GAME RECAP: Oilers 8, Kings 1

LOS ANGELES, CA – Lesson learned. Two points secured.

One night after squandering multiple leads to the Anaheim Ducks and ultimately losing 6-5, the Oilers were dominant from start to finish up the freeway in Los Angeles as they cruised past the Kings 8-1 to put an emphatic end to their four-game slide.

Connor McDavid scored a goal and an assist to hit 100 points on the season, while Leon Draisaitl led the way with a goal and three helpers, and Zach Hyman also had a big night with a tally plus two assists.

Between the pipes, Connor Ingram made 21 saves for the victory as the Oilers outshot the Kings 37-22. The Blue & Orange will look to take two of three on their California road trip as they visit the Sharks on Saturday afternoon for another divisional battle in San Jose.

"We let the last one slip away, back-to-back divisional games where things are really tight," Hyman said. "They're all like four-point games and we've got another one against San Jose coming up. It feels like almost over half our games are against our division and it's pretty tight, so these are important."

FIRST PERIOD

Just like the night prior in Anaheim, the Oilers got off to a hot start against the Kings with a pair of early goals from Ty Emberson and Vasily Podkolzin.

Emberson put together perhaps his most impressive shift of the season as he crushed former Oilers teammate Corey Perry in the corner of the defensive zone and then jumped up in the rush, received a pass from Jack Roslovic and ripped a wrist shot top corner glove side on Darcy Kuemper at the 7:25 mark.

Less than a minute later, Podkolzin got a pass from Andrew Mangiapane and powered a wrist shot through Kuemper that snuck between the goalie's gear and trickled across the line for his 13th of the season.

Wednesday's game script from Anaheim continued to repeat itself as the home side cut the Oilers lead in half 12:15 into the period when former Oilers forward Warren Foegele redirected Joel Edmundson's point shot past Ingram. Edmonton's coaches considered challenging that Foegele's deflection was made with a high stick, but they opted to play on with a 2-1 lead.

Speaking of high sticks, Darnell Nurse was dealt a double-minor for clipping Brian Dumoulin with his blade late in the frame but the Oilers killed off all four minutes and took their one-goal margin into the break.

"A big turning point in the game was that four-minute kill," Hyman said. "Your goalie is your number one penalty killer and (Ingram) played great on that, and the guys who killed it did a huge job for us there."

SECOND PERIOD

The Oilers kept the good vibes going early in the middle frame and tallied their third of the night off the rush when Andrew Mangiapane sniped another shot glove side on Kuemper while on a two-on-one break with Curtis Lazar.

Connor McDavid then collected his 99th point of the season to extend the lead to 4-1 as he circled the net, coaxed Kuemper way out of his crease, looped around the other side and deposited a shot into the vacated cage under the bar for his 35th of the year.

The Kings swapped Kuemper for Anton Forsberg after the fourth Oilers goal of the night.

Contrary to last night against the Ducks, the Oilers refused to let their opponent back in the game and continued to pour it on as Hyman banged home a strategic bounce off the end boards on the power play to make it 5-1.

Draisaitl purposely missed the net wide with his point shot, creating the opportunity for Hyman to pounce on the rebound. The winger now has 24 goals on the season, with 22 of them coming in the last 30 games.

THIRD PERIOD

The Oilers went back on the power play just nine seconds into the final frame when Jeff Mallot cross-checked Trent Frederic, allowing McDavid to set up Draisaitl for the 6-1 goal and give the captain his 100th point of the season. McDavid carried the puck into the offensive zone and dropped a pass back to Draisaitl, who zipped a shot past Forsberg for his 30th of the year.

With the assist, number 97 became the third player in NHL history to record nine 100-point seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky who had 15 and Mario Lemieux who had 10.

With Edmonton up 6-1, it was Jake Walman's turn to get in on the action as he unleashed a slap shot off the draw for his first of the night and darted down the right side before lifting a backhand over Forsberg to bring his season total up to seven.

"When things are on the line and they need a bounce-back game, they usually respond really well," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said of Thursday's onslaught. "We were a little disappointed with how the previous games have gone and especially the one the night before in Anaheim. But I thought we played a really good game, scored some goals, but more importantly, I thought we checked really well."