LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings are looking to make the most of home-ice advantage and retake the lead in Western Conference First Round against the Edmonton Oilers.
The best-of-7 series is tied 2-2 heading into Game 5 at Crypto.Com Arena on Tuesday (10 p.m. ET; MAX, TBS, KCAL, TVAS2, SN, CBC).
“Coming back home where we’re comfortable and confident is where we want to be,” Kings forward Quinton Byfield said Tuesday. “We’re excited and we’re just going to take it a game at a time.”
Los Angeles won the first two games at home before losing the next two on the road in Edmonton, including 4-3 in overtime in Game 4 on Sunday after allowing the tying goal with 29 seconds remaining in regulation. The Kings had the best home record in the NHL during the regular season (31-6-4). The Oilers (23-16-2) tied for the sixth best road record.
“We’ve been confident all year on home ice and the crowd has been great in the playoffs,” Byfield said. “We just have to use that to our advantage and start the way that we’ve been doing and just keep that for the full 60 (minutes).”
Edmonton is 6-4 at Los Angeles in the playoffs over the past four seasons.
“We have to win at least one game here, and ideally, it would be Game 5,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I think our mindset is to come out with a strong start and not trail early. Obviously when you have the lead, it’s a lot easier to play the game from there. I think it’s important for us to play with the same desperation and hunger we have played with when we were trailing.”
Teams that win Game 5 when a best-of-7 series is tied have gone on to win the series 79.2 percent of the time (357-94).
Here is a breakdown of Game 5:
Oilers: Leon Draisaitl has an 18-game point streak against the Kings in the playoffs (17 goals, 18 assists) including nine points (three goals, six assists) in this series. The forward has 39 points (20 goals, 19 assists) in 22 career playoff games against Los Angeles. Calvin Pickard will start his third consecutive playoff game for Edmonton after taking over for Stuart Skinner in relief in Game 2. Defenseman Evan Bouchard scored twice in Game 4. He has 65 points (17 goals, 48 assists) in 57 playoff games over the past four seasons, which is the most among all defensemen in the NHL over that period.
Kings: Los Angeles has used predominately three lines and four defensemen through the first four games of the series. Kings coach Jim Hiller said it probably had an effect on his team in Game 4 when they were outshot 17-7 in overtime, but does not think it will carry over into Game 5. Defenseman Jordan Spence will return to the lineup after sitting out Game 4. He played 2:55 in Game 3. Defenseman Jacob Moverare played 2:26 in Game 4, while forwards Jeff Malott (2:27), Trevor Lewis (5:19) and Samuel Helenius (1:44) also saw limited minutes in the game.
