GAME RECAP: Oilers 4, Kings 3 - OT (Game 4)

EDMONTON, AB – You can take a breath now, Oil Country.

This series is all tied up heading back to California.

Evan Bouchard tied the game with 29 seconds left in regulation, and Leon Draisaitl converted on the power play with 1:42 remaining in overtime as the Edmonton Oilers tied their first-round series with the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night in dramatic fashion with a 4-3 victory in Game 4 at Rogers Place.

"That's what this team is. Nothing's ever easy," Corey Perry said. "We kept battling and we found a way to tie the game and end it overtime. Big guys make big plays at the right times."

Bouchard scored twice for the Oilers, notching both of his team's goals in the third period and making a game-saving stop on Quinton Byfield on a potential Kings' clearance in the last minute with their net empty before he unleashed his bomb late in regulation that tied the game at 3-3 to force overtime.

The Oilers dominated sudden death and were rewarded with a power play in the last three minutes, where Draisaitl converted his his first career playoff OT goal unassised inside the right post to lift his side to victory and even the series heading back to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Tuesday night.

"I would put it number one," Draisaitl said. "It's probably the most important goal to date that I've scored in my career, so hopefully, there's a couple more to come that are even more important. But I'll take that for now."

Draisaitl tallied the OT winner and contributed three assists to push his post-season point streak versus the Kings to 18 games, including 15 goals.

Corey Perry scored his second of the playoffs in the second period, and McDavid added a helper on Draisaitl's decisive winner in overtime to give the Oilers captain 44 points (10G, 34A) in 21 career playoff games against Los Angeles.

Goaltender Calvin Pickard held down the crease in his second straight postseason start for the Oilers by stopping 38 of 41 shots in the victory.

"We got a strong belief in here. We have a strong belief that we're never out," McDavid said. "People keep doubting us, and we keep putting ourselves in bad spots, but we're digging our way out trying to find ways to win games. Obviously, we found a way tonight.

"Not the recipe to success, but I'm proud of everyone how we found a way tonight."

The series shifts back to Los Angeles for Game 5 on Tuesday, where the Oilers will try to win on the road for a chance to advance to the Second Round on home ice in Game 6 on Thursday.

FIRST PERIOD

Despite the Kings being in command up 1-0 at the end of the first period and leading 14-6 in shots, the Oilers still felt they had plenty to build off in the opening 20 minutes after killing two penalties against a Los Angeles power play that was 7-for-12 in the series coming into Game 4 on Sunday night.

The Oilers gave up two odd-man rushes in the opening minute and a half of the contest, with Kevin Fiala missing wide on an open net on the Kings' first chance before Connor McDavid showed great hustle on the next one a few moments later to lift the stick of Alex Laferriere and break up the two-on-one.

However, before the end of his shift, McDavid was tagged for a hooking penalty on Joel Edmundson, awarding Los Angeles the chance to exploit the early opportunity with their potent man advantage that was the difference in Games 1 & 2 of this series. Even in defeat on Friday in Game 3, the Kings went 2-for-2 on the power play, but the Oilers felt a lot better about their penalty kill after both of their goals were converted late in the two-minute infraction.

The Oilers held the Kings' power play to only two shots on their first two opportunities in the first period to give their team some early confidence, and Calvin Pickard, who was making his second straight start after making 24 saves in Friday's Game 3 win, was looking sharp with 11 saves in the opening 10 minutes.

Edmonton pushed back after their first successful kill and nearly found the breakthrough on a sneaky fake shot from Evan Bouchard that opened up a shooting chance for Zach Hyman in the left circle, but the winger fanned on his shot and missed an open net.

That miss ultimately costly, as Trevor Moore was able to give the Kings the lead by escaping with the puck from a battle along the boards and going five-hole on Pickard from inside the right circle with 9:25 left in the period to make it 1-0 for Los Angeles.

The Oilers killed off Mattias Janmark's tripping call in the final five minutes and would finish the game 3-for-3 shorthanded, but trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes.

SECOND PERIOD

What a swing that turned out to be early in the middle frame.

