Friday's NHL: Oilers roll to 8-2 rout of Kings, Bruins stay alive against Canes

Los Angeles — Evander Kane picked up his first hat trick in a Stanley Cup playoff game, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman each had two goals, and the Edmonton Oilers dominated the Los Angeles Kings for the second straight game, posting a 8-2 victory in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series Friday night.

Kane is the 12th different player to score a playoff hat trick with the Oilers and the first since Connor McDavid in 2020. He was part of an Edmonton offense that put up eight goals in a playoff game for the first time since it beat Chicago 8-4 in a 1990 conference final game.

“We’re a real good team with the lead. I think scoring early, countering their push there in the first period and getting two was a good start for us,” Kane said. “We knew we had a lot better after that first period going in the second. I thought we did a great job of responding to the push ourselves.”

It is the second straight game with at least two goals for Kane, who came to the Oilers in midseason after he was released by San Jose. The last time an Edmonton player accomplished that was Bernie Nicholls in 1992 in Games 2 and 3 of the 1992 Smythe Division Semifinals, also against the Kings.

Kane had a pair of rebound goals in the second period and finished the hat trick with a wrist shot with 20 seconds remaining.

“He’s a finisher, someone who can score, and he’s paired up with Connor (McDavid) who is one of the best playmakers in the world, the best player in the world. If you pair a finisher with the best player in the world, good things are going to happen,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said.

McDavid added a goal and two assists for the Oilers, who have scored six or more goals in consecutive playoff games for the first time since Games 4 and 5 of the 2006 Western Conference Finals against San Jose.

The Oilers have a 2-1 lead in the series. Game 4 is Sunday night in Los Angeles.

“We’re just finding ways to win games. That’s all that matters this time of year. It doesn’t really matter how it looks or what happens,” McDavid said. “I think we’ve done a good job of playing well, playing hard, we’ve been physical. They kind of pushed back today and I thought we responded well.”

Leon Draisaitl had a goal and assist for the Oilers. He is the third Edmonton player in the past 25 years to score in each of the first three games of a postseason, joining McDavid (2020) and Bill Guerin (1998). Cody Ceci had three assists and Mike Smith made 44 saves.

Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist while Phillip Danault also scored for Los Angeles, who had a 45-37 advantage in shots on goal. Jonathan Quick and Cal Peterson each allowed four goals with Quick making 13 saves in 28 minutes and Peterson stopping 16 shots the final 32 minutes.

“I can summarize it all up for you, we can all go home. We weren’t any good, we’re really disappointed, we got trapped playing their game. You can ask me about individuals, I’ll give you the same answer for all of them. They weren’t any good, and we have to regroup tomorrow,” coach Todd McLellan said in a press conference that only went 31 seconds.

More games

(At) Boston 4, Carolina 2: Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists on Friday night to help the Boston Bruins take their first lead against the Hurricanes all season — and hold onto it for a 4-2 victory over Carolina in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.

Rookie Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots in his first career playoff start after Linus Ullmark allowed eight goals in the first two games, both Hurricanes victories. That followed a regular season in which Carolina swept all three games, outscoring the Bruins 16-1 and never trailing.

Charlie Coyle scored a short-handed goal and added an assist, and David Pastrnak had a power-play goal and an assist for Boston, which hopes to even the best-of-seven series when it hosts Game 4 on Sunday. Taylor Hall added a power-play goal for the Bruins to make it 4-1 early in the third period.

Vincent Trocheck and Jaccob Slavin scored for Carolina, and backup goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made 24 saves in his first career playoff start. He took over in Game 2 after starter Antti Raanta was injured in a collision with Pastrnak.

Trocheck gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead, swiping in a rebound just as he was belatedly knocked down in front of the net. But Coyle tied it on a give-and-go with Jake DeBrusk with 2:44 left in the first.

Five minutes into second, Marchand fought off the puck along the boards and headed for the slot, where he picked up Patrice Bergeron’s deflected shot and went high over Kochetkov — Boston's first lead over Carolina in 325 minutes, 41 seconds this season.

The Hurricanes took back-to-back penalties late in the second, and soon after the 5-on-3 became a one-man advantage, Pastrnak wristed one in from the left circle to make it 3-1.

Toronto 5, (at) Tampa Bay 2: Jack Cambell had 32 saves — including three to protect the lead on a late power play — and Toronto took a 2-1 series lead in the first-round Eastern Conference matchup.

Ilya Mikheyer had two empty-net goals in the final two minutes, and Morgan Rielly, Colin Blackwell and David Kampf also scored for Toronto.

Ross Colton and Ondrej Palat scored for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 31 saves.

Game 4 in Sunday night in Tampa.

Minnesota 5, (at) St. Louis 1: Kirill Kaprizov had a goal and an assist, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots, and Minnesota took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference playoff series.

Joel Erickson Ek had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Greenway, Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin also scored as the Wild improved to 8-8 all-time in Game 3s. Fleury, playing in a 16th consecutive Stanley Cup playoffs, earned his 92nd career playoff win.

Ryan O’Reilly scored a power play goal and Ville Husso made 28 saves for the Blues. St. Louis lost Torey Krug to a lower body injury early in the first period. Krug is the third Blues defensemen to get hurt in the series.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday afternoon in St. Louis.