Draisaitl: Oilers 'never going to quit no matter what'
The Edmonton Oilers refused to go down without a fight for the second consecutive game and now find themselves in a 2-2 series tie with the Los Angles Kings.
Leon Draisaitl's overtime goal gave the Oilers a 4-3 victory in Sunday night's Game 4. Edmonton trailed 3-1 after two periods, and L.A. owned a 28-15 shot advantage. But the ice tilted in the Oilers' favor the rest of the way, with the reigning Western Conference champions outshooting the Kings 33-13 in the final 38:18 of the game before Draisaitl's game-winner late in the first OT period.
"That's our identity in here, we've built that years ago. That's a mentality that we have, that we're never going to quit no matter what," Draisaitl said postgame. "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 a lead."
He added: "It shows a lot of character, and we can be really proud of that, but you don't want to do that every night."
The Oilers also scored four unanswered third-period goals in a 7-4 victory in Game 3.
Draisaitl had a hand in all four Edmonton goals Sunday. He assisted Corey Perry's second-period power-play marker, and both of Evan Bouchard's third-period tallies to even the score. The second of Bouchard's two goals came with 29 seconds left in regulation.
It marks the eighth time Draisaitl has had four points in a playoff game, tying Mario Lemieux for the fifth most in NHL history. Only Wayne Gretzky (26), Jari Kurri (11), Mark Messier (11), and Paul Coffey (nine) have had more.
Perhaps surprisingly, the goal was Draisaitl's first career playoff OT winner.
"It's probably the most important goal, to this day, that I've scored in my career," Draisaitl said. "Hopefully there's a couple more to come that are even more important, but I'll take that for now."
Draisaitl's nine points are tied with Connor McDavid and Adrian Kempe for the most this postseason. The German superstar led the NHL with 52 goals during the regular season - seven more than second-place William Nylander - despite missing 11 games.