave them a slow start. Heroic efforts from Babchuk, Yonkman on an extended PK set the stage for some payback when the Kings took their first minor of the game. Ales Hemsky was found by O'Sullivan and scored the Oilers' first just as the PP was over. The game balanced on a skate blade, though tilting towards the home team's favour as O'Sullivan went from playmaker to finisher on a man advantage mid-way through the game, 2-2!

Edmtonton's dominance was no secret to onlookers as they amassed a 35-12 shot advantage, had 9 power plays by when entering the last five minutes of the game - at which point the Kings were able to draw a penalty. Despite being disinvolved throughout most of the game, Khabibulin proved stellar when tested from close range twice, both of the times stoning Frolov. To overtime they went.

A rather eventless overtime looked to be going to a shootout, but a fast game demands a quick mind. Gilbert was slow to react to Justin Williams' check and lost possession and Williams was able to go in alone of Khabibulin and net the game winner on a nice shot.

Post game: "We betrayed ourselves by not taking our chances" summarized GM Kowalski, having kept the team behind for 40 minutes extra after the game, presumably speaking his mind. The players were not very vocal about the meeting once they got to the post-game interviews, but there was consensus among the team that their compete level and concentration had to be improved. "This team is still a young, inexperienced one, and we can not afford to let up or we'll end up back in the mire" reminded assistant coach Tom Renney before leaving for the night.



Scoreboard
1st Period:
LAK - Smyth (Kopitar, Frolov) PP
LAK - Sim (Segal, Mikus)

2nd Period:
EDM - Hemsky (O'Sullivan, Gagner)
EDM - O'Sullivan (Babchuk, Hemsky) PP

3rd Period:
-

Overtime:
LAK - Williams (-)

Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Cogliano - Laich - O'Sullivan
Moore - Krysanov - Skille
Moreau - Falardeau - O'Marra

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Khabibulin
(Hiller)