The streets of Edmonton were awash in blue and orange, the colors of the city’s hockey team, on Friday.
From the Southgate Centre, on the city’s southern edge, to the downtown financial district, it seemed as if everyone, from students and shopkeepers to cabbies and the cable guy, were wearing Oilers sweaters. And with reason: Their team, a Stanley Cup finalist a season ago, was fighting for its playoff life against a Kings team it had dispatched with ease each of the last three postseasons.
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The Kings won the first two games in the best-of-seven series, so Edmonton desperately needed a victory at home. It got that in uncommon fashion, scoring four unanswered goals in the final seven minutes of a 7-4 win.
But the Oilers didn’t do it alone. The atmosphere, said winger Evander Kane, who scored the goal that started the final rally, played a big part.
“It was nice to get in front of our own fans,” he said. “You come back to Edmonton, there’s some buzz in the city. There’s some buzz in the morning. We kind of got reenergized a little bit.”
The Kings still lead the first-round series 2-1 heading into Game 4 on Sunday in Edmonton. Both teams then will return to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Tuesday. A fifth game was looking unlikely until a bizarre sequence that began with 6:42 to play erased a 4-3 Kings lead and changed the complexion of the series.
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It started with Kane scoring on a scramble in front of the Kings’ net to tie the score, although the goal took time to sort out since it appeared Kane, playing for just the second time this season, kicked the puck under Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper.
After a lengthy video review determined Kane used his stick to score, the Kings called a timeout and rather than playing it safe, they challenged the goal, claiming Kane interfered with Kuemper. When they lost that challenge, Edmonton was awarded a two-minute power play and needed only 10 seconds of it with Evan Bouchard scoring what proved to be the winner on a tip-in from the crease.
The Oilers, blanked on the power play in the first two games, had two goals, both by Bouchard, with the man advantage Friday. The Kings also had two power-play goals and are now seven for 12 with the man advantage in the series while the teams have combined for 30 goals in three games.
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