But unfortunately, it didn't go in favour of the Blue & Orange.

Leon Draisaitl was staring at an empty cage in the first minute of the second period after Viktor Arvidsson rounded the Kings' net and threw it across the crease to the German, who had a wide open net but couldn't get all of his shot as he scraped into the side meshing to provide the Kings with a huge early let-off.

Instead of it being a 1-1 game, it quickly became 2-0 for the Kings.

Under a minute later, it was Warren Foegele who was the benefactor of Phillip Danault's pokecheck on Connor Brown inside Edmonton's own blueline to push the Los Angeles lead to 2-0 only 91 seconds into the period.

Danault's pokecheck landed fortuitously on the former Edmonton forward's stick behind their defence, allowing him to take one shot against Pickard on a breakaway before he pushed through the rebound on the second effort to score his first of the playoffs and extend the Kings' advantage early in the frame.

The Oilers would need to make the most of their power plays from here on out, and it was a good start under three minutes later after Corey Perry showed incredible hand-eye coordination on Edmonton's first man advantage to cut into the Kings' lead at 2-1 with his second of the playoffs.

"It's playoffs, and the ice starts to shrink and everything gets magnified," Perry said. "If you don't win those battles, it goes the other way, so you take pride in that and that's the way I've always played."

Perry had an in-close chance stopped just over a minute into Adrian Kempe's hooking penalty, but after the rebound went airborne, the veteran showed his Hart Memorial Trophy winning poise by controlling the puck with his stick in mid-air and batting it past Kuemper on his second touch before it touched the ice.

In his 219th career playoff game (the 12th most in NHL history), the 39-year-old notched his 56th career post-season goal, which tied him for fourth among active NHL skaters alongside Florida's Brad Marchand.

"It's fun, man. I love it. I wouldn't change it for anything," Perry said. "I've been fortunate enough to be on some good teams, and this is why we play the game. This is what it's all about."

"I mean, what can you say? He's just elite," Draisaitl added. "He's nearly 40 years old and he has an impact on every single game. Like, it's incredible. He's one of the smartest hockey players that I've ever seen. He's so unique in the way he thinks and plays the game that I honestly feel like he could play until he's 50 just because of his brain. We'll see if the boots keep up there, but he's just a gamer. He just knows how to play the game."

But that one-goal disadvantage for the Oilers only lasted 2:21 before the Kings scored aagain at even strength after it was their power play that did all the talking in the first three games of the series.

Bouchard lost the puck at the top of the Los Angeles zone to produce a two-on-two rush for the Kings, where Laferriere made a great flip pass over the top for Fiala to knock it down and create a breakaway that he converted under the right arm of Pickard to restore the two-goal lead at 3-1.

Just like in Game 3, Edmonton was in need of another heroic effort in the third to avoid heading back to LA facing elimination, and the players had the unshakeable belief they could still make something out of the final 20 minutes.

"Knowing that things change and understanding that things change," McDavid said. "We could have easily gone out there and mailed it in and headed to LA to try and dig our way out, but I thought everyone just dug in. I'm sure there's lots of people doubting us still, but we like it that way.

THIRD PERIOD

Get on your feet, Oil Country.

We are going to overtime.

The Oilers wouldn't be denied getting Game 4 to sudden death courtesy of Evan Bouchard, whose lucky bounce off the skate of Drew Doughty with 7:51 gone in the third period made it a one-goal game before his keep-in against Quinton Byfield in the last minute with the net empty ended up leading to his unstoppable Bouch Bomb™️ that lifted the roof off Rogers Place with the crowd already on its feet trying to will the team to a tying goal.

Safe to say, everyone did their part to it overtime, and it's that 'never say die' attitude from the Oilers that got it done.

"That's our identity in here. We've built that years ago, that that's a mentality that we have that we're never going to quit no matter what," Draisaitl said. "Obviously, we've shown that in the series so far. Maybe a little bit too much. We've got to find a way to play with the lead, and play that type of game as well, because we're good at that and we need to prove that and show that.

"It shows a lot of character and we can be really proud of that, but you don't want to do that every night."

