Oilers beat Kings 6-4 to close out series 4-2 and move into 2nd round of playoffs

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers may have been down, but they proved you can’t count them out.

Connor Brown had a goal and two assists as the Edmonton Oilers punched their ticket to the second round of the playoffs with a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman and Trent Frederic each had a goal and an assist and Adam Henrique also scored for the Oilers, who won four straight to take the best-of-seven series in six games.

Calvin Pickard made 23 saves.

“We got offense from all over the lineup today, it’s great,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who had an assist to give him 11 points in the series. “You need that, you need different guys stepping up. I thought (Brown) had his best game as an Oiler, maybe. He was fantastic. Pickard, obviously… you go down the list, we had guys step up. It wasn’t our best, but we found a way tonight and that’s what good teams do.”

The Oilers will take on the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.

“This is a resilient group, one that believes that no matter how much we are pushed up against the wall that we can find a way to win and it was a testament to it this series,” Nurse said.

Quinton Byfield, Brandt Clarke, Jordan Spence and Anze Kopitar replied for the Kings, who have been eliminated by the Oilers in the first round in four consecutive seasons. Los Angeles hasn’t won a playoff series since 2014, when it beat the New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup.

Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 of 28 shots for the Kings.

“This one’s tough to swallow obviously. Having the season we had, and to have the guys in this locker room and come up short again, it’s frustrating — this one hurts a little more,” Kopitar said.

The Kings scored on their first shot just 1:19 into the first period as Kevin Fiala sprung Byfield on a breakaway.

Edmonton tied it 3:04 into the first as Brown took a shot through traffic that hit Henrique up high and caromed into the net.

The Kings responded 33 seconds later on just their third shot on Pickard as a low percentage shot from Clarke appeared to deflect off Nurse’s stick and went up high and in.

The Oilers tied it again at the 5:55 mark of the opening period on the power play as Connor McDavid made a nice cross-ice feed to Nugent-Hopkins. Edmonton became the first team in NHL history to record two game-tying goals in the opening six minutes of a playoff game.

Edmonton took its first lead with seven minutes to play in the first as a long shot by Nurse was deflected in by Hyman to make it 3-2.

Los Angeles got within 5-4 with their goalie pulled and 55 seconds remaining as Drew Doughty's point shot hit Kopitar’s stick on its way into the net.

Brown put the series away with an empty-netter with two seconds left.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Los Angeles Kings' Mikey Anderson (44) and Edmonton Oilers' Vasily Podkolzin (92) rough it up during the first period of Game 6 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Los Angeles Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper (35) makes a save against the Edmonton Oilers during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Los Angeles Kings' Joel Edmundson (6) checks Edmonton Oilers' Vasily Podkolzin (92) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Edmonton Oilers players celebrate Darnell Nurse's goal against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Edmonton Oilers' John Klingberg (36) and Darnell Nurse (25) celebrate a goal against the Los Angeles Kings during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Edmonton Oilers' Trent Frederic (21) and Adam Henrique (19) celebrate a goal as Los Angeles Kings' Drew Doughty (8) skates past during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Edmonton Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard (30) and Connor Brown (28) celebrate the win over the Los Angeles Kings during NHL playoff action in Edmonton on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Edmonton Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard (30) and Connor Brown (28) celebrate the win over the Los Angeles Kings during NHL playoff action in Edmonton on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid (97) celebrates the win with teammates over the Los Angeles Kings during NHL playoff action in Edmonton on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.

Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.

The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.

Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.

“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."

Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.

November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.

The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.

Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.

Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.

The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.

And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.

Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.

With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.

“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”

He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.

He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.

December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.

Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.

Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.

Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.

Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.

Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.

FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)