Kasperi Kapanen scored on a scramble in front of the net at 7:14 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to advance to the Western Conference final for the second year in a row.
“I think I’ve just been in the right spot at the right time, I guess, and that was certainly the case today; just having the puck kind of lie in the paint there and just kind of try to bang it in there and lucky it went in,” Kapanen said after the win.
Kapanen’s goal backed up another shutout performance from goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 24 saves and drew several chants of “Stu! Stu!” from Oilers fans in the crowd. Skinner, who was benched two games into the playoffs, also blanked the Golden Knights in Game 4. This was his third start in a row in replacing the injured Calvin Pickard.
“It’s been fantastic,” Skinner said.
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“The way that we’ve competed, the amount of blocked shots; I mean in the first — I think — three minutes we had five blocked shots. You know those are the things that it takes to win games, so all the credit goes to the guys in front of me, for sure.”
Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas.
Both teams also were involved in the two most recent scoreless playoff games to reach overtime. The Oilers lost to Winnipeg on May 21, 2021, five days after the Golden Knights were defeated by Minnesota.
Edmonton’s only 1-0 overtime playoff victory occurred in 1997 over the Dallas. Vegas has yet to win a postseason game by that score in OT.
The Golden Knights played without captain Mark Stone because of an upper-body injury that caused him to miss most of Game 3 on Saturday. He played in Game 4 on Monday, but was far from at full health.
Neither team scored through the first two periods, and prime scoring chances were at a premium. There were only five high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, and the Golden Knights had four of them.
But each team had a grade-A chance early in the third period. Vegas’ Brett Howden whiffed on a tap-in after taking a fantastic pass from Jack Eichel, and shortly after Edmonton’s Leon Draistaitl failed to convert on a breakaway. Connor McDavid had a chance on a 2-on-1 to end the game in regulation but was denied by Hill with 1:06 left.
“I thought it was great, I thought everyone dug in really hard,” McDavid said.
“I thought Stu was great, bailing us out whenever we had a breakdown. The kill was great — defensively really, really good.”
The Oilers, who last season made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final before losing in seven games to Florida, will play Dallas or Winnipeg in the next round. The Stars, who lead 3-1, will go for the series win Thursday night.
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