The LA Kings moved into a tie at the top of the Pacific Division, as they found a way to collect two points in a 2-1 overtime victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena. <\/p>\n
The first period featured three video reviews within the first five minutes of play, none of which led to a goal. An early Vancouver offensive play was ruled as no goal on the ice and confirmed, before each team was successful in negating a goal on coaches challenges for offside.<\/p>\n
Inside the final three minutes of the opening period, the Kings finally scored one that counted, as forward Anze Kopitar gave the hosts a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes. A nice pass by defenseman Brian Dumoulin started the rush and after a broken play between Kopitar and forward Adrian Kempe, Kopitar collected in the slot and fired past Vancouver goaltender Kevin Lankinen and in for his fifth of the season and the early advantage.<\/p>\n
The Canucks equalized early in the second period, capitalizing just after the Kings were unable to convert on the power play. Forward Evander Kane skated out of the penalty box and took a stretch pass for a breakaway. Kane elected to shoot and beat Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg on the stick side for his fifth goal of the season, tying the game at one in the process. <\/p>\n
Neither team found the back of the net in a third period that saw several shots hit the post, but none go between the pipes, as the Kings advanced into overtime for the 12th time in 25 games this season. <\/p>\n
In overtime, the Kings found the game-winning goal via forward Adrian Kempe. Forward Kevin Fiala gained the offensive zone on a controlled entry, but was unable to get a shot off in a 2-on-1 situation. Fiala delayed with possession and eventually found Kempe at the back post, who hit the back of the net after outwaiting a shot block attempt in front. The goal was his eighth of the season, securing the 2-1 victory in the process. <\/p>\n
Hear from defenseman Mikey Anderson, forward Trevor Moore and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight\u2019s victory. <\/p>\n
Trevor Moore<\/p>\n
Mikey Anderson
On the challenges of establishing rhythm early with three reviews inside five minutes
Yeah, it\u2019s hard. You get what, maybe one, two shifts and a half hour goes by real time, or whatever it is, so it\u2019s hard to get your body into it, kind of get your mind into it, but it slows it down. Good job by the guys though, to find a way. I mean, not going to be pretty after that, but we found our rhythm as it went on.<\/p>\n
On the slim margin for error for the Kings right now
It\u2019s been like that, I think, the last couple years too, we\u2019ve had a lot of games even, maybe get an empty net here and there. This year, we\u2019ve gone to overtime 10+ times already, so it\u2019s right there, it\u2019s one goal, stick on a puck in any way. You try and hopefully end up on the better side of it on more nights. <\/p>\n
On if it is mentally draining to have every game be so tightly contested
Yeah, it can be, I think, but also you don\u2019t really think about it when you\u2019re out there. I mean, when you\u2019re playing, your adrenaline gets going, instincts take over. Maybe after the fact, if it goes one way or another, you maybe think about it when you go home, but with the schedule this year, we play so fast, everyone\u2019s kind of quick resets. You kind of flush it and think about the next one. <\/p>\n
On Anton Forsberg\u2019s play tonight and his ability to play the puck
It helps a lot. One, it makes it harder on the forecheckers, knowing where to go, but if he can even bypass us and get it up to the forwards, makes everyone\u2019s job a little bit easier, get it in their hands quicker and let them try and play offense. He was great tonight, big saves when we needed him, but playing the puck is good for us. <\/p>\n
Jim Hiller
On the start to the game tonight with three challenges so early in the contest
Anybody seen anything like that before? How far in, four minutes in, less than five and you\u2019ve got to review it and that kind of took the flow right out of the game. It started like that and then the overtime was kind of crazy for a short time too, that was pretty exciting, I guess. In between, there wasn\u2019t much going on.<\/p>\n
On consistently being in tight, one-goal games seemingly every night
Well, it\u2019s good and bad. It teaches you to play in tight games, but you don\u2019t always want to be in those tight games. It\u2019s hard on everybody. The players understand that they probably play a little more cautious than they would normally, when you\u2019re that tight, so it\u2019s been hard for us just to get into a rhythm. We\u2019ve talked about not scoring a lot of goals, sometimes you just feel a little more loose and then you can make things happen. This is, you can\u2019t make a mistake, it\u2019s almost like playoff hockey, you chip it out, you chip it in. I think probably all those games, it\u2019s helped us, the mentality, but it\u2019s probably just hurt us, feeling good with the puck. <\/p>\n
