Eric Gryba sparks Oilers past Kings

EDMONTON -- Defenseman Eric Gryba scored his first goal of the season for the Edmonton Oilers in a 3-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place on Thursday.
Gryba ended a 1-1 tie when he batted the puck past Peter Budaj at 6:58 of the third period for his first NHL game-winner after the Kings goaltender made a desperation pad save on Oilers forward Jordan Eberle.
"It was just a lucky play," Gryba said. "I took a swing at it and it went in. It was a good play by [Milan Lucic] to get it in front of the net and for [Eberle] to be there."

WATCH: All Kings vs. Oilers highlights
Gryba, who has six goals in his NHL career, scored for the first time since Feb. 2. He nearly had a second with just over a minute left in the game, but was unable to hit an open net after a scramble in front.
"I could have had four tonight. I missed the net a couple of times," Gryba said. "I'll be working on hitting the net from now on."

The game ended a nine-game road trip for the Kings, who went 3-4-2.
Pat Maroon and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton (19-12-6) and goaltender Cam Talbot made 28 saves.
Nicholas Shore scored for Los Angeles (17-15-4) and Budaj made 32 saves.
"It was good hand-eye [coordination] from him and he found himself in and around the [crease]," Eberle said. "I don't think [Gryba] gets enough credit for the plays that he makes, coming out of the defensive zone he's a pretty poised guy. It was good to see him get on the scoresheet."
Maroon gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead on the power play at 2:32 of the second period.

Shore tied it 1-1 at 3:05 of the third period, capitalizing on a turnover by Oilers forward Mark Letestu and shooting the puck past Talbot.
"We played a hell of a hockey team in a tough building," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "You should give the Oilers a little bit of credit. The Oilers don't give up much. Their goalie is really in control, there's not a lot of rebounds and the defense knocks a lot of pucks down around in front of the net, so they aren't going to give up a lot of quality from in front of the net."
Gryba had one assist in 17 games this season before scoring Thursday.
"What can you say? We tied the game and then Gryba hit it out of the air," Budaj said. "It doesn't happen that often, it was just a lucky bounce. But you can't really blame everything on lucky bounces."
Nugent-Hopkins scored an empty-net goal at 19:46 to make it 3-1.

Goal of the game

Maroon took a pass from Eberle at the side of the net on the power play and wrapped the puck in past Budaj.

Save of the game

Talbot bailed out Gryba with 57.2 seconds left in the first period when he made a save on Kings forward Jeff Carter following a turnover deep in the Oilers zone.

Unsung performance of the game

Oilers defenseman Matt Benning scrambled back to the front of the net and broke up a centering pass from Devin Setoguchi to Tanner Pearson with 3:58 left in the third period and Edmonton ahead 2-1.

Highlight of the game

Eberle collected a rebound in front of the Kings net and had his shot stopped by Budaj, who was sprawled out. Gryba batted in the rebound to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.

They said it

"When a guy like that can pot a big goal like that and end up being the game-winner against a good team like LA and give us a big win tonight, it makes it that much sweeter." -- Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot on Eric Gryba's winning goal
"Everybody has the same card dealt. You have to play at home and you have to play on the road. You obviously try to win the majority at home, but on the road you've got to put some points together." -- Kings goaltender Peter Budaj on the end of a nine-game road trip
"We had scorers that checked, which was really important. We had some checkers that scored, so that took care of the game sheet. I thought we played well along the boards when we needed to, and particularly in our zone." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan

Need to know

Maroon has three goals in his past four games. … Carter had a four-game scoring streak (5 goals, 1 assist) end Thursday … Los Angeles is 1-2-1 since injured forward Tyler Toffoli has been out.

What's next

Kings: Host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, CSN-CA, NHL.TV)
Oilers: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, NHL.TV)