FINAL – Kings 2, Bruins 5 – Danault, Fiala, McLellan

The LA Kings fell short in the third period of a hard-fought game, a 5-2 defeat against the Boston Bruins on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings got goals from forward Phillip Danault and defenseman Sean Durzi in the loss. Goaltender Pheonix Copley made 17 saves as he picked up just his second defeat of the season from 11 starts.

The Kings opened the scoring with a goal late in the first period, as they took a 1-0 advantage into the first intermission. Off a cycle by the second line, Danault buried his 13th goal of the season, off of an assist from linemate Alex Iafallo, to open the scoring. Danault’s goal was his fourth from his last five games, while Iafallo made it eight points from his last eight games with the primary helper.

Boston surged back in the middle stanza, however, to take a 2-1 lead with two goals in a span of 2:21. First, forward David Pastrnak found himself alone in the slot, where he buried a wrist shot for his 26th goal of the season, tied for the fifth most in the NHL. The Bruins took the lead through forward Brad Marchand, who one-timed a deflected pass by Copley and in, putting the visitors ahead.

The Kings responded just past the halfway mark of the second period, however, to push the score tied heading into the second intermission. Off of a controlled zone entry, defenseman Matt Roy teed up his partner, Durzi, who one-timed the puck with a half slap shot, past Boston netminder Jeremy Swayman and in for his fifth goal of the season, the game-tying goal.

The Bruins took control for good with two goals from forward Trent Frederic in a span of 34 seconds midway through the third period to take the lead back. First, Frederic worked his way to the net and deflected a Brandon Carlo shot from the right point past Copley and in for a 3-2 lead. Shortly thereafter, Frederic found himself alone in front, deked to the backhand and buried his second of the night and ninth of the season for a 4-2 advantage.

Pastrnak added his second of the game, an empty-net goal, to seal the deal with a 5-2 final.

Hear from Danault, forward Kevin Fiala and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault

Danault speaks with the media following the 5-2 loss#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/BdbNH1hHOi

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 6, 2023

Kevin Fiala
On tonight’s game
I felt like we played a very good game against them, almost the whole the whole game, just a couple breakdowns there on those last two goals and there was the game. So, we’ve got to figure out playing consistently, but I’m sure we will.

On what separated the two teams tonight
Yeah, they’re a good team, but I really feel like we had a strong game today, overall. It could have gone our way, it really could have. Maybe it’s just the next step. They kind of know how to win and the next step is for us to, in those situations, to just figure out the win.

On if playing like they did tonight will lead to success most other games
Yeah, I think so. You know, like I said before, I think we played a good game, it was both teams going at it. Good defensively, good game overall, good goalies as well. We had chances too, to finish the game our way, but we didn’t so it’s tough.

Todd McLellan
On the feelings in the room that the team played well, just lost the final moment
I thought it was a game that was quite similar to the Dallas game. I thought this one was faster, Dallas was a little more physical and I thought our group that a lot of good things. If you weren’t at the game, you didn’t watch the game, you’ll pick up the newspaper, if there’s such a thing anymore, read it tomorrow and you’ll say well, they lost 5-2, but it was a pretty evenly matched game. 40 seconds in the third period, a bit of a lucky one for them, batting it out of the air, but the one after that was preventable, we made some mistakes. Then at the other end, I thought we had some opportunities, a breakaway and Kopi had a pretty good look and you don’t get many against that team, so those have to go in.

On if he felt the team overcommitted on the first goal against
We over-committed with three and left it alone. It’s the wrong guy to get the puck, so obviously we just talked about how they capitalize on mistakes. We didn’t make very many tonight but they took advantage of the few that we made.

On the fourth goal, that put the Bruins ahead by two
First of all, we stepped up in the neutral zone and gave up an outnumbered rush and that’s hard to recover from. Then, coming into our zone, we stopped the play but we chased the puck behind the net and that put the hole in front and not behind. We chased the puck to the least dangerous area and give up the most dangerous area but it happens fast. It’s easy to look at it after and me pick it apart and you guys write about it. It happens fast.

On the sequence that led to the penalty before Boston’s power-play goal
I think the events earlier in the game affected the events at that moment. You guys can figure out the events earlier in the game, I think that’s pretty clear.

On if punishing mistakes is what separates Boston from most teams in this league
Yeah, I think that they have that in them. They’re patient, they wait for their opportunities. I think we give up 21 shots to that team tonight and when puck luck goes your way, you’ve got to put it in. I thought the power-play goal that they got went off a foot, right to guy and he put it in the net real quick. Really good teams take advantage of those moments and I think we’re becoming that. We’re not quite there yet, but we can do it.

Notes –
– Phillip Danault scored his 13th goal of the season. He now has six goals and 10 points (6-4-10) in his last nine games.
– Sean Durzi tallied his fifth goal of the campaign, the most amongst Kings defensemen.
– Anze Kopitar recorded his 20th assist of the season on Durzi’s second period goal, becoming the second player in franchise history to record at least 400 home assists (Marcel Dionne – 412). Kopitar joins Sidney Crosby (513), Patrick Kane (412) and Evgeni Malkin (408) as the only active skaters in the league with 400+ home assists.
– Kopitar now has 17, 20+ assist seasons, the most in franchise history.
– Tonight’s game was the first in NHL history to feature two Alaska-born goaltenders between the pipes (Pheonix Copley – North Pole, AK; Jeremy Swayman – Anchorage, AK).

The Kings will return to the ice for practice tomorrow at 11 AM, before they travel to Vegas later in the day.