Janmark breaks tie in 3rd, Oilers push Kings to brink with Game 5 win

LOS ANGELES -- Mattias Janmark scored the go-ahead goal at 7:12 of the third period, and the Edmonton Oilers rallied to win their third straight game against the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.

It is the first time in Oilers history they have won three straight Stanley Cup Playoff games in comeback fashion.

“Hockey is funny, it’s carryover momentum,” Oilers forward Zach Hyman said. “Each game is different, and you don’t necessarily carry over momentum each game. But when you’re feeling good, when you have consistency, start to find chemistry with your linemates, I think you start to be able to play and roll lines over, and everybody feels like they’re contributing. And I thought tonight, like I said, everybody chipped in. … It was probably the best performance, probably this year that we’ve had. And I guess, having said that, it was only a 2-1 game (before an empty-net goal), so it takes everybody.”

Janmark put Edmonton ahead 2-1 on a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle off the rebound of Viktor Arvidsson’s shot from the top of right circle.

It was Janmark’s second goal of the series after he scored just twice in 80 games in the regular season.

“These are kind of like what keeps you going,” Janmark said. “I kind of had a funny feeling when game 70 hit and I only had one or two goals, I knew I wasn’t going to have a career year. So kind of had a feeling that they might show up here in the playoffs.”

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored into an empty net at 19:02 for the 3-1 final. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had the assists on the play, with Draisaitl getting a point against the Kings for the 19th straight playoff game (17 goals, 19 assists) to tie Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier for the longest postseason streak against one opponent in NHL history.

The Oilers lead the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be in Edmonton on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, TVAS2, ESPN, FDSNW).

Calvin Pickard made 21 saves for the Oilers, who are the No. 3 seed from the Pacific.

Edmonton has outscored Los Angeles 13-5 in the third period in the series, including a 8-0 margin over the past three games.

“I felt like we started something in the third, second part of the third period of last game (4-3 overtime win in Game 4 on Sunday), especially in the OT,” Janmark said. “And I felt like we found something in our game and found the upper hand. And, yeah, tried to not let go of that, and we pretty much executed for 60 minutes.”

Andrei Kuzmenko scored a power-play goal, and Darcy Kuemper made 43 saves for the Kings, who are the No. 2 seed from the Pacific Division.

“What’s the explanation? They executed way better than us tonight, that’s the first one,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. “They were stronger. They beat us in every area of the game, except for the special teams, oddly enough. The goaltender was great for us to give us a chance. They were just better in every way, and we can’t look at one part of our game and think that was acceptable or that it was good enough.”

Kuzmenko got his fourth power-play point of the series (three goals, one assist) to put Los Angeles up 1-0 at 3:33 of the second period. He was in front of Pickard to tip Anze Kopitar’s wrist shot from the point.

Evander Kane tied it 1-1 at 6:16 with a wrist shot from the high slot that beat Kuemper's glove seven seconds after a power play expired.

The Oilers outshot the Kings 19-4 in the first period, forcing Kuemper into several key saves, including on Kane’s sharp-angle attempt at 1:19 after Hyman shot wide on a 3-on-2 rush.

“I think the feeling was really there after the first period that we’re outplaying ‘em, we got them where we want, and now we just got to push,” Janmark said. “Keep pushing the gas. And even when they scored, just try to get back, and ‘Kaner’ got it right back, and away we went.”

Edmonton had the first 12 shots in the game before Kevin Fiala got the first on net for Los Angeles at 8:33 of the first on the power play.

“We couldn’t really get anything going, obviously,” Kopitar said. “The shot clock was pretty evident that we didn’t sustain any O-zone time, and when you don’t have that, it’s hard to string shifts together and gain some momentum. We’re gonna look at some stuff and make sure we do a lot better job.”

NOTES: Gretzky had a point in 19 straight games against the Calgary Flames, and Messier did it against the Kings. … Kings defenseman Drew Doughty played in his 100th career Stanley Cup Playoff game, becoming the first defenseman and second player in franchise history to reach the mark. Kopitar has played in 102 postseason games.