FINAL – Kings 6, Coyotes 5 (SO) – Danault, Roy, McLellan

The LA Kings made it four consecutive wins, in unconventional fashion, as they secured a 6-5 shootout victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings survived losing a four-goal advantage to pick up the two points late. Forward Kevin Fiala led the way with his second consecutive three-point night (2-1-3), while Anze Kopitar, Blake Lizotte and Matt Roy each tallied a goal and an assist. Goaltender Jonathan Quick picked up his second consecutive win with 27 saves between the pipes.

The Kings opened the scoring with yet another power-play goal, Fiala’s first tally of the evening. Stationed in the offensive zone, defenseman Drew Doughty fired a shot through from the center point that was saved, but the rebound popped into the air, deflected off of Fiala’s chest and bounced just over the line and in, confirmed via video review.

Arizona equalized just 66 seconds later, however, through defenseman Josh Brown. Coyotes blueliner Victor Soderstrom had the puck at the left point and his shot was blocked by Kings forward Alex Iafallo, but the puck deflected directly into the path of a crashing Brown, who slotted home his fourth goal of the season to tie the game at one.

The Kings finished the frame in a flurry, taking a 5-1 lead into the first intermission, as they netted five times in the opening frame, the first time since 2005 they’ve achieved the feat.

First, the hosts scored twice in the span of two minutes to open up a two-goal advantage.

First, Kopitar took a feed from linemate Quinton Byfield on a breakaway to get in along with Arizona netmider Karel Vejmelka and the captain deked to the backhand and scored through the five hole for his 18th goal of the season. Lizotte made it 3-1 shortly thereafter, as he crashed the net to be first to an Iafallo rebound and swapped the puck home on the backhand for his second goal in as many nights.

LA then netted twice in just 60 seconds to make it five goals in the opening 20 minutes.

Roy made it 4-1 with just over five minutes to play in the first, as he crashed in from the left point and fired home a threaded pass from Kopitar, first time, for his eighth goal of the season. Fiala then pushed the Kings advantage to 5-1 exactly one minute later. The Swiss-forward took a feed from Lizotte, moved in alone on Vejmelka and deked to the forehand for the goal. Following Fiala’s tally, the Coyotes made a change in net, with Connor Ingram entering the game.

The Coyotes buried the only goal of the second period, a power-play tally from Clayton Keller, to cut the Kings advantage to three goals at the second intermission. With the visitors skating two men up on a 5-on-3 advantage, forward Matias Maccelli hit Keller with a seam pass through the slot, which the Boston University product collected and wristed past Quick for the goal.

Arizona pushed back with three goals during the third period to force the game into overtime. Keller picked up his second of the evening as he led a 2-on-1 inside the first minute of the third, keeping the puck himself and firing home for a 5-3 scoreline. Forward Travis Boyd made it 5-4 just over seven minutes into the third, as he slotted home from the right-hand circle. Forward Christian Fischer completed the comeback with a rebound goal just 44 seconds after Boyd scored, tying the game at five apiece.

After the game progressed into overtime, and eventually a shootout, forwards Gabe Vilardi and Adrian Kempe each buried in the skills competition, with Arizona unable to score at the other end. Jonathan Quick made a highlight-reel stop on forward Nick Schmaltz to preserve the second point.

Hear from Phillip Danault, Roy and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s win.

Phillip Danault
On things going downhill after the 5-1 lead
I think it’s obviously a big trap, when you take the lead by that much in the first period, on a back-to-back as well, so you can let down a little bit, your guard, and we got caught again. Big character win, we didn’t comeback, but a big shootout win, Quickie stood up in the shootout. It was a big win for us.

On what he felt the team focused on to reach overtime after it got to 5-5
It’s going to happen for the rest of season too, maybe not a 5-1 lead, but in playoffs. At 5-5, we just got back to our game, which is doing the little details and playing on our toes instead of backing up. Using the excuse that we played yesterday, we didn’t want that. Big two points.

On getting Trevor Moore back and his reintegration onto the line
Yeah, I mean, it’s going to happen, it’s a long season and Mooresy was out for two months, it’s hard sometimes to come back in the game, plus everyone’s pushing for playoffs. The pace is really fast, it’s never easy to come back off an injury, whoever you are, it’s going to be hard. He’s going to get there, I’m not worried about it at all and as a line, we’ve got to get back to it.

Matt Roy
On the game tonight and how things changed from the first period to the second
It’s tough, I thought we had a great first period and that’s a team that sticks around and they play to their identity. Credit to them for that. I thought we could have done a better job of shutting it down early, unfortunately we didn’t, we took some penalties and they capitalized on those. We were fortunate enough to hang on tonight with the shootout win.

