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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Hear from Edmundson, Fiala and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight\u2019s game. <\/p>\n
Joel Edmundson<\/p>\n
Kevin Fiala
On the team\u2019s play early and what he was disappointed in with tonight\u2019s game
We were not really ready, to be honest. The last two games especially, I think we were ready from the get go, we\u2019re a little more straight line, we\u2019re hunting guys. Today was a little bit more casual, East\/West, they caught some pucks, little turnovers here and there. It was not crisp.<\/p>\n
On Alex Turcotte\u2019s play tonight and how he\u2019s risen to the opportunity of late
It\u2019s very nice. He deserves it. He\u2019s a great player. You can see it, he\u2019s getting rewarded, he\u2019s always working hard every day since I got here, winning battles, doing those little things, making plays. He\u2019s just a reliable player and I\u2019m very, very happy for him. He\u2019s getting the chance now to play more and he\u2019s playing better. Very excited for him. <\/p>\n
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\u2019s no one line show, one man show, it\u2019s a team thing. I think they did a good job, the new guys here, they did an amazing job in my opinion. It\u2019s not easy to come in and make an impact right away. We\u2019re missing a lot of guys, it\u2019s not just one guy or two guys, and important guys too \u2013 everybody\u2019s important, but you know what I mean. Happy for them to get one under their belt. It\u2019s too bad we couldn\u2019t get the win. On to the next one.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 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\u2019s and stuff like that. It\u2019s too bad his goal didn\u2019t count, but otherwise, great chemistry. <\/p>\n
Jim Hiller
On the disallowed goal tonight
It\u2019s kind of a unique situation. They said it went off his glove, it was gloved in. I said it\u2019s 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\u2019t get cross checked, the momentum the puck is taking it into the net. So, if you don\u2019t want to call it goal, you better call it a cross check. It\u2019s one of the two. I thought that was pretty easy. <\/p>\n
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\u2019re trying to get it off the rush and turning it over and they were racing back at us. We just didn\u2019t, for whatever reasons, didn\u2019t play the game that we have to play. <\/p>\n
On another strong offensive showing from the Fiala\/Turcotte\/Kuzmenko line
We\u2019ve relied on them a fair amount, I think, over the last little while, pretty much ever since they\u2019ve 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\u2019t get a lot of that by the other lines until Laf\u2019s goal. Those guys were in there pretty consistently. They got the o-zone faceoffs, Turc\u2019s doing a good doing a good job winning them and they\u2019re making something happen. <\/p>\n
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\u2019re able to get them, all five, out there to start together. Yeah, they\u2019re driving the offense, those two, from the backend and the [forward] line is driving the offense from the front. It\u2019s a good chance to get them all five out there at the same time.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s line, Turc\u2019s line played so well like we talked about. We tried a few different guys with Laf and Juice, that line, I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t get any momentum out of that line.<\/p>\n
On allowing two power-play goals and the penalties taken tonight
It\u2019s been a theme, we\u2019ve taken too many minor penalties all year. Take a bad penalty in the third period and then they make us pay. We\u2019re down to probably four regular penalty killers, one of the penalty killers takes a penalty, we\u2019re down to three and so we\u2019ve got Turc out there, Malott had to go. You can\u2019t take that many penalties and put that penalty kill under that much duress.<\/p>\n
*Additionally, Hiller indicated that he was unsure if he would have any of the four forwards who were unavailable tonight for Friday\u2019s game against Winnipeg. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Notes \u2013
\u2013 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\u2019s pair of points mark his second multi-point effort of the season, the sixth of his career.
\u2013 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\u2019s 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)
\u2013 Tonight\u2019s performance marked Fiala\u2019s 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\u2019s point streak to a fifth consecutive game (2-4=6), dating back to Dec. 29, 2025, in Colorado.
\u2013 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.
\u2013 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).
\u2013 Defenseman Cody Ceci (0-1=1) recorded his seventh assist of the year on Laferriere\u2019s goal, his second consecutive contest with a point against his former team (0-1=1 on Nov. 20, 2025).
\u2013 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.<\/p>\n
The Kings are scheduled to travel to Winnipeg tomorrow, in advance of Friday\u2019s game against the Jets in Manitoba. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Kings earned a point to conclude the homestand but they were unable to collect the second,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-399900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399900","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=399900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}