The LA Kings were once again able to come from three goals down to force overtime, but were unable to collect the second point in a 4-3 overtime defeat on Saturday evening against the Carolina Hurricanes at Crypto.com Arena.

Carolina opened the scoring just 12 seconds into the game. Off the opening faceoff, the Hurricanes worked the puck in deep off the forecheck, with William Carrier winning possession below the goal line in the offensive zone. Carrier fed forward Jordan Staal, who was unmarked in front of Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg, and the Carolina captain buried his 300th career NHL goal for an early 1-0 advantage.

Staal made it two for both himself and his team as he buried for the second time in the game’s first four minutes to open up an early 2-0 advantage. With a man left uncovered again in the slot, Carrier fed the puck from below the goal line to Staal between the hashmarks and he shot fivehole, past Forsberg and in, for his third goal of the season and a two-goal lead for the visitors.

Early in the second period, Carolina took advantage of a Kings turnover at the offensive blueline, turning it into a quick 2-on-0 rush the other way. Defenseman K’Andre Miller made the interception and fed forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi in alone the other way, with a teammate just behind. Kotkaniemi kept the puck himself, deked to the backhand and scored his first goal of the season for a three-goal advantage.

Less than a minute later, however, the Kings got on the board through forward Trevor Moore to pull a goal back. Stationed in the slot, Moore moved to his left and whacked at a bouncing puck, shooting inside the far post on Carolina goaltender Brandon Bussi and in. Moore’s goal was his second of the season, his first at even strength, to get the Kings within 3-1.

Inside four minutes to play in the second period, the Kings scored again to pull within 3-2. Skating on their first power play of the game, forward Quinton Byfield won the faceoff in the offensive zone and after some quick puck movement and a direct, attacking style, Byfield fed forward Andrei Kuzmenko at the back post for a slam-dunk goal, his second of the season, as the Kings moved to within one.

With just under nine minutes to play, the Kings cam all the way back to tie the game at three goals apiece. Skating up ice, on the rush, forward Adrian Kempe gained the offensive zone, dropped the puck back to forward Kevin Fiala and drove forward to create space. Fiala worked his way into the right-hand circle, picked his spot inside the far post and buried his team-leading fourth goal of the season, tying the game at three.

After the Kings came all the way back, they were unable to find the game-winning goal in the extra session. Forward Seth Jarvis scored the game-winning goal for the Hurricanes to secure the second point for the visitors.

Hear from Kempe, Fiala and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s overtime loss.

Adrian Kempe

Kevin Fiala
On if tonight’s game stresses the importance of a full 60 minutes
Yeah, exactly. Just have to play 60 minutes. We’re showing it through the year, it’s still early, but we have to find a way to play 60 minutes. I mean, we played great hockey today and we’ve got to find a way to play like that for 60 minutes. We’d have a better chance to win the game.

On what he liked most about the team’s play in the comeback effort
I think just the complete level went up way more, to be honest. Just getting pucks back, hunting pucks, getting pucks to the net, we were battling in front of the net, just winning more puck battles overall. I think that it showed and we got rewarded.

On the comeback ability, but also consistently falling behind
Well, it’s a positive thing that we can come back, obviously, but with that said, we want to take the lead and not always chase from behind. It’s good to know we can chase but it’s always nicer to have the lead, play with the lead and so I think in the future here, next game, we want to just have a great start, a better start, obviously and just keep on going. Don’t even think about the third period, second period, just shift by shift, go back to basics and compete.

On playing with Byfield and Kempe when they go together
I think it was very exciting, but at the end of the day, it was just focus and win the game. You know, get the goal, get the first goal, keep on grinding and see what happens in the end. It wasn’t too much thinking and I think that’s why it worked out. I had a nice goal here and obviously we three are pretty good players, so it was exciting.

On the play of Anton Forsberg in allowing the team to comeback
Yeah, it was huge. So grateful. I mean, he could have [let in] more goals, obviously, so he was there, he was making great saves and kept us in it. He gave us a chance to come back.

Jim Hiller
On falling behind early and the overall inability to play 60 minutes
You guys have watched the Carolina Hurricanes. They start better than anybody in National Hockey League, very consistent. They come at you with a pace that you can’t work your way into and it shouldn’t have surprised us, let’s put it that way. That’s the most disappointing part of the game. We got going, we got competitive but we weren’t ready to play at the pace they were ready to play at and they’re known for that.

On the disappointment in the first two goals allowed being coverage breakdowns
Yeah, they were. The first one is the biggest one, because you start the game for a reason, you get to start, try to win the faceoff, try to build some momentum. It’s exactly what they did. So that one, that one hurts, that’s on the five guys who were on the ice.