Bouchard tallied his first goal on a lucky bounce off Doughty's skate in front of the Kings' net that managed to find its way inside the left post, but there was nothing lucky about his equalizer during six-on-five that wouldn't have happened without his incredible keep-in to extend his team's last-minute attack.

"I think it's the 'no quit' belief we have in here," Bouchard added. "I think like Leo said, we were keeping things simple. We were playing fast, getting in on the forecheck, and we went to work in the third period."

Late in regulation, Bouchard knocked the puck off Byfield's stick on what could've been the winning clearance, extending possession for the Oilers and leading to his big moment where he uncorked an unstoppable one-timer from the point that beat Kuemper to tie the game 3-3 with 29 seconds remaining.

"Their team's been doing a good job getting shooting lanes," Bouchard said. "We were working them and we kept the puck in. We won 50-50 battles. When that puck came up, I knew I just had to hit the net and give us a chance to get the rebound if there was one."

Bouchard became the fourth defenceman in NHL history to score multiple goals in consecutive playoff games, and his two clutch goals in Game 4 gives him four goals and three assists in four games this series.

It was the second latest game-tying goal in Oilers franchise playoff history after Rem Murray scored with seven seconds left in Game 3 of the 2001 Conference Quarter-Final against the Dallas Stars.

OVERTIME

Never in doubt, Oil Country, never in doubt.

California, here we come – all tied up in the series.

The Oilers outshot the Kings 18-7 in the extra period and put together one good sequence after another in overtime to earn the opportunity to end the game on the power play, where Leon Draisaitl scored the decisive tally off a rebound to secure the Oilers a 4-3 victory and even the series at two games apiece going back to LA.

"I think 50-50 battles were a huge thing," Bouchard said. "We were winning them the third period and overtime. We were also skating, too. We weren't shooting ourselves in the foot like we did in the first and second period and we kept things simple and stuck to a game plan."

Early in overtime, Klingberg's dump-in nearly led to a disaster for Kuemper as the puck bounced off the boards and in between his skate and the post to land on the stick of Trent Frederic, who had to be stopped by a quick reaction save from the netminder to get in front of it and prevent embarassment.

At this point, Kuemper was receiving chants from the Rogers Place faithful as he looked shaky inside the Kings' crease, and the Oilers continued to pour on pressure.

Henrique and McDavid both had multiple opportunities in quick succession to take a few whacks at rebounds around the crease that required Kuemper to sprawl out each time to make the saves, and the Kings had only a few chances against Pickard in the frame that came off some wild bounces.

But Edmonton's persistence paid off in the offensive zone, hemming Los Angeles into their own end after taking an icing and forcing Vladislav Gavrikov into committing a trip on McDavid at the end of his long shift that sent the Oilers to the power play with the opportunity to win the game.

If you ever needed your historically dominant power play to convert one, it was right here and right now.

McDavid made a terrific redirection on Nugent-Hopkins' low pass to put the puck into the danger area as Kuemper slid the other direction, and despite the puck being pushed away by Mikey Anderson, Draisaitl was in the right spot to fire the rebound home and claim a dramatic 4-3 victory for the Oilers in Game 4 to even the series.

After their power play failed to score in the first two games of the series, the Oilers are now 4-for-5 with the man advantage over back-to-back wins in Games 3 & 4, but Draisaitl said their winner on Tuesday was the product of persistence and sticking to what makes their unit successful.

"Not much [different]," Draisaitl said. "We had lots of looks in the first two games that we played them. Lots of chances that could have gone in or were close, but maybe we weren't as sharp and connecting on those. So the last two nights, we beared down and we're looking to continue that."

The challenge now turns to bottling up this feeling and taking it into a tough building at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday to try and steal a win on the road, which is a task the Oilers feel confident accepting.

"That's fun. That's what the playoffs are all about – going in and winning a big road game by coming together," McDavid said. "That's what special groups do, and obviously, we're trying to go win a big game in a tough building in an environment that they really thrive in. So it'll be an uphill battle, but I got nothing but belief in this group."