FINAL – Kings 3, Devils 4 (OT) – Kopitar, Durzi, McLellan

The LA Kings picked up a point on the road, but were unable to claim the second, as they skated to a 4-3 defeat on Thursday evening at Prudential Center in Newark.

Forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Anze Kopitar, as well as defenseman Sean Durzi, scored in the loss, with Durzi and Kopitar each adding an assist as well. Forward Kevin Fiala added two assists, while goaltender Pheonix Copley made 28 saves in defeat.

The Kings opened the scoring on the evening with two goals in the first period, as they took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

First, Durzi sprang Kopitar in alone, as the captain deked to the backhand and calmly slotted through the legs of New Jersey netminder Vitek Vanacek for his 20th goal of the season. The Kings made it 2-0 later in the opening period, off a 2-on-1 rush. Forward Kevin Fiala led the sequence down the right wing and after his shot was saved by the right pad of Vanacek, Arvidsson buried the rebound for his 17th goal of the season.

New Jersey collected the lone goal from the second period, as they cut the Kings lead in half going into the second intermission. After a turnover behind Copley’s net, the puck found forward Tomas Tatar in front of the net, where he shot top shelf on the backhand for his 13th goal of the season.

The Devils tied the game just over two minutes into the third period, with Tatar and forward Dawson Mercer combining again for the hosts. Operating deep in the offensive zone, Tatar worked his way toward the goal line and dished to Mercer in the low slot, where he one-timed a shot past Copley for the game-tying goal.

With less than five minutes to play in regulation, the Kings pulled ahead by a goal through Durzi. After a strong shift in the offensive zone, Kopitar found Durzi in the left-hand circle with a seeing-eye saucer pass, that the Kings defenseman one-timed past Vanacek and in for the go-ahead goal and a multi-point night for both players.

The hosts came back to force overtime, however, with the game-tying goal inside a minute to play. With the goaltender puled for the extra attacker, forward Jack Hughes created the goal, as he fired towards the crease, off the stick of forward Nico Hischier and in for the 3-3 score, his 24th goal of the season.

After the game progressed into overtime and the teams each picked up a point, New Jersey won the game during 3-on-3. Mercer picked up his second goal of the evening on a low deflection for the 4-3 victory.

Hear from Kopitar, Durzi and Head Coach Todd McLellan after the game.

Anze Kopitar

Kopitar 🔊@LAKings | #LAKingsLive | @CarrlynBathe pic.twitter.com/yFh01ExupZ

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) February 24, 2023

Sean Durzi
On the disappointment in getting just the one point tonight
Disappointing. I thought we could have won that game, I thought we should have won that game. I think the belief in here is strong, I think every night we think we could win, so it’s disappointing.

On his goal tonight to initially put the Kings ahead late
Kopi made a good pass and I put it in the net, but we’ve got to lock it down after that. He’s a world-class passer, Kevin won a battle and I saw their two guys kind of puck watching. Kopi just made a good pass.

On the focal points with the back-to-back tomorrow
I mean, we’ve got to win. That’s kind of your focus right now, points, everyone’s got to be desperate for points. Regroup, rest up and right back at it. It’s a good opportunity.

Todd McLellan
On the balance between a good point and being disappointed not to get two
We’ll take the one we got. Not a lot of teams that come into this building or play against that team leave with points. On the other side of it, it is disappointing that we couldn’t get the last 30 seconds done, but you have to give them some credit too, they broke us down and made a nice play to the net. Again, I thought a pretty good effort from our group, maybe not enough players tonight to roll four lines, our fourth line got beat up a little bit and that was a little bit disappointing. For the most part, not a bad night, unfortunately, only one out of the two.

On if he felt there were similarities to leads given up over the past few weeks
No, not at all, I thought this was a completely different effort and attentiveness during the game than it was against Arizona the other night. Not even close.

On slotting Kevin Fiala with Phil Danault and Viktor Arvidsson
Well, it’s one thing that we haven’t tried all year, is Kevin with Phil and Arvy, I thought they were tremendous tonight. I really thought they had the puck a lot, I thought they made skilled plays and didn’t hurt us at all defensively. They look like they’ve played together before and yet they haven’t.

On the number of odd-man opportunities the Kings had tonight
Well, it’s sometimes not what we’re doing right, maybe sometimes what the other team is doing wrong, whether they gamble or they pinch at the wrong time, our team does that too. You want to keep plays alive, you’re pinching, I think offensive players are reading that the puck is going to stay alive and they stay in the zone and then it goes the other way. So, we did have some really good rush opportunities tonight, many more than we did in the o-zone. I thought it was an up and down game, it was fast, both teams played sharp, played well. It was probably a pretty entertaining night.

On New Jersey’s speed in 3-on-3 settings
Their speed can kill people 5-on-5, so imagine taking two players off the ice surface. They’re extremely skilled and talented and their offensive players may not be the biggest guys, but they can slither and slide off checks, change pace and escape. There’s probably a reason why they’re winning most of those.

McLellan also confirmed that forward Trevor Moore’s designation is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. Moore did not play this evening.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-1-2) extended his goal and point streaks to four games (4-3-7). He became the second skater in franchise history to establish a four-game goal streak at age 35 years or older, joining Luc Robitaille (4GP in 2003-04, 37 y/o).
– Kopitar eclipsed the 20-goal mark for the 12th time in his career, tying him for most 20-goal seasons in Kings history with Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille and Dave Taylor. He is the third Kings skater to hit the 20-goal plateau this season: Adrian Kempe (28) and Kevin Fiala (21). – Per NHL PR, the last time the Kings had three player hit the 20-goal mark in fewer than 60 games was the 2000-01 campaign (Ziggy Palffy, Luc Robitaille and Bryan Smolinski).
– Kevin Fiala (0-2-2) registered his 200th career NHL assist as part of his team-leading 19th multi-point game of the season. He is the ninth different skater from the 2014 NHL Draft and fourth Swiss-born player in league history to reach 200 career NHL assists.
– Adrian Kempe extended his point steak into a career-long seventh game (8-4-12). He is the second Kings skater to record a point streak of at least seven games this season (Phillip Danault, 7GP, 5-4-9, Dec. 17, 2022 – Dec. 31, 2022).
– Viktor Arvidsson tallied his 17th goal of the season for his 40th point on the year (17-23-40). It is his second 40-point campaign in as many seasons and fifth of his career.
– Sean Durzi (1-1-2) scored his seventh goal of the season and extended his point streak to five games (1-5-6) with a multi-point night.

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow and will return to the ice tomorrow evening at 4:30 PM Pacific against the New York Islanders.