On the decision to make in-game lineup adjustments
We ran Quinton, Kevin and Adrian for a good portion. I wanted to make sure I put them together and give them enough of a run that we weren\u2019t just yanking their chain. They were alright, but I don\u2019t think we saw what we what we hoped from that, so it was time to get those broken up. This was as good a time as any, because there was nothing going on. <\/p>\n
On an 0-for-4 power-play showing, as that unit continues to struggle
I think you\u2019ll probably see some broader changes when Drew ends up coming back into the lineup. There\u2019s considerations. Normally, we\u2019re afraid of five forwards at the end of a power play, when it\u2019s expiring, because the other team comes out of the box and they put on their best players, and you can get pinned. It limits us a little bit on what we can do exactly, but I think when Drew come [back], you\u2019ll see some different looks. <\/p>\n
On converting in overtime and seeing Kempe get one to go
Yeah, I hope so. I mean, tonight, there wasn\u2019t a lot of room. Last night, he had some pretty good looks in and around the net, got some sticks on them. Tonight, there wasn\u2019t much for anybody. It\u2019s a big moment, somebody\u2019s got a score and I think he\u2019s shown us over the years here that usually, if you\u2019re going to bet on somebody, it would be him. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Notes \u2013
\u2013 Forward Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) tallied his 14th assist of the season on Anze Kopitar\u2019s game-opening goal, temporarily tying Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) for the most assists by a Kings skater this season before Byfield provided the primary set-up for Kempe\u2019s third overtime game-winning goal of the season. Kempe boosts his team-leading point totals to 22 (8-14=22) with his sixth multi-point effort of the year, which is tied with Byfield for the most such performances by a Kings skater this season.
\u2013 The extra-period marker stands as Kempe\u2019s 10th career overtime goal, which surpasses Dustin Brown (9) and Anze Kopitar (9) for second most in LA Kings history and places the 29-year-old just a single overtime goal away from tying Jeff Carter (11) for the most in team history.
\u2013 Captain Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season and has now scored 304 career goals at even strength, tying Dave Taylor for the third most in LA Kings franchise history. The goal also stands as Kopitar\u2019s 62nd career point (18-44=62) against the Canucks, tied with
\u2013 Leon Draisaitl (29-33=62) for the second-most amongst active skaters, trailing only Connor McDavid (24-46=70). The game-opening tally was Kopitar\u2019s 445th career goal, which passed Daniel Alfredsson for the 12th-most by a player that was born and trained outside of North America, per NHL PR. The only players with more are Alex Ovechkin (908), Jaromir Jagr (766), Teemu Selanne (684), Jari Kurri (601), Mats Sundin (564), Marian Hossa (525), Evgeni Malkin (520), Peter Bondra (503), Sergei Fedorov (483), Alexander Mogilny (473) and Peter Stastny (450).
\u2013 Kopitar found the back of the net on the 3,360th shot on goal (SOG) of his career, which tied him with former Kings captain Dustin Brown for the second most in franchise history behind Marcel Dionne (3,848 SOG). Kopitar then overtook his former teammate by registering his 3,361st SOG in the third period of tonight\u2019s contest.
\u2013 The native of Jesenice, Slovenia, also skated in his 1,475th career regular season NHL game this evening, breaking a tie with Doug Gilmour (1,474 GP) for sole possession of 29th-most games played in League history.
\u2013 Defenseman Brian Dumoulin (0-1=1) picked up his sixth assist of the season, the third most by a Kings blueliner behind Joel Edmundson and Brandt Clarke, who have each recorded nine helpers in 25 games played. The native of Biddeford, Maine, now has assists in consecutive calendar days for the first time since Oct. 12 \u2013 13, 2019 (0-2=2 w\/ PIT), after earning a pair of points yesterday in Anaheim.
\u2013 Forward Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) provided his eighth assist of the season with a secondary helper on Kempe\u2019s overtime tally. The 29-year-old winger now has 18 points (11-7=18) in 21 career games played against the Canucks.
\u2013 Forward Corey Perry played in his 1,411th career regular season contest tonight, tying Hockey Hall of Famer and former Kings defenseman Harry Howell (1,411 GP) for the 40th most regular season games played in NHL history.
\u2013 Tonight\u2019s contest was the 12th game that the Kings have played beyond regulation, the most of any team in the League.<\/p>\n
The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow and will return to the ice for practice on Monday, December 1 at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Kings moved into a tie at the top of the Pacific Division, as they found a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-318300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}