With a pivotal final 20 minutes underway, both teams were playing a bit more conservative than they had the previous two periods, but the Oilers were able to secure their first lead of the night on Janmark’s tally at 7:12.
Vasily Podkolzin corraled a puck in the neutral zone and found Viktor Arvidsson streaking down the right side. The Swede ripped a wrist shot on net and Kuemper turned it aside with his blocker, but the puck went right to Janmark who hammered it into the twine for his second goal of the series.
“You always black out a little when you score big goals like that,” he said. “When you get to that time of the game, the bounces become big and they can go either way. The puck ended up on my stick and I just tried to bury it.”
Janmark has already matched his goal total from the regular season and said he takes a lot of pride in contributing when the stakes are at their highest.
“I kind of had a funny feeling there when game 70 hit and I only had one or two goals, I knew I wasn’t going to have a career year,” he laughed. “I had a feeling that they might show up here in the playoffs.”
The Kings had a chance to tie it up when Nurse was called for hooking but the Oilers PK stood its ground as the game moved past the 10-minute mark and into the home stretch.
Kuemper’s glove was at it again with 4:11 to go in the game as he plucked a Nugent-Hopkins shot out of the air after a pass from Hyman behind the Los Angeles net.
The home side pulled Kuemper with more than three minutes to go and his former Red Deer Rebels teammate Nugent-Hopkings eventually sealed the victory with the empty-net tally.
The night ended with the Oilers leading scoring chances 35-12 and high-danger scoring chances 20-4, according to Natural Stat Trick, as they’ll to carry that dominance into Thursday.
“The playoffs are an emotional roller-coaster for both teams, and you’ve gotta make sure you’re able to steady yourself even after a win like tonight,” Hyman said. “It’s back to business. Same old. We’ve been here before. We have a huge opportunity to close it out at home. And that’s where the mindset is now.”
