FINAL – Kings 3, Bruins 2 (SO) – Kempe, Moore, Copley, McLellan

The LA Kings capped off a six-game roadtrip in style, with a comeback, 3-2 shootout victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday evening at TD Garden.

Forward Adrian Kempe scored both Kings goals in regulation, and also tallied in the shootout, while forward Trevor Moore scored the game-deciding goal in the shootout. Goaltender Pheonix Copley won for the third time in four starts with 32 saves, in addition to five of seven in the shootout.

After a first period that saw neither team find the back of the net, Boston struck twice in the middle stanza to take a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes of play.

First, with a delayed penalty coming against the Kings, Bruins winger Taylor Hall opened the scoring. Playing 6-on-5, Hall walked into the left-hand circle and snapped a shot clean past Kings netminder Pheonix Copley on the blocker side for the game-opening goal. Just over two minutes later, with Boston on the power play, forward Brad Marchand extended his team’s lead to 2-0, with a wrist shot past Copley from the right side, his ninth goal of the season.

Midway through the second period, Kempe halved the deficit for the Kings with his tenth goal of the season. An in-game adjustment saw Kempe moved up alongside Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala, with the trio converting instantly on their first shift together. Off the rush, Fiala’s effort was stopped by Boston netminder Linus Ullmark and the rebound kicked to Kempe who battled into position and buried the goal.

The Kings came back to tie the game with just over two minutes to play in regulation, courtesy of a 5-on-3 power play. With a golden opportunity courtesy of two Boston penalties in seven seconds, Kempe buried his second of the game, a one-timer off a feed from Fiala, for a multi-goal game and a tie score at the end of regulation.

The Kings killed off a penalty early in overtime and eventually extended the game to a shootout, where they were victorious in the seventh round. Kempe and Gabe Vilardi scored in the first two rounds, before the newly extended Moore buried the game-winning goal to seal the victory.

Hear from Kempe, Copley and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s victory.

Adrian Kempe

Trevor Moore
On a big team win over Boston
Great effort by the guys tonight, we battled the whole way. Copper stood on his head, Juice with two big goals, that’s a good team win.

On the penalty kill and areas he feels it improved tonight
We talked about it yesterday, we maybe tweaked a couple of things. We want to be more aggressive, give their best players a little bit less time, block shots, all of that kind of stuff.

On getting the shootout winner tonight
Yeah, it’s nice when the other guy didn’t score [first], you can just go out there and try and win it, that was good. It’s very nice, it’s a good feeling for sure.

Pheonix Copley
On making the saves he needed to tonight, to keep the team in the game
I’m just trying to make the saves, not overthink it and trust myself. Whatever is going to happen, happens.

On the grind of the group tonight to claw back from 2-0 down
Yeah, that’s huge. We could have easily packed it in, down by two, everyone knows these guys are good at home. To be able to push through and keep working until you’re able to find a way, that’s huge. These are the kinds of wins that you can build on, this is huge for us.

On what he liked from the PK tonight
I mean, they’re blocking a lot of shots, so that’s huge from my standpoint. When I did leave rebounds, getting those cleared out was another big thing. We talked a lot about the PK, we wanted to be better tonight and it played a bit part in getting a win.

Todd McLellan
On a “bring your own guts” type of comeback and victory tonight
I think it was that way from the beginning. There wasn’t a single individual happy with what happened in Buffalo the other night night, yet as I said, it was a confusing game. I thought the third period in Buffalo, we didn’t show the resolve that we showed tonight, so it was a good opportunity for us to answer and reveal the character that I think is in that locker room. To fight back, we even had to fight back in the shootout when we were down. Not an easy building to do it in, not an easy way to end a trip, a long trip, but we’re pleased with it.

On what he liked about the team’s response to going down 2-0
You can’t open it up against this team. You start playing run and gun, they’re very talented. The penalty kill was obviously much better and the goaltender was a big part of that, he made some incredible saves when they had some open nets and he gave us a chance to crawl back in. The powerplay, which didn’t do very much or wasn’t full of momentum much of the night, was able to get it done at the end. Proud of the guys the way they responded.

On the timly contributions on special teams tonight
We had to play them even on special teams or we wouldn’t have a chance. We had to wait until the end of the game to basically get it, but we needed it, just to guarantee the one point, and then the penalty kill on the carryover was huge. Momentum swings our way, sometimes it can frustrate the other group, I’m not sure if that happened, they’re a pretty stable veteran group, I don’t think they get rattled easily, but it can happen.

On if Pheonix Copley has given the team what it’s needed since he was recalled
I would say that. You know, he had the period in Buffalo where we weren’t very good in front of him, that was a complete team debacle if you want to call it that. But, everything else he’s done, all the minutes he’s played have been pretty solid. He’s giving us a sense of confidence right now.

On moving Kempe up with Kopitar and Fiala in the third and getting the results
We weren’t creating a lot of offense and that’d be two games in a row – actually, in Buffalo we created a lot – we just weren’t getting anything done and the game was getting thin as far as minutes left. We just thought we needed to do something and it ended up working out for us.

Notes –
– The Kings went to overtime for their fifth consecutive visit to TD Garden, winning four of those games including tonight.
– Adrian Kempe collected his second multi-goal and fourth multi-point game of the season. Kempe now has 12 goals this season, one shy of the team lead.
– Trevor Moore scored his second career shootout goal, which also marked his second career game-deciding goal.
– Kevin Fiala (0-2-2) increased his team-leading point total to 34 points (9-25-34) with his tenth multi-point game and sixth multi-assist effort of the campaign.
– Pheonix Copley made 32 saves, his most as an LA King, and stopped five of seven shootout attempts for his third win of the season.

The Kings have a scheduled off day tomorrow, following their travel home from Boston. The Kings will return to the ice for morning skate on Saturday at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, in advance of that evening’s game against San Jose.

*A full recap of Trevor Moore’s new contract extension, with reactions from Moore, McLellan and General Manager Rob Blake, will come tomorrow morning!