On the performance of the Foegele/Danault/Moore line tonight
Let me just start with Phil, because I thought it’s one of the best games I’ve seen him play, to be honest with you. I’ll take that back my whole time I’ve been here, he was extremely competitive on faceoffs. We had a tough night in the circle, if you look at some of those stats, he was extremely competitive. It was penalty kill, was 5-on-5 against Aho’s line. To me, it starts a lot of times with the centerman. He’s got a pretty big role on the line and then Mooresie and Foegs, who were, I thought, really good last game with Turc, they just kind of kept up and kept their engine going and then I thought Phil really drove the line.

On Anton Forsberg’s performance tonight
That’s a great sign. It’s a bounce back game for him, for sure, he didn’t like the game against Pittsburgh. So, how do you respond? It’s just like the team, how are you going to respond and that’s a really good sign. I know his career here with the Kings is early, new teammates, it’s just a really good way to show your character.

On the ability to comeback consistently, but the disappoint in repeatedly falling behind
Yeah, it’s a bit of both, really, isn’t it? I think the encouraging part is we haven’t given up. People kind of get on us for not being able to score goals. We’ve come back and scored multiple goals, but there’s no question we just have to be better.

On switching to the Fiala/Byfield/Kempe line in the second period
Yeah, well, we were down, we didn’t have a lot going on, I didn’t think. I’ve had it in my mind and I would keep it in my mind once Kopi went out, for sure. We didn’t want to start that way, see how things settled, but we got into a situation where we needed a spark and when I say we, maybe some of those players needed a spark too, the individual players. I thought they scored the tying goal, it was a big goal. They got checked pretty hard by Staal when they could, so they were fine. I thought the big part was the goal they scored and how they came through for us.

Notes –
– Winger Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the season, extending his goal streak against the Hurricanes to a fifth game (6-0=6), dating back to Oct. 14, 2023. Moore joins Bernie Nicholls (6GP; 8-6=14) and Marcel Dionne (7GP; 9-1=10) as the only skaters in LA Kings history to record a goal streak of five or more games against the Hurricanes/Whalers franchise.
– Moore is the first skater in Kings history to record such a streak since the Hurricanes relocated from Hartford, Conn. to Raleigh, N.C.. The Thousand Oaks, Calif., native also joins Peter Stastny (5GP; 6-7=13), Dino Ciccarelli (6GP; 8-2=10), Martin St. Louis (6GP; 8-3=11) and Jeff Halpern (7GP; 7-2=9) as the only undrafted skaters in League history to post a goal streak of five or more games against the Hurricanes franchise. Moore recorded his 205th career point and passed Alex Iafallo and Eddie Joyal for the seventh most by an undrafted player in a Kings uniform, per NHL PR.
– Winger Andrei Kuzmenko (1-0=1) scored the Kings’ second goal of the second period, his second power play goal in as many games played this week. The tally marks Kuzmenko’s fifth career point against Carolina (2-3=5).
– Forward Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) tied the game at three goals apiece with his team-leading fourth goal of the season, his third consecutive game finding the back of the net. The Swiss winger has tallied 15 points (7-8=15) in 17 career matchups with the Hurricanes and has a three-game goal and point streak (4-1=5) against the club from the Tarheel State, dating back to Feb. 1, 2025.
– Center Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) notched his fourth assist of the season, extending his point and assist streaks to a third game (1-3=4) dating back to Oct. 13. Byfield also extends his assist and point streak against the Hurricanes to a third game (1-4=5) dating back to Feb. 1, 2025.
– Winger Adrian Kempe (0-2=2) picked up his fourth and fifth assists of the season, extending his home point streak against the Hurricanes to a third game (1-3=4) dating back to Oct. 14, 2023. Kempe joins Tomas Sandstrom (3GP, 3-2=5) as the only Swedish skaters in franchise history to record a three-game home point streak against the Hurricanes.
– Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) recorded his first helper on home ice this season, extending his point streak against the Hurricanes to four games (2-5=7).
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson tallied his first point of the season (0-1=1) with his 96th career assist. Edmundson, who played for the Hurricanes in the 2019-20 season, posts his third career point (1-2=3) against Carolina.
– Forward Jeff Malott registered a career-best six hits tonight, surpassing his previous career high of four set on April 14, 2025 at Edmonton.
– Goaltender Anton Forsberg appeared in his third game as a member of the Kings, his 193rd career regular season appearance. Forsberg’s 193 career games played breaks a tie with Eddie Mio (192GP; 124th overall, 1974) for sole possession of the eighth most games played by a goaltender drafted in the seventh round in League history.

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow. The team will return to the ice on Monday for practice at 10 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.