The Los Angeles Kings face the Edmonton Oilers in Game Five of the First Round in what's been an exciting back-and-forth series thus far. The Kings won Game One and Game Three with overtime-winning goals in each game. The Oilers meanwhile looked like they were going to trail 3-1 in the series but came back from a 3-0 deficit in Game Four to even up the series with a 5-4 overtime win. The winner of Game Five will take a 3-2 series lead and move one win away from advancing to the Second Round and the upcoming game should be a great one.
The Kings have split the first four games with their offense stepping up and scoring 13 goals in the series including seven goals in the last two games. Anze Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, and Viktor Arvidsson have scored six goals and 10 assists to lead the top two lines but the rest of the offense has also stepped up. Phillip Danault, Alex Iafallo, and Gabriel Vilardi have combined for five goals and five assists while defensemen Matt Roy and Drew Doughty have added a goal and three assists from the point to open up the offense.
The offense has been great but the defense has struggled in this series, allowing 14 goals. Doughty and Roy have led the top pairing but the rest of the unit has struggled, allowing the Oilers to find open shots on the net with ease. The bright spot has been the play of goaltender Joonas Korpisalo who has saved 145 of the 158 shots in this series.