The LA Kings earned a point to conclude the homestand but they were unable to collect the second, as they fell by a 4-3 final against the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Neither team found the back of the net in a first period that had a decent pace but turnovers at both ends, particularly by the Kings, prevented a ton of control and dangerous chances despite that pace.

San Jose opened the scoring on its first power play of the game inside the first five minutes of the second period, with forward Tyler Toffoli giving the Sharks a 1-0 lead against his former team. The visitors moved the puck well, with forwards Macklin Celebrini and Alex Wennberg both getting touches, on route to Toffoli at the back post, where he buried his 11th goal of the season to put the Sharks ahead 1-0.

Midway through the second period, the Kings pushed back to tie the game at one, with the Fiala/Turcotte/Kuzmenko line converting once again. Forward Kevin Fiala drove into the slot, attacking off the right wing, and although his shot on goal was saved by Sharks goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, forward Alex Turcotte got on the rebound and slotted it home for his third goal of the season for a 1-1 score through 40 minutes of play.

The Sharks capitalized again on the man advantage, this time early in the third period, to open up a 2-1 lead. Stationed at the center point, forward Jeff Skinner put a shot towards the net, with forward Adam Gaudette getting a deflection along the way, sending the puck past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper and in. The goal gave San Jose two goals on the power play for the game and one-goal lead in the process.

Just over 60 seconds after San Jose took the lead, however, the Kings came right back to tie the game at two goals apiece. The same forward line got in on the action, as Turcotte knocked a Joel Edmundson rebound directly to Fiala in front, where he buried his team-leading 16th goal of the season to equalize for the hosts. The assist gave Turcotte his second multi-point game of the season and the first multi-assist game of his NHL career.

The Kings thought they had the go-ahead goal from Edmundson, but upon a video review, it was ruled that he knocked the puck into the net with his glove, with the goal disallowed. Edmundson facilitated the eventual go-ahead goal shortly after, however, as his shot from the point was deflected by forward Alex Laferriere and in for his 11th goal of the season, giving Edmundson a multi-assist game and the Kings a 3-2 lead late in the game.

With just over a minute on the clock, however, Celebrini turned in a dazzling individual effort to tie the game at three and force overtime. After he knocked down a clearing attempt from defenseman Mikey Anderson at the point, Celebrini went to work as he stickhandled around two Kings players and beat Kuemper clean with a low shot for a multi-point game and the game-tying goal.

Celebrini made the difference in overtime as well, as he led a 2-on-1 rush, following a turnover at the offensive blueline by forward Adrian Kempe. Celebrini first held the puck himself before he fed forward William Eklund through the slot, where the Swede buried the game-winning goal for a 4-3 overtime victory.

Hear from Edmundson, Fiala and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Joel Edmundson

Kevin Fiala
On the team’s play early and what he was disappointed in with tonight’s game
We were not really ready, to be honest. The last two games especially, I think we were ready from the get go, we’re a little more straight line, we’re hunting guys. Today was a little bit more casual, East/West, they caught some pucks, little turnovers here and there. It was not crisp.

On Alex Turcotte’s play tonight and how he’s risen to the opportunity of late
It’s very nice. He deserves it. He’s a great player. You can see it, he’s getting rewarded, he’s always working hard every day since I got here, winning battles, doing those little things, making plays. He’s just a reliable player and I’m very, very happy for him. He’s getting the chance now to play more and he’s playing better. Very excited for him.

On his line stepping up with several forwards out of the lineup
It sucks to have those guys out, but other guys have to step up. There’s no one line show, one man show, it’s a team thing. I think they did a good job, the new guys here, they did an amazing job in my opinion. It’s not easy to come in and make an impact right away. We’re missing a lot of guys, it’s not just one guy or two guys, and important guys too – everybody’s important, but you know what I mean. Happy for them to get one under their belt. It’s too bad we couldn’t get the win. On to the next one.

On the five-player connection with his line and the Edmundson/Clarke pairing
Those two guys are very good, two different guys, one very good defensively, one maybe better offensively, so it gives us a great balance. Eddy’s shot is amazing as well, so we have always his one timer. Clarkie is creative, going down the wall and doing some give-and-go’s and stuff like that. It’s too bad his goal didn’t count, but otherwise, great chemistry.

Jim Hiller
On the disallowed goal tonight
It’s kind of a unique situation. They said it went off his glove, it was gloved in. I said it’s one of two things. The puck was going in anyways, the puck was going in, until he got cross checked into the crease, which caused him to bump the puck off his glove. If he doesn’t get cross checked, the momentum the puck is taking it into the net. So, if you don’t want to call it goal, you better call it a cross check. It’s one of the two. I thought that was pretty easy.

