The Los Angeles Kings played the first of a back-to-back on Monday night (April 14) when they visited the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. This game was not only a huge matchup due to both teams battling for home-ice advantage in the playoffs, but a bit of a preview of what will kick off next week when they meet in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth year in a row. The Kings hold the advantage in the season series between these two teams, winning two of three by scores of 3-0 and 4-3 in OT. The Oilers’ lone win came in mid-January, a narrow 1-0 victory.
Related: Projected Lineups for the Kings vs. Oilers — 04/14/25
The Oilers came into this one sitting at 99 points and in third place in the Pacific Division, just two points behind the Kings for second place. They were 6-4-0 in their last 10 and were on a three-game winning streak.
The Kings came into the matchup at 101 points and holding onto second in the Pacific Division, trying to fend off the Oilers and keep home-ice advantage to start the postseason. They were 7-3-0 in their last 10 and looking for their third-straight victory.
The Kings took this one 5-0. Here’s your game recap.
Game Recap
The game began with an Evan Bouchard tripping penalty in the first minute of the game. The Oilers were able to kill it off, however, it was shortly after the penalty ended that LA’s Warren Foegele buried a loose puck against his former team for his 23rd of the season. A short time later, recent Oilers call-up Josh Brown took a high-sticking penalty. The penalty quickly resulted in a 2-0 Kings lead as Quinton Byfield tipped home an Adrian Kempe point shot.
Edmonton began to show their frustration just halfway through the first as immediately after the goal, Connor Brown would take a shot at Phillip Danault and take a roughing minor. Both teams started to lay the body more and really show the rivalry between them after this altercation. The Kings took a couple of bad penalties down the stretch of the period, however, the Oilers couldn’t convert on a couple of great chances. Then, with just over a minute left in the frame, Vladislav Gavrikov joined the rush and beat Calvin Pickard glove side to extend LA’s lead further. At the first intermission of a penalty-filled period, the Kings led 3-0 with the shots in their favour 12-9 as well.
The first seven and a half minutes of the period were quiet, with the Kings just playing solid defense and getting a few decent chances as well. Finally, close to eight minutes into the period, Kevin Fiala wired home a shot on another power play to extend the lead again. Shortly after that, some rough stuff occurred between the teams, resulting in penalties on both sides. The frustration continued for Edmonton as they took a trio of penalties in the back half of the period, including a Corey Perry 10-minute misconduct and a Darnell Nurse five-minute major and a game misconduct for cross-checking. The period closed with the Kings in front 4-0 and the shots heavily in their favour at 25-13.
The third period saw both teams just going through the motions and playing out the clock for the most part. Almost halfway through Kempe rifled home his 34th on a feed from Anze Kopitar. After the Kings made the lead even larger, they made the decision to pull goalie Darcy Kuemper, though the reason was unclear at the time. Backup David Rittich came in to relieve him. The game would end as a 5-0 victory for the Kings, their third-straight. The final shots on goal were 36-21 for LA.
With this win, LA not only takes the season series against Edmonton but also clinches home-ice advantage against them in Round 1 of the playoffs. They were propelled to victory by some great performances, including Adrian Kempe scoring one goal and two assists, as well as Foegele and Fiala each having a goal and an assist. Kuemper (16 saves) and Rittich (five saves) combined for the shutout to seal this one.
The Oilers’ next game will be their final of the regular season. It will be on Wednesday, April 16, when they make one last trip to the SAP Center to take on the San Jose Sharks for an 8:30 p.m. MDT start.
The Kings’ next game is a quick turnaround as they play Tuesday night, April 15, as they finish this quick back-to-back road trip against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena starting at 8:30 p.m. MDT. They finish their regular season on Thursday at home against the Calgary Flames, with a 7:30 p.m. MDT puck drop.
