Anze Kopitar’s overtime goal lifts Kings past Oilers in Game 2 thrille…

The NHL regular season is like an anthology of 82 stories, each with their own beginning, middle and end. The playoffs, however, are like a novel, each game a new chapter that builds on the last one.

And Kings coach Jim Hiller says likes it that way, especially after his team took the book in a new direction Wednesday with Anze Kopitar scoring 2:07 into overtime to give his team a 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers, evening their first-round playoff series with the Oilers at a victory apiece heading into Game 3 on Friday at Crypto.com Arena.

“We all love the playoffs because we play the game, you review the game, adjustments are made and you just keeps moving along,” he said. “From a coach’s perspective, we all enjoy that part of the game, being able just to focus on a single team.”

Hiller got many those adjustments right in Game 2, juggling his line combinations, flooding the neutral zone with bodies and keeping Edmonton’s lightning-quick forwards from making the dangerous rushes up the ice they used to dominate Game 1. It then fell to Kopitar to make that pay off, scoring on a strange play that started with a poor pass from Mikey Anderson skipping along the boards in the Kings’ end. Quinton Byfield was able to get a stick on it near center ice, redirecting the puck to a streaking Kopitar, who beat Oiler goalie Stuart Skinner cleanly.

“It was kind of a wacky play,” said Kopitar, who assisted on his team’s first two goals. “You just try to read the play and sometimes you’re in the right spots, sometimes you’re severely in the wrong spots. Tonight I was in the right spot a couple of times. I guess and it worked out.”

Read more: Why Kings vs. Oilers is one of the NHL’s truly great rivalries

Worked out well enough to guarantee the best-of-seven series will return to Canada after Sunday’s Game 4 in Los Angeles.

“One…