FINAL – Kings 5, Red Wings 4 (OT) – Danault, Moore, Walker, McLellan

The LA Kings came out on top following a back-and-forth game in Detroit, earning their second victory of the season with a 5-4 overtime win over the Red Wings.

Forward Phillip Danault scored two goals, including the overtime game-winning goal, as one of five Kings forwards with multiple points on the evening.

The hosts opened the scoring less than five minutes into the game through forward Adam Erne. After the Kings lost possession of the puck in the offensive zone, Erne led a 2-on-1 rush, kept the puck himself and snapped a wrist shot past netminder Jonathan Quick for his first goal of the season.

The Kings struck back, however, with a pair of goals of their own to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

First, just 19 seconds after conceding, the third line got the Kings on the board to tie the game at one. A spinning, baseball-style swing from Alex Iafallo in the neutrlal zone whacked the puck to Gabe Vilardi, who walked into the middle of the ice, dragged the puck onto his forehand and beat Detroit goaltender Ville Husso with a shot from the slot for his third goal of the season. With the assist, Alex Iafallo extended his scoring streak to four games.

Later in the opening period, the tandem of Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe struck for the second consecutive game in transition to put the visitors ahead. Rushing out of the zone with speed, Fiala attacked the defense off the rush before he hit Kempe in the right-hand circle, where he fired home his team-leading fourth goal of the season for a 2-1 advantage.

Detroit knotted the game at two with a goal stemming from a rush in transition. The Kings were caught in an odd-man situation as the Red Wings entered the offensive zone, before Dominik Kubalik curled back and hit David Perron through the slot, with the latter finishing in one motion from the left-hand circle for his second goal of the season.

With less than four minutes to play in the second period, the second line pulled the Kings ahead by a goal heading into the intermission. Danault sent a perfectly weighted pass across the blueline to Trevor Moore, who returned the favor with a backhanded saucer pass back to Danault for the goal at the back post. The play marked the first point of the season for both players, pushing the Kings ahead 3-2.

A back-and-forth third period saw the teams eventually make their way to overtime tied at 4-4.

First, Detroit knotted the score at three on the power play, as Perron fired home his second goal of the game with a wrist shot from the left-hand circle. The Kings surged back, however, as Anze Kopitar netted his first goal of the season. After a one-timer from Adrian Kempe was saved but not held, Kopitar dove head first into the crease and poked the puck into the back of the net from close range for the go-ahead goal.

The Red Wings got a late one to force overtime, however, through Oskar Sundqvist. After Viktor Arvidsson nearly iced the game at one end, Detroit came back the other way and pushed the game into overtime, as Sundvqist received the puck down low and swept it into the net past an outstretched Quick.

The Kings responded to earn the second point in overtime with Danault burying his second goal of the game. On a 2-on-1 rush with Trevor Moore, Danault’s pass hit a Detroit defenseman and deflected past Husso for the game-winning goal, Danault’s second of the evening.

Hear from Danault, Moore, Sean Walker and Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault

.@CarrlynBathe catches up with the man of the hour👑@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/TedNQQvEiA

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) October 18, 2022

Trevor Moore
On if he felt like his line felt the most like themselves as they have this season
Yeah, for sure. It’s huge to have Arvy back, he’s a huge piece to our line and he brings so much offense to it. I think that was good, but I think we have to keep building in a lot of areas, myself especially win more battles and come up with more pucks and sustain pressure in the o-zone.

On the five-on-five goal between he and Phillip Danault in the second period
It was kind of a weird play, I was coming for a change to get the defenseman on because we were on the power play and then the power play was ending. Everyone started yelling that the puck was right there, so I just turned it up. I just saw Phil on the back side, it was kind of a weird play.

On improvements being made defensively over time
Yeah, I think that we’re doing some good stuff defensively, just still too many penalties. Putting too much weight on our penalty kill and Quickie in those spots.

Sean Walker
On when he got the call that he would be playing tonight
Yeah, it was five minutes into warmups, I was just hanging out in the back and I heard Eds took a puck somewhere and just to be ready. I kind of started my warmups there and just got ready and got out there. Not the usual routine and everything, but I think I handled it well.

On what he can do, mentally and physically, to prepare considering the circumstances
Mentally, I don’t think there was very much time, it was just go out there and let the body take over. Physically, I had about five minutes to roll out and stretch quick, then it was get ready. It was definitely weird, but I think I handled it well and I was happy with how the game turned out.

Viktor Arvidsson gave credit to the Detroit player who stripped him on the near ENG, but that takes nothing away from the strongest game he’s had this year.

“I feel like this was the first time I felt like myself again, so that was a good step in the right direction.”

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) October 18, 2022

Todd McLellan
On the win tonight
Real good effort, we’re getting better, it’s starting to feel a little bit more like how he should play. There are still moments during the game, obviously the empty netter, where we’re not quite there yet, but for the most part I thought we started to look a lot more like we should. Quickie had a good game, circumstances were strange again tonight, with Edler going down in warmups, and Walker by far had his best game of the season so far, including preseason so that’s a good sign. Good effort by everybody.

On the group bouncing back after the late goal against to win in overtime
Well, the players themselves, we had a lot of experience, four or five guys they settled down, everybody wanted to win it for Arvy, you saw a lot of guys going over and tapping him, saying no problem we got this. That’s how it ended, but we sure don’t want to be doing that too often, putting ourselves in that situation.

On transition goals in back-to-back games from Fiala and Kempe
The ability that upper-end players, just to make very small plays to keep a play alive or to create a chance….it was just a little touch through the neutral zone. Sometimes, our not-so-offensive players would quit on that, or they’d have already turned and they’d be backchecking, but the gifted ones are able to do that. Similar goal the other night in Minnesota with Kempe coming down and finding a hole off that wing with speed.

On how things change like they did when a player goes down in warmups
We yelled at Sean Walker to get his equipment on, no warmup and he played, that’s all you can do. The game plan doesn’t change because one guy goes down, next man up and that’s how it happened. For me, I know Sean Walker would have to answer this question, but that may be the best way for him to go in and play. No thinking, just go play the game. His ability to come back from the injury after not having played for a long, long time, I thought tonight he did an admirable job under difficult circumstances.

* Regarding Alex Edler, McLellan said that the Kings will “see how he is in the morning”, but did not have an update regarding Alex Iafallo’s status as of post-game tonight.

Notes –
– With the win, the Kings improved to 9-1 in their last 10 games versus the Red Wings.
– Phillip Danault scored his first two goals of the season, including the game-winner in overtime. It marked his second career overtime goal and first with with the Kings.
– Adrian Kempe scored his team-leading fourth goal of the season in the first period. Only Luc Robitaille (6 in 1999-00; 5 in 2000-01) and Anze Kopitar (6 in 2021-22) have scored more goals through the Kings’ first four games of a season in the last 30 years.
– Alex Iafallo tallied his 100th career assist with the primary assist on on Gabe Vilardi’s first period goal. Iafallo became the 15th undrafted active skater in the league to reach 100 assists, while also extending his season-opening point streak to four games.
– Anze Kopitar (1-1-2), Kevin Fiala (0-2-2) and Trevor Moore (0-2-2) also registered multi-point games, tonight
– Gabriel Vilardi recorded his second goal in as many games and his third goal of the year. Vilardi also established a new single-game career-high five shots on goal.

The LA Kings are not expected to hold a morning skate tomorrow in Nashville, considering the back-to-back. Puck drop is set for 6:30 PM Pacific time against the Predators.