The LA Kings (10-6-5) battled back to earn a point with a tying goal late in the third, but the San Jose Sharks (10-8-3) ultimately prevailed by a final score of 4-3, earning the extra point from a shootout result Thursday night at the SAP Center.

Adrian Kempe scored the tying goal for the Kings with a minute to go in regulation, sending the game to overtime with his seventh goal of the season, while Joel Armia and Anze Kopitar also found the back of the net and goaltender Anton Forsberg made 21 saves in a losing effort.

The Sharks opened the scoring just 2:33 into the first period when Adam Gaudette wristed a shot from the inside of the right circle past Forsberg to give the home team a 1-0 lead early on.

LA worked their way back into the game and eventually tied the score at 1-1 while killing a holding penalty to Kempe when Armia stole the puck from Macklin Celebrini at his own blue line and sprinted down the ice on a breakaway before using a quick shot to beat Yaroslav Askarov at 16:04.

But San Jose ended up with the lead at the first intermission after a goal by Ty Dellandrea with just nine seconds left on the clock, giving themselves a 2-1 advantage. An initial shot by Collin Graf deflected off Dellandrea and into the net with traffic in front.

The Kings tied the game back up at 2-2, 1:47 into the second when Kopitar took a pass from Trevor Moore in stride at the offensive blue line before slipping the puck through the legs of Askarov at 1:47.

The Kings dictated the pace of play for a majority of the second and appeared to go in front for the first time with eight minutes to play in the period when Armia knocked a loose rebound out of the air and into the net, but San Jose challenged that the play was offside and after review, the call on the ice was reversed.

San Jose took the lead back and made it 3-2 with three minutes remaining in the middle frame when Philipp Kurashev found open space in the slot and he out-waited Forsberg before slipping the puck underneath him.

The teams battled throughout the third without a goal for the first 19 minutes until Kempe netted the equalizer at 19:01 from Kopitar and Kevin Fiala, burying a loose rebound near the net.

In overtime, San Jose held possession early but weren’t able to put any shots on goal until the final 90 seconds of the extra session when they had two attempts that were stopped by Forsberg.

Kurashev was the lone shooter to convert in the shootout, scoring on the first opportunity of the skill competition. Askarov stopped all three Kings skaters, with Moore, Kempe and Corey Perry all coming up short.

Postgame thoughts from Armia and Kempe, as well as head coach Jim Hiller are below.

Joel Armia

Adrian Kempe
On how he felt his line with Byfield and Fiala played in the game
I thought it was a pretty good game from everybody, we came in here ready to go right away. I think everybody worked really hard. We were on it, I think a lot of energy, everything like that. Tight game, felt like could have been a lot of bounces that could have gone our way that maybe didn’t tonight. But I think it was solid effort overall.

On if the team felt they deserved a better ending after solid play
I think so. I think there’s a couple bounces where maybe they were pinching, where we could have had a two-on-one, even a 2-on-0 that maybe didn’t go our way, but we stuck with it. I got a rewarded with the with the tying goal at the end. Unfortunately, couldn’t get the extra point tonight, but overall, good solid effort from everybody.

On what he saw during the play to tie the game in the third
I just kind of work up and down there, and then was kind of just waiting for that shot to come and, little lucky bounce, but like we were talking about before, I think it was a deservable one for the team tonight for sure.

On if he feels the rivalry getting stronger against San Jose
Yeah, they’re good team, good, young, upcoming guys, and you know, they have some high skill over there. Definitely fun to play. This building’s really high energy, and it’s tough to come in here and play. It’s fun to play in those games too, you get some extra juice and extra energy when you play a rivalry game.

On his team’s power play opportunities in the game
I think last time we were in here, we had some really good looks as well. So kind of just went back, looked at that video, and then just kind of built on that. I think we did a good job moving the puck tonight, shooting the puck, just unfortunate the puck didn’t go in tonight. We’ll keep building on it.

