FINAL – Kings 4, Penguins 3 – Moore, Moverare, McLellan

The LA Kings made it five consecutive games with a point, as they downed the Pittsburgh Penguins by a 4-3 final on Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh.

Trevor Moore scored twice, while Alex Iafallo and Drew Doughty also scored for the visitors. Anze Kopitar had a pair of assists, while Cal Petersen made it six victories from his last seven starts with 23 saves between the pipes.

After neither team scored in the opening period, the Kings took the lead early in the second, through Iafallo. Iafallo and Kopitar executed a give-and-go down low, with Kopitar hitting Iafallo in the left-hand circle. The Eden, NY native picked the far corner, with a little help from a deflection off a Pittsburgh stick, for his 14th goal of the season, as Kopitar hit 40 points with the lone assist.

Pittsburgh bounced back on the power play, however, to tie the game at one midway through the second period. Off the rush, Evgeni Malkin threaded a pass through to a streaking Sidney Crosby, with the Penguins captain snapping his shot past Petersen, high on the blocker side, for his 498th career NHL goal.

The Kings took a two-goal lead into the intermission with goals just over three minutes apart. First, defenseman Jacob Moverare hit Trevor Moore with a long stretch pass, with Moore finishing on the backhand for the goal, his 15th point this month. Then, Kopitar and Drew Doughty executed on a 2-on-1 rush, with Kopitar feeding Doughty at the back post for the goal, as the veteran defenseman put home his own rebound for the finish.

The Penguins stormed back in the third period, to tie the game at three, with Bryan Rust scoring twice for the hosts. First, Rust collected a loose puck deep in the offensive end, spun and fired inside the far post to pull his team within one. Rust scored again, just past the halfway mark of the third, with a power-play goal. On an attempted centering pass, the puck hit Drew Doughty’s skate and deflected in, tying the game at three.

The visitors pushed back, however, with another breakaway tally by Moore. Blake Lizotte hit Moore with a seeing-eye stretch pass, with Moore doing an acrobatic job of corralling it just before the blueline. The Denver product went top shelf again, this time on the forehand, for his second goal of the afternoon, giving the Kings a lead they would not relinquish.

Hear from Moore, Moverare and Head Coach Todd McLellan following today’s win.

Trevor Moore

3 shots and 2 goals for @trevmoore08 🤯@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/VQA7himBQw

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 30, 2022

Jacob Moverare

On getting in on short notice and when he found out he was playing
Yesterday, when we got to the hotel in Pittsburgh [Trent Yawney] told me that I’m in. It was nice to know a little ahead, but also pretty short notice so I didn’t have too much time to think about it.

On playing with Drew Doughty and matching up against elite opposition
It was awesome to play with Drew, he’s really easy to play with, he helps me out a lot. It was fun to play against top players. Really hard, they were good obviously, but it was really fun.

On his stretch pass to Trevor Moore on his first goal
They dumped it in, but I caught it with my glove. I saw Mooresy and I think Arvy and they were kind of alone, so I just tried to pass it as quickly as I could to them.

On the bounceback after Pittsburgh tied the game
Yeah, I think you saw all of the players were really happy when we scored that fourth one, because they brought a lot of heat when they started the third period. They got us back at three, so that was really nice to get that fourth one.

Todd McLellan
On what allowed the Kings to win tonight’s one-goal game
The ability to play four lines. When I look at the minutes, we didn’t shorten the bench until the last four, five minutes, so the ability to play the four lines I thought they protected the D well. When we did have to break out the inexperienced backend, they did a really good job and you have the veterans that really played well. I think Olli and Dewy, when they showed up to play really well, it settled things down on the backend.

On Moverare coming into the lineup on short notice
Both Jacob and Strander were short notice and played tremendous games for us. If you can get pinch hitters to do that, it shows that they’re maybe more than pinch hitters, they’re starting to push their way into the upper group. They played real solid games. Jacob, in particular, very heady player, a good sense of what might happen and he anticipates well. Tremendous blocks on some of the power plays, great outlet pass to Mooresy on the goal. Had a hell of a night.

On starting the game the way they wanted to after yesterday’s start
You know, yesterday was behind us, we really didn’t talk about yesterday. We talked about what we needed to do today, they are a very good first-period team. They get out of the gates quick, especially at home, and they can be a wall of momentum that comes at you. I thought we handled the first period well and settled in after that.

On the feeling on the bench after Pittsburgh tied the game
Well, one, we were disappointed with how they got on the power play, very poor game management by a player or two. There’s not much we could do about the goal, off a foot and in. We were positioned well, that can happen in a game and I think it was better for us to get scored on that way than something that we could control. We just kept playing. We were rolling four lines, so everybody knew that they were going to keep playing and great play by Lizzo to Mooresy again. After that, we felt confident that we could defend.

On Trevor Moore’s impact both tonight, and as of late
Today, I think it’s quite obvious, but overall, he’s been probably in our top two or three players for the last month now. I’ve always said that we have to take some responsibility for his start, and when I say we, I mean the coaching staff. We’ve moved him around, we put him with different people, he was like our swiss-army knife and now he’s found a home. He’s been productive there, that line has an identity and they play extremely well. I never really see Mooresy tired, he’s got an engine that’s second to none. I’m really happy for him and I’m glad that our group has him.

Notes –

– Forward Trevor Moore tallied his 15th and 16th points of the month with his goal in the second period. The last time a Kings player had more than 15 points in a month was Anze Kopitar in March 2018.
– Defenseman Jacob Moverare tallied the first point of his NHL career, with the lone assist on Moore’s second-period goal.
– Moverare was a +2 in his second career NHL game, while Austin Strand was +1 in his third game of the season.
– Kopitar extended his point streak to four games with a multi-point game (0-2-2). Kopitar has points in nine of his last 11 games, with 12 points (5-7-12) in total during that stretch.
– Drew Doughty scored his fifth goal of the season this afternoon and posted a +3 rating, while leading the team with 26:33 in time on ice.
– Cal Petersen has won six of last seven starts since returning from COVID Protocol in early-January.

The Kings are not scheduled to practice tomorrow, following the back-to-back games this weekend. The team is set to resume skating on Tuesday afternoon in Detroit.