The Los Angeles Kings clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 5-0 road victory on Tuesday over the Edmonton Oilers, their opposition to kick off the championship race.
Adrian Kempe scored once in a three-point performance, while Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala both collected one goal and one assist for the Kings (47-24-9, 103 points). Quinton Byfield and Vladislav Gavrikov also scored.
Los Angeles goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves before being replaced by David Rittich midway through the third period. Rittich stopped five shots to share the shutout.
Trevor Moore and Anze Kopitar both notched a pair of assists for the Kings, who have won three in a row and seven of the past eight.
The Kings and Oilers will face each other in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Edmonton won the three prior meetings and had home-ice advantage each time.
Calvin Pickard stopped 31 shots for Edmonton (47-29-5, 99 points), which was without Leon Draisaitl and Mattias Ekholm due to injuries and rested Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman in anticipation of the playoffs.
Los Angeles has two games remaining in the regular season. Edmonton has one left.
Foegele, a former Oiler, opened the scoring at the 2:55 mark of the clash when he converted a rebound for his 23rd goal of the season.
Byfield doubled the lead near the midway point of the opening period by deflecting the point shot for a power-play marker. Byfield has scored in four consecutive games and 23 times on the season.
Gavrikov extended the Los Angeles edge at 18:45 of the first period by joining a rush, taking a pass in the slot and whipping home a shot.
Fiala added another man-advantage marker at 7:43 of the second period, converting with a rocket of a one-timer from the right faceoff dot to net his career-high 35th goal of the campaign.
Kempe made it a five-goal edge at 8:13 of the third period with another one-timer, this one set up by Kopitar during an odd-man rush.
The chippy affair turned ugly late in the second period when Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse delivered a cross-check to the back of Byfield’s head as the Kings forward was lying on the ice. Nurse was handed a major penalty and game misconduct, and Byfield did not return due to an upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media