Jim Hiller
On the way the flow of overtime went, having no shots for three minutes
Yeah, and then what’d they have two breakaways or three breakaways after that? Yeah. I mean, sometimes it goes, you could never explain overtime. The danger is when people get tired, once you get tired and get stuck on the ice that’s when the chances happen.

On if he through team’s overall effort in the game was what he was looking for
I liked our energy, especially to start the game. We were commenting on the bench, it felt fast from both teams. I thought it was a good pace, much different game than the last time we were in here. It’s a game of mistakes in the end, and we just made a couple too many. They were able to capitalize. I thought we had some pretty good looks too that we just weren’t able to capitalize. Power Play had some chances, didn’t score.

On if the lineup alterations generated the offense he expected
I mean, it was to generate offense and just, energy. I liked how we skated so from that perspective, I thought we had some good balance in our lines. We had looks and we just didn’t finish enough. I think Kempe had four or five shots, I think Fiala had six or something like that. We had plenty of looks, just not enough finish.

On if he was happy with the power play’s performance
For the most part. I mean, we were in the zone. We were able to control it. We had some good looks, a post. Yeah, in the end, we’ve said that probably a little too often this year, where we’ve had some looks and haven’t been able to finish, but it’s just been a bit of a theme for our whole team I think so far, five-on-five or otherwise, we’ve just struggled to find the back of the net.

Some of his takeaways from a 4-1-1 six-game road trip
We’ve taken a lot less penalties. I think that’s important, not only on the road, but at home. So that’s made a difference. Penalty kill has been really strong the times we have taken penalties. And you know, the other part is managing the puck. We turned it over two or three times in the second and that’s really when we got in a little bit of trouble. Outside of that, we managed the game well, we’re in a rhythm. We’re not going to win every game, but we put an effort in like we did tonight, we’ll be happy most nights.

Notes –
-Captain Anze Kopitar (1-1=2) tucked his fourth goal and eighth assist of the season in his 99th career game against the Pacific Division rival Sharks. The pair of points marked Kopitar’s 76th and 77th career points (29-48=77) against the franchise, breaking a tie with Joe Sakic (28-47=75) for sole possession of the second-most vs. San Jose in NHL history behind Teemu Selanne (51-48=99).
-In 50 career road games against San Jose, Kopitar owns 16 goals and 39 points (16-23=39), which ties Paul Kariya (19-
20=39) for third-most behind Mike Modano (20-22=42) and Selanne (23-27=50).
-Forward Joel Armia (1-0=1) scored his fourth goal of the season, his second shorthanded tally (SHG) of the year. Armia becomes the sixth skater League-wide to have multiple shorthanded goals so far this season and helps the Kings (4 SHG) tie the New Jersey Devils (4 SHG) for the second most man-down markers in the NHL behind the New York Islanders (5 SHG).
-Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his seventh goal of the season to tie tonight’s contest at three goals apiece in the final minute of regulation. Kempe becomes the first player on the Kings to eclipse the 20-point plateau this season (7-13=20) and now has six points (3-3=6) in his last four games against the San Jose Sharks, dating back to Nov. 25, 2024.
-Defenseman Cody Ceci (0-1=1) picked up his fifth assist of the year on Kopitar’s goal, earning his third career point (0-3=3) as a visitor to SAP Center and eighth point (1-7=8) in 24 career games played against the San Jose Sharks.
-Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) notched his third helper of the season, his eighth assist and 13th point (5-8=13) in 25 career contests with San Jose. The native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., breaks a tie with Jason Zucker (6-6=12) for sole possession of third most point against the Sharks by a California-born player, trailing only Jason Robertson (8-8=16) and Auston Matthews (13-5=18).
-Winger Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) posted his seventh assist of the campaign on Kempe’s game-tying goal and now has 26 points (8-18=26) in 35th matchups with San Jose over his career, and 14 points (3-11=14) in 16 career games at SAP Center.
-Forward Corey Perry played in his 1,407th career regular season contest tonight, tying Dale Hunter (1,407 GP) for the 43rd most appearances by a skater in NHL history.

The Kings return home to Crypto.com Arena on Friday night for their first matchup of the season against the Boston Bruins at 7:30 p.m. PT.