Cam Talbot, Oilers shut out Kings

EDMONTON -- Cam Talbot made 35 saves for his second straight shutout, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Kings 2-0 at Rogers Place on Monday.
Connor McDavid had two assists, and Pat Maroon and Milan Lucic scored in the first period for the Oilers (39-24-9).
Edmonton has won four games in a row and is tied with the Anaheim Ducks for second place in the Pacific Division, four points behind the first-place San Jose Sharks.

"Cam has been great for us all year," McDavid said. "For him to play like that in back-to-back games -- two of the biggest games of the year for us -- he was great."
WATCH: All Kings vs. Oilers highlights
McDavid has 82 points (25 goals, 57 assists), two ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby for the NHL scoring lead.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for the Kings (34-31-7), who are six points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
"We played better tonight than we did last night (a 5-2 loss at the Calgary Flames)," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "We're a slow-start team for whatever reason. Tonight, I thought we turned the puck over once to that McDavid line, and then got a bad break on their power-play goal."
Maroon scored 1:04 into the game, batting the puck in past Quick on the rebound of a McDavid shot to make it 1-0.
Lucic scored at 12:47 on the power play, beating Quick from in close off a pass from McDavid to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead.
"We just dug ourselves into a hole right away," Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. "Going down two goals at this time of year against teams we're playing, it's certainly not the way you want to start the game and it's, obviously, tough to play catch-up hockey."

The Kings outshot the Oilers 19-10 in the second period. Tyler Toffoli nearly scored when his shot slipped through Talbot's pads at 12:44, but the puck slid wide.
"We were watching L.A. play against Calgary last night and know how they can play with momentum," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. "One of the things Calgary did really well was control the momentum swings in the game, and I thought we did that early as well. I thought we established momentum early, got after them. I think that was a huge difference in the game. They played well, but we kept going, and back-to-back we put them on their heels in the first period, and that was to our advantage."

Talbot made nine saves in the third period to earn his 37th win and seventh shutout of the season.
"I think the more I play, the better I feel and the more confident I get, day in and day out," Talbot said. "And anytime you can pick up some big wins it just kind of carries over and you just feel good going into the next one."

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Goal of the game

Lucic finished off a cross-crease pass from McDavid on the power play to put the Oilers up by two goals.

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Save of the game

Quick stretched out his right pad to make a save on McDavid with 1:19 left in the first period after Edmonton's captain went around defenseman Drew Doughty on a 1-on-1 rush.

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Unsung performance of the game

Oilers center David Desharnais was 7-for-8 on faceoffs, including a number of key draws late in the game, and had two blocked shots in 12:13.

Highlight of the game

Maroon knocked the puck out of midair and past Quick to open the scoring.

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They said it

"I knew coming into this season our division was instantly better when Calgary made their goaltending changes and the evolution of [the Oilers] and the size they've added and they've mixed it up. San Jose is the defending conference champs, so I knew it was going to be tough for us, and it certainly proved that." -- Kings coach Darryl Sutter on being out of a playoff spot
"They're both two young teams that have some swagger. The Oilers have had a really good year, and the Flames have really come on." -- Kings forward Jarome Iginla on the teams they lost to on back-to-back nights
"I'd like to play him for 60 minutes, but I think we'd run him right into the ground. He was exceptional, I thought, all night, like he usually is, but in that first period, he had it on a string and he made some tremendous plays. I don't know what else you can say about him. He went head-to-head against their best and did a great job." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan on Connor McDavid

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Need to know

Talbot is three wins from tying the Oilers record for most wins in a season by a goaltender. Grant Fuhr had 40 wins in 1987-88. ... Draisaitl had two assists for the fourth consecutive game. He has nine points (one goal, eight assists) in his past four games. ... Los Angeles has been shut out nine times this season.

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What's next

Kings: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Oilers: At the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; PRIME, SNW, NHL.TV)