On getting his eighth goal of the season and contributing more offensively
It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, I want to contribute offensively and I think this year I’m jumping in the play more and picking my spots better. That, along with my teammates and my d-partner Durzi and everyone making their own plays. I guess I’m just getting the bounces and finding the luck this year.

Todd McLellan
On the team taking its foot off the gas after leading 5-1
Apparently, for the LA Kings, it’s a problem because we were standing here, I don’t know, five days ago when we played against Buffalo and I told you I wasn’t real happy with some things. Those were the things that we just saw again. So to me, it just goes to show that we’ve got a lot of work to do. The championship quality or caliber teams don’t do that. It’s pretty simple. We can talk about structure and players and depth with forwards and the ability to score on the power play, all that type of stuff, but one of the big factors in winning when it all comes down to it is being able to play with a lead. Our team has to improve immensely in that area.

On how you work on improving in that area when it’s a game-specific problem that you can’t practice
We talk about it, you can’t practice it, the only opportunity you get is in games. We talked about the Buffalo finish the other day, in that situation we’re taking penalties with a lead, we’re loose. This lead tonight happened fast, it happened bang, bang, bang one after another and then from that point on, we got extremely casual. I’m not sure how we replicate that in practice, it has to come from within the locker room and it didn’t tonight.

On if he feels the team plays differently in front of Quick than they do in front of Copley
No, I don’t think so, I don’t believe that we do. There’s no intent to play differently. We went out and got him a 5-1 lead and if we were ever motivated and wanted to shut it down, it should have been tonight. So in tonight’s case, I don’t think it has anything [to do with that], in fact I think Quickie perhaps stole us a win in the second period, we were out-chanced I don’t know what it was 9-1, 9-2.

On if he saw anything better when the game got to 5-5, or if the team hung on into overtime
I don’t know if we were hanging on, we were playing, but nothing that triggered the turn or anything like that. We had put together probably two good shifts in a row, which hadn’t happened in 40 minutes, and then we got on the power play and obviously our power play is something that we believe in right now, so guys got excited again. Then, in overtime, we had the other power play.

On if he leans on the team’s leaders more in situations like this
Yeah, but we keep going to Kopi and Drew, Kopi and Drew and Quickie because they’ve been here for a long time and won championships, rightfully so. There’s another level and another layer in there that has to step up. It used to be Kopi, Drew, Quickie and Brownie. Brownie isn’t here anymore, so somebody else step up and get it done. I heard a lot of guys saying the right things. I didn’t see a lot of guys doing the right things.

*Additionally, McLellan confirmed that Trevor Moore is fine after leaving the game for a short spell. Moore returned and skated a shift with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe late in the third period.

Notes –
– Kevin Fiala (2-1-3) recorded his second three-point night in as many games (1-2-3, Feb. 17 at Anaheim), marking the second time of his career and second instance this season he has notched three-point efforts in consecutive games (3-0-3, Jan. 7 at Vegas, 2-2-4, Jan. 9 vs. Edmonton).
– Fiala eclipsed the 60-point mark (21-40-61) in his 57th game as an LA King, becoming the seventh player in team history to record 60 points within their first 60 games with the Kings in a single season. The last player to do so was Ziggy Palffy (1999-00; 22-38-60 in 52 GP).
– Fiala also reached the 20-goal mark and became the fourth player in the past 10 years to do so in their first season with the Kings, following Phillip Danault (27 in 2021-22), Viktor Arvidsson (20 in 2021-22) and Milan Lucic (20 in 2015-16). Fiala now has nine points in his last five games (4-5-9).
– Anze Kopitar (1-1-2) collected multiple points for the second straight night and the fourth time in his last five games. He has ten points (3-7-10) in total over that stretch. Additionally, he scored his 90th and 91st career points against the Arizona Coyotes, increasing his lead in points against the Coyotes among active NHL skaters. Kopitar also
– Matt Roy (1-1-2) extended his lead in goals amongst Kings defenseman with his eighth of the year. Roy’s first-period goal was the 22nd by a Kings blueliner this season, eclipsing last season’s total (21).
– Blake Lizotte (1-1-2) recorded a goal and an assist, extending his active point streak into a third game, including his second consecutive multi-point game.
– Jonathan Quick made 27 saves and stopped both Coyotes shooters enroute to his 10th victory of the season. The win marked his 369th of his career, tying Tom Barrasso for third-most among U.S.-born goaltenders in NHL history.
– The Kings scored five goals in the first period for the 15th time in franchise history, and the first since Nov. 13 2005 against Columbus. It is also a season-high for goals in a single period this season.
– With tonight’s victory, the Kings have earned standings points in eight of their last nine games (7-1-1).

The Kings are not scheduled to skate tomorrow, coming off the back-to-back. The team is scheduled to return to the ice on Monday morning at 10 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center, before departing for Minnesota later that day.