FINAL – Kings 1, Wild 2 – Kopitar, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped a hard fought, 2-1 decision in Minnesota to begin a five-game roadtrip.

Forward Anze Kopitar scored his team’s lone goal on the evening, a late marker to bring the Kings back within one. Goaltender Pheonix Copley made 18 saves on 20 shots in defeat.

After a scoreless opening period, the Wild got on the board just 13 seconds into the second period to take a 1-0 lead. Minnesota forward Kirill Kaprizov created space for his linemate in the right-hand circle and the right-shot centerman snapped a shot past Kings netminder Pheonix Copley on the blocker side for his eighth goal of the season.

After a third period that saw the Kings push for offense, but come away emptyhanded, Minnesota doubled its advantage with just under five minutes to play in regulation. Against the flow of play, forward Ryan Hartman gained the offensive zone with possession, dragged to the forehand and shot top shelf on Copley for his second goal of the evening.

The Kings snapped the shutout inside 30 seconds to play through Kopitar, who cut the deficit to a single goal late in the game. Defenseman Sean Durzi’s shot from the right-hand circle hit the post and deflected into the crease and Kopitar crashed the net to put away his 19th goal of the season. Durzi and forward Adrian Kempe tallied the assists on the play, as Kempe extended his point streak to six games.

Hear from Kopitar and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Anze Kopitar
On his overall reflections from tonight’s game
I mean, I thought we played a good game, solid throughout all three zones, but maybe a little bit of bad luck, not getting the bounces. They played a tight game in their d-zone, so you’ve got to give him credit, but we maybe just passed up on a few shooting opportunities, but that’s going to happen. There’s a lot of positives that we can draw out of this one and take it into the next one.

On if he liked the response the group showed after the first goal against
Yeah, you know, like I said, we got some good o-zone time, we just couldn’t get it to go. The goalie there played good and like I said, give them the credit where credit is due.

On how shuffling lines impact the game for a player
I mean, he’s just trying to find something really to maybe get a goal, but unfortunately tonight, it didn’t work out.

On how the mentality changes when chances are coming, but goals aren’t
Try to simplify, not trying to be too cute, get a lot of stuff towards the net. The goal we scored, it was maybe a foot from the goal line where I got it. Sometimes when things are not going, just try to get it there and create something off a scramble.

Todd McLellan
On getting the tight, lower-scoring game he expected this morning
Yeah, we got what we expected. You know, we’re leaving here without any points, but I thought we played a pretty good game. We played hard, we created a number of chances, I’m sure their goaltender was probably the first star. We’ve just got to find a way to convert and some nights it doesn’t go your way in that way. I didn’t think we had a lot of passengers, we had everybody engaged in the game, so we’ll chalk it up, we’ll move on and try and recover for the next one

On the team finding a spark late in the first period, into the second
We did, I think we got a little energy out of the offsides call. After that, the penalty kill did its job and then we went and had some energy. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the first one and they’re a tough team to play against when they have the lead, it reminds me a lot of our team.

On the Kings being too cute at times in the game offensively
I think, especially to start the third, there was about a 10-minute phase where we tried to pass it through five guys. It worked early in the game when we went to the pads and we were able to find rebounds and take our chances that way and we probably wasted seven to 10 minutes of the third. When we figured it out again, it started to go our way, but just not enough.

On shuffling lines in the third and what he was looking for in that situation
Well, we’re in an interesting spot right now as a team, we have four lines I think that can score or a considerable number of players on those lines that can score. Some guys were creating chances, others weren’t, so we were looking for the best offensive combinations we could find. Our team right now is deep, it’s not built the traditional way because you’ve got some scoring wingers on the third or fourth line and we’re trying to find them opportunities to leave their mark on the game.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar scored his 19th goal of the season to extend his goal streak to three games. Kopitar has seven goals over his last nine games in total.
– Adrian Kempe tallied an assist to extend his point streak into a sixth game, with 11 points (8-3-11) in total over that span. Kempe’s current streak matches his career-long set from Oct. 31, 2021 to Nov. 11, 2021 (6GP, 4-3-7).
– Sean Durzi collected an assist to extend his point streak to four games (0-4-4). With his helper, Durzi eclipsed the 30-point mark for the first time in his career.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty led the Kings in time on ice (26:09), while Kopitar paced all forwards (20:53).
– Goaltender Pheonix Copley made 18 saves on 20 shots against, as he lost in regulation for just the fourth time from 24 appearances with the Kings this season.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 2 PM at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.