Despite the dominant opening frame from the Oilers, it was the Kings who were able to draw first blood in Game 5 with their eighth power-play goal of the series courtesy Andrei Kuzmenko.

With Darnell Nurse in the box for tripping, the Los Angeles winger redirected a shot from Anze Kopitar right in front of Calvin Pickard for his third of the playoffs and a 1-0 Kings lead at 3:33.

The advantage didn’t last long, though, as the Kings returned the favour with a tripping penalty of their own when Drew Doughty took down Leon Draisaitl with the Oilers on the attack.

Edmonton’s PP wasn’t able to convert, but they did net the equalizer soon after Doughty returned to the ice when John Klingberg kept a Kings clearing attempt in just inside the blueline and found Evander Kane in the high slot for a wrist-shot snipe over Kuemper’s glove and his second goal in the last three games.

“The feeling was really there after the first period that we’re outplaying them, we’ve got them where we want and now we just gotta keep pushing the gas,” Janmark said. “Even when they scored, just try to get it back and Kaner got it right back and away we went.”

Despite missing the entire regular season and Game 1 of the series as he recovered from multiple surgeries, Kane has quickly found his playoff form that has resulted in 22 post-season tallies in 51 appearances with the Blue & Orange, including 14 against the Kings.

The Oilers continued to dominate shots, lead Los Angeles 33-12 through 40 minutes. Natural Stat Trick had Edmonton ahead 29-8 in scoring chances and 17-2 in high-danger scoring chances.