FINAL – Kings 2, Lightning 5 – Iafallo, Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings saw their three-game winning streak come to a close after a 5-2 defeat against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday evening at Amalie Arena.

Forwards Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Phillip Danault scored for the Kings in a losing effort, while goaltender Jonathan Quick made 20 saves between the pipes.

Tampa Bay netted the game’s first two goals, in a span of 1:21, to open up a 2-0 advantage early in the game. First, off a turnover behind the net, forward Brayden Point buried a centering feed from linemate Nikita Kucherov for his 29th goal of the season. Less than 90 seconds later, the Lighthing doubled their advantage through forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who fired through a screen from the slot to push the hosts ahead by two.

The Kings pulled a goal back just past the halfway mark of the opening period to make it a 2-1 game. Off the rush, Anderson-Dolan’s shot gave Tampa Bay netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy trouble, with the puck trickling by him and into the net. Anderson-Dolan’s goal was his sixth of the season, with forward Kevin Fiala tallying the lone assist, his 35th of the season.

The Lightning added another before the intermission, as forward Corey Perry extended the Tampa Bay advantage to 3-1 through 20 minutes of play. A shot from the point by defenseman Nick Perbix was blocked by Kings defenseman Matt Roy, but the puck went right to Perry, who slotted home his ninth goal of the season.

The hosts made it 4-1 in the final five minutes of the second period, as they opened up their largest lead of the evening. After forward Alex Iafallo was denied at one end, the Lightning came back down the ice and scored, as Ross Colton buried a rebound from point-blank range, his tenth goal of the season.

Before the intermission, the Kings pulled back to within a pair, as Danault picked up his 14th goal of the season to snap a scoreless skid. Off the rush, Danault took a feed from Iafallo and looked for Viktor Arvidsson at the back post, but his pass was deflected on the way through by defenseman Ian Cole and into the net, pushing the score to 4-2 through 40 minutes.

After a third period that went the bulk of the way without a goal for either team, Tampa Bay added the insurance marker inside four minutes to play to make it 5-2. Defenseman Victor Hedman fired a shot from the left point that evaded traffic in front and went inside the far post for the evening’s final goal

Hear from Iafallo, forward Anze Kopitar and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Alex Iafallo
On what he felt was missing tonight in the first period
Communication, I think. In the d-zone, just giving up a lot of chances down the pipe. I feel like we had to take away chances through the middle and we didn’t do that off the start there.

On what he felt was missing tonight in the first period
When you don’t communicate, it leads to individual mistakes. I just feel like, as a whole, we didn’t get it done defensively – both defense and offense. Sometimes that’s the way it goes, but you’ve got to try to regroup after those and we didn’t.

On what he felt was missing tonight in the first period
We need some puck luck going, but I had a lot of chances and I should have scored tonight. We’ve got to keep getting those chances and hopefully get some momentum, hopefully get some goals, some puck luck and we’ll be fine.

Anze Kopitar
On what he felt was missing tonight in the first period
It’s not due to a lack of effort tonight, we just couldn’t get it done. Obviously it’s not very fun when you lose.

On what he felt was missing tonight in the first period
There are a few teams in the league that are good teams and favorites if you will, and we always get good challenges from them along the way.

On what he felt was missing tonight in the first period
We haven’t been able to put a game together for Quickie and he’s been very solid back there. So, it’s frustrating.

Todd McLellan
On if he felt that the “sickness” from past wins had creeped into the first period at all tonight
Actually, the first period wasn’t a disaster, we made three or four mistakes and they ended up in our net. That happens often in a game, it’s just that these guys capitalized on it and they’re very capable of doing that. I thought our communication in the d-zone wasn’t where it needed to be. Sometimes we had opportunities for clean breakouts, we didn’t execute and then they got alone around our net a lot, so our net play was poor. I don’t think that the first period was the disaster we might think it was, a few mistakes and it’s in our net.

On communication breakdowns leading to individual mistakes
You know, you take their fourth goal, for example, they end up with a 2-on-0 at the net and we’re in position to defend that quite easily. We have some time to talk, we have time to communicate and get ourselves organized, that doesn’t always happen, but in that case, it did and we didn’t do it. We failed to use the best tool we have and that’s our tongue on the ice and they made us pay.

On having Jonathan Quick in net be a motivator for the team as a whole
I thought he played a pretty damn good game, he made some good saves when we needed. Players are pulling for him, it’s actually a pretty good motivating factor right now. We care about him and we want to play hard for him, we’ll get him a win.

On if he feels the fortunate bounce on Danault’s goal can spark that line offensively
Yeah, sometimes you’ve got to get an ugly one or a fortunate one, if you will, to go your way and the puck will go in the net for you eventually. Look at Iafallo last night, he started the game with a post, started the third period with a post, they’re getting close and things are almost in the net for them. Arvy starts the game out with a 2-on-1 right off the bat today, so they’ve had some looks. You’re not going to be clean all year, you’re going to go through ups and downs, but I think the line is playing better now than it did five or six games ago.

On what he’d like to see corrected heading into Carolina on Tuesday
Carolina plays a bit of a different game and we have to adjust to what they’re doing. We’ll spend tomorrow getting some rest again, trip’s getting long and just try and prepare mentally for a team that plays a lot of pace and fires a lot of pucks.

Notes –
– Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored his sixth goal of the season, giving him three goals from his last four games played.
– Phillip Danault tallied his 14th goal of the season, giving him points (1-1-2) in back-to-back games.
– Kevin Fiala extended his team-leading point total to 52 points (17-35-52) with his assist on Anderson-Dolan’s first period goal. His helper was his 35th assist of the season.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty led the Kings with 25:29 in total time-on-ice, while center Anze Kopitar led the forwards at 21:01.
– Forwards Danault, Viktor Arvidsson and Alex Iafallo each had four shots on goal tonight, to lead the team in that department.

The Kings have a scheduled off day tomorrow, considering the back-to-back. The team will return to the ice for practice on Monday, January 30 at 11:00 AM.