The Edmonton Oilers looked like they were dead in the water against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night, when Connor McDavid and company got buried in a 4-0 deficit following a goal in the second period by LA forward Phillip Danault.

But the Oilers refused to go down that easily in Game 1 of this NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs first-round series. Behind mostly the dynamic play of McDavid, Edmonton fought back and scored five of the next six goals in the game before Danault lit the lamp with under a minute left in regulation to give Los Angeles the 6-5 victory.

After Danault's first goal in the contest, McDavid got out of a tight situation near the boards to deliver a sensational assist to Leon Draisaitl to cut down Los Angeles' lead to three goals with just seconds left in the second period.

Forward Mattias Janmark then scored a goal a little over two minutes into the third period to halve the Kings' lead. Los Angeles answered that a couple of minutes later with a goal on the man advantage by Kevin Fiala, but McDavid put on a masterclass in playmaking in setting up Corey Perry and Zach Hyman for back-to-back scores Oilers. Trailing LA by just a goal, McDavid put matters into his hands again and scored a goal with under two minutes left in regulation, tying the score up at 5-5.

Unfortunately for the Oilers, McDavid's brilliant evening ultimately went to waste, as Danault scored the game-winning goal with just over 40 seconds left in the third period. On the night, the three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner had four points on the strength of three assists to go with a goal.

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Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch still loved the way his team managed to turn what was becoming a blowout contest into a down-to-the-wire affair.

“We said it many times last year: We never give up,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said after the loss to the Kings, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). “They’re a resilient team. They stay composed. We’ve seen a lot of adversity over the last two playoffs, and guys stay with it. They don’t get too rattled when things aren’t going very well.”

An issue for the Oilers in the game was the play of their special teams, which allowed the Kings to score two goals in five power-play opportunities. Conversely, Edmonton was just 0-for-2 on the man advantage.

The Oilers will look to tie the series on Wednesday at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday.