The LA Kings once again went into overtime but once again came up short, as they skated to a 2-1 overtime defeat on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Midway through the opening period, forward Adrian Kempe extended his point streak to four games as he opened the scoring. Forward Alex Laferriere was evasive along the wall, as he protected the puck and threaded a pass through the slot to Kempe. From the right-hand circle, Kempe shot first time, past Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf and in for his 11th goal of the season, tying him with Kevin Fiala for the team lead.

With the Kings on their first power play of the evening, Calgary went the other way and tied the game with a shorthanded goal. Kevin Fiala’s pass was intercepted at the blue line by forward Blake Coleman, who went the other way on a breakaway. In alone, he beat Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper on the glove side for his ninth goal of the season, knotting the score at one apiece.

After the third period came and went without a goal, the Kings thought they had the game-winning tally in overtime. Forward Anze Kopitar got on the end of an Adrian Kempe pass, but the puck was directed into the net with a kicking motion and was overturned upon video review. Just seconds later, Calgary capitalized on a 3-on-1 rush to win the game 2-1. Defenseman Brandt Clarke turned the puck over in the offensive zone, leading to the odd-man attack the other way, with forward Morgan Frost scoring at the back post to seal the two points.

Hear from Kopitar, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s game.

Brian Dumoulin

Anze Kopitar
On his overtime goal being disallowed for a kicking motion
I wasn’t sure at first, but when I saw the replay, I figured it won’t count. Unfortunate. Obviously, I didn’t try and kick it, but it’s just the momentum and the way my foot was positioned and moving, it looked like it was a kick.

On Darcy Kuemper’s play tonight
He was the reason why we got the one point, really. Second period, he was outstanding. I mean, he’s been outstanding all year and last year. We almost take it for granted, so we’ve got to find ways to score more goals and give him some run support.

On the amount of turnovers and self-inflicted plays in tonight’s game
Yeah, it was choppy. It was a choppy game for sure. We’re going to have to clean that up.

On what he feels this group is lacking right now, despite continue to collect points
I mean, we’re in a good spot, really. We’ve got to find a way to score more goals, obviously starting with power play. We have to figure something out, find something in order to jumpstart the offense and score more goals.

On what he believes the first step is to improving the power play
Simplify, first. I think it’s just getting more pucks to the net and then see if we can create something from there.

Jim Hiller
On if he felt tonight’s performance was one of the team’s poorest of the season
For the first 40 minutes, no question. Didn’t like the first 40, if it wasn’t for Darcy, obviously the game would have been over. The third period, we were better, they didn’t attack us as much. We still didn’t generate a whole bunch. Yeah, the first 40, that was poor.

On how much he felt the difficulties in tonight’s loss was self inflicted
Yeah, there’s always some of that. I thought where we got in the most trouble was the d-zone faceoff losses. Not only did they win them, but they won them clean. That got us spinning. I think they had, somebody said they had 15 faceoffs in our zone, in the first period, and they won 10, so that’s going to make it difficult. We had a hard time containing them in the o-zone. That, to me, was the biggest issue. We couldn’t close them. We got better at that as the game went on, but originally, they had their way with us, and that’s usually a strength for us.

On what he saw from Quinton Byfield in terms of direct play tonight
In practice yesterday, I told somebody, he shot the puck really well, scored about four goals in practice, guys are banging their sticks on the ice for him and that just didn’t carry over to tonight. He had some real looks. Sometimes they’re not perfect, but I think you just got to start there. You’ve just got to start putting them on net, even if it’s from bad angles. You might be out just a little ways and so I’m sure he’d be the first one to say that he passed a couple up.

On what he felt changed the most between Chicago/Utah and Seattle/Calgary
Seattle didn’t have that much at 5-on-5, they had their stuff in the power play. Tonight, these guys had plenty of 5-on-5, so that that wasn’t good enough, but in both those last two games, we just didn’t generate again. I mean, that’s just the bottom line. If we’re in the o-zone and hanging on to pucks and even spending time just wearing them out a little bit, it happens to you, you’re out there for 20 seconds, now you pretty much just put the puck out and go make a line change and that’s what was happening to us. It wears you out and you don’t have the energy to push back and spend time in their zone. We just didn’t do that tonight, minus the third period a little bit.

On Darcy Kuemper’s play and if he feels he should be on Canada’s Olympic team
It just seems pretty obvious, the way he’s played, that he has to be in serious, serious consideration. Not just this year, right? Let’s take it right back. He’s been just incredible for us. Biased or not, it would be hard to say that he doesn’t deserve to be there.

Notes –
– Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his 11th goal of the season, his 40th career game-opening goal (GOG). In doing so, the 29-year-old winger breaks a tie with Butch Goring (39 GOG) and Ziggy Palffy (39 GOG) for sole-possession of the sixth most game-opening goals in franchise history. Kempe also tied teammate Kevin Fiala (11 G) for the lead amongst Kings skaters this season with the tally.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) provided his seventh assist of the season on Kempe’s marker. Laferriere has now recorded points in back-to-back games (1-0=1; Dec. 10 at SEA) and back-to-back home games (0-1=1; Dec. 6 vs. CHI). Laferriere’s 79 career points (38-41=79) sit one shy of tying Corey Millen (43-37=80) for the 10th most by a skater drafted in the third round in franchise history.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-1=1) notched his 11th assist of the season on Kempe’s game-opening goal, which is tied with Kevin Fiala (11 A) for third most among Kings skaters behind Quinton Byfield (15 A) and Adrian Kempe (17 A).
– Defenseman Drew Doughty skated in his 60th career contest against the Calgary Flames tonight, becoming the first defenseman and seventh skater overall to play as many games against the Flames as a member of the LA Kings.

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Dallas tomorrow and will return to the ice on Monday, December 15 at American Airlines Center for morning skate, in advance of that evening’s game versus the Stars.