On what he felt was missing in the game for the Kings, especially early
We turned the puck over a lot. We did so well in Minnesota, went to the goal and you guys saw it, we threw pucks at the net, where we buzz with two and three guys at the netfront, jamming it. Today we’re trying to get it off the rush and turning it over and they were racing back at us. We just didn’t, for whatever reasons, didn’t play the game that we have to play.

On another strong offensive showing from the Fiala/Turcotte/Kuzmenko line
We’ve relied on them a fair amount, I think, over the last little while, pretty much ever since they’ve been put together. They were dangerous. They turned a few over early too, but you saw in the third period, they played in the offensive zone and we didn’t get a lot of that by the other lines until Laf’s goal. Those guys were in there pretty consistently. They got the o-zone faceoffs, Turc’s doing a good doing a good job winning them and they’re making something happen.

On getting that line out with the Edmundson/Clarke pairing
Yeah, no question. There were a lot of faceoffs in the o-zone too, so we’re able to get them, all five, out there to start together. Yeah, they’re driving the offense, those two, from the backend and the [forward] line is driving the offense from the front. It’s a good chance to get them all five out there at the same time.

On if the 11/7 alignment unfolded as he thought it would coming in
We moved things around just a little bit. Q was playing against Celebrini’s line, Turc’s line played so well like we talked about. We tried a few different guys with Laf and Juice, that line, I didn’t think we got anything going there. We tried Leesie there for a little bit, Wardo played there, I had Sammy in between them for a shift and we just didn’t get any momentum out of that line.

On allowing two power-play goals and the penalties taken tonight
It’s been a theme, we’ve taken too many minor penalties all year. Take a bad penalty in the third period and then they make us pay. We’re down to probably four regular penalty killers, one of the penalty killers takes a penalty, we’re down to three and so we’ve got Turc out there, Malott had to go. You can’t take that many penalties and put that penalty kill under that much duress.

*Additionally, Hiller indicated that he was unsure if he would have any of the four forwards who were unavailable tonight for Friday’s game against Winnipeg.

Notes –
– Forward Alex Turcotte (1-1=2) scored his third goal and seventh assist of the year, extending his point streak to a third game (1-3=4), dating back to Saturday, Jan. 3, versus Minnesota. This marks his third career point streak of three games or more and is the first time he has recorded a three-game home point streak. The 24-year-old forward’s pair of points mark his second multi-point effort of the season, the sixth of his career.
– Forward Kevin Fiala (1-1=2) notched his 15th assist of the campaign before scoring his 16th goal of the campaign to break a tie with teammate Adrian Kempe (15 G) for sole-possession of the most goals by a Kings skater this season. Fiala’s 132nd career multi-point game featured his 27th and 28th all-time points against the San Jose Sharks (9-19=28), leapfrogging Nick Schmaltz (13-14=27) for the second most points scored against the Sharks by a skater selected in the 2014 NHL Draft behind Leon Draisaitl (13-26=39)
– Tonight’s performance marked Fiala’s 65th multi-point effort as a member of the Kings, breaking a tie with Josef Stumpel for sole-possession of the 24th-most multi-point games in franchise history. The effort also extends Fiala’s point streak to a fifth consecutive game (2-4=6), dating back to Dec. 29, 2025, in Colorado.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-2=2) picked up his 13th and 14th assists of the season tonight, matching a career-high that the blueliner set in the 2024-25 campaign. Edmundson has now recorded three assists over his last three games against the Sharks, dating back to Oct. 28, 2025.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his 11th goal of the season while playing in his 200th career NHL regular season game this evening. Laferriere becomes the 20th different Kings skater to score in their 200th career game, the first to do so since Quinton Byfield (1-0=1; Nov. 23, 2024), and is the second Kings player to do so against the San Jose Sharks, joining Sean Avery (1-0=1; Dec. 26, 2005).
– Defenseman Cody Ceci (0-1=1) recorded his seventh assist of the year on Laferriere’s goal, his second consecutive contest with a point against his former team (0-1=1 on Nov. 20, 2025).
– Defenseman Drew Doughty played his 78th career game against the San Jose Sharks tonight, tying former LA King Darryl Sydor (78 GP) for the most games played against the Sharks by a blueliner in NHL history.

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Winnipeg tomorrow, in advance of Friday’s game against the Jets in Manitoba.