R1, G1 FINAL – Kings 4, Oilers 3 (OT) – Kempe, Iafallo, Kopitar, Gavrikov, McLellan

The LA Kings came from behind to strike first in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, with a 4-3, overtime victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday evening at Rogers Place.

The Kings were led by a four-point night from forward Anze Kopitar, while linemate Adrian Kempe scored twice in the victory and forward Alex Iafallo scored the game-winning goal in overtime. Viktor Arvidsson had assists on the game-tying and game-winning goals, while Joonas Korpisalo made 37 saves in the victory.

It was Edmonton, however, that surged out to a 2-0 lead in the opening period. First, just shy of seven minutes into the game, forward Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring for the series. A centering feed from forward Mattias Janmark deflected off of a Kings skate directly to Draisaitl in the slot, where he fired past Korpisalo first time. The Oilers made it 2-0 through defenseman Evan Bouchard, who capitalized on a 5-on-3 power play with a shot through a screen in front.

After a second period that saw neither team score, the Kings got on the board less than a minute into the third period through Kempe, who opened his playoff account skating at 4-on-4. With the Kings moving ahead in transition, Kempe took a pass from forward Matt Roy, drove the slot on his backhand and beat goaltender Stuart Skinner clean to move the visitors within a goal.

Draisaitl restored the two-goal advantage, however, with his second goal of the evening. After a netmouth scramble in front of Korpisalo’s net, Draisaitl found the loose puck just outside of the blue paint and got his shot to go through a scramble in front for a 3-1 advantage with 11:14 remaining in regulation.

The Kings once again answered through Kempe, who picked up his second of the evening with a quick release from the right-hand circle. Forward Quinton Byfield won a battle to work the puck in Kempe’s direction and the Swede gathered the loose puck and slotted past Skinner to pull the game to 3-2.

With a power play late in the third period, and Korpisalo on the bench for the extra attacker, the Kings equalized through Kopitar to force the game into overtime. Arvidsson found forward Phillip Danault through the slot with a seam pass and though Skinner denied Danault’s effort, the puck sat in the crease where Kopitar poked it home to tie the game at three.

With the first power play over overtime, the Kings scored their second of the night on the man advantage to put the game away and claim Game 1. Off a quick passing play, Arvidsson fed Iafallo in the low slot and the New York native made no mistake with a quick shot past Skinner to flip home-ice advantage for the series with the first victory.

Hear from Iafallo, Kempe, Kopitar, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s win.

Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe

Juice and Iafallo sound off on the big OT win 🎙@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/8FuKIfe1pZ

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 18, 2023

Anze Kopitar
On the team’s mentality going into the third period down two goals
I mean you’re down two going into the third and you feel like you’re very much in reach of the game and you’ve just got to break through. We got it going and tonight it worked out for us.

On the team’s power play coming up with two goals tonight
Throughout the season, yes we had a good power play, the percentage shows that, but I feel like it was more timely goals versus just relying on the power play. Tonight was no different, getting the tying goal very late and the winning goal in OT.

On the thought process overturning a deficit in a tight-checking playoff game
You’re trying to chip away, it’s going to be within the series like that, you’re just trying to chip away. To build whatever game, whatever momentum you can build, it worked out for us.

Vladislav Gavrikov
On the team’s resiliency in finding a way to come back tonight
That kind of comeback and overtime win, it’s a perfect feeling, but it’s just Game 1. We’ve got to be better, we know they’re coming and we’ve got to be all about us.

On the team’s effort tonight against Connor McDavid
It’s always difficult. We’re playing against the top players in the league, in the world, I would say, so it’s always hard, but on the other side, it’s challenging and exciting. Everybody knows what they can do if they have time and space, so we’ve got to eliminate that.

On the team sticking to its gameplan, despite trailing almost all night
It’s got to be all about us, how we’re playing, it’s really important what we’re doing on the ice. We’ve just got to be better sometimes in the details and we will.

Todd McLellan
On the emotions on winning Game 1 in that fashion
We’re all in it together, the players, coaches, training staff, management, we have 50 or 60 people traveling with us, everybody’s part of the team. It’s emotional for everybody, that’s what happens in playoffs. There’s a lot of highs, there’s some lows and you get excited but we’ve already got to turn the page and move on.

On the team’s power play tonight
I think sometimes, maybe for both teams, we’d have a pretty good power play and you start to look for stuff and it’s not there and then you don’t have a backup plan and it just gets in disarray. At that point, you’ve just got to simplify things. We weren’t quite there early in the game, we had to talk about a little bit and it ended up working out for us in the end.

On Joonas Korpisalo’s play tonight
He gave us the game we anticipated he would. It’s expected of him and from him, he expects a lot from his teammates out in front of of him, but when push came to shove and he had to make a big save, he was there. Again, we’re lucky to have him in Phoenix as a tandem right now, we feel fortunate.

On Anze Kopitar leading the way with four points tonight
Expected. Expected and delivered, two words that have probably described Kopi pretty well for the past 16 years, 17 years, however long he’s played. He’s got a lot left.

On his team’s play against Edmonton’s big guns tonight
Well, one of their superstars had two goals tonight and the other drew two penalties to make it 5-on-3, so they left their mark on the game. You’re not going to stop them, but the fact that we played hard, we got production from different areas, different situations, I think it was important. The lesson we learned last year, that we weren’t prepared for, is the level of play is going up immensely in game two. We can talk about Game 1, we have to right now, as much as we want to, but we’ve got to move on.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe (2-0-2) recorded his second multi-goal playoff game of his career (2-1-3 on May 10, 2022 at EDM). Kempe’s two-goal game is his 11th since the start of the 2022-23 regular-season which trails only Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (14). The last Kings skater to have a multi-goal game in a playoff series opener was Ziggy Palffy (2-0-2 in Game 1 of 2002 CQF).
– Anze Kopitar (1-3-4) tallied his 23rd career playoff goal and 49th, 50th and 51st career playoff assists for his first career four-point playoff game. Kopitar surpassed Justin Williams (23) for sole possession of the fourth-most playoff goals in franchise history while his assists move him past Luc Robitaille (48) for the second-most (51). Kopitar is the 14th different skater in franchise history to record a four-point game in the postseason and the first to do so since Jeff Carter (3-1-4 in Game 2 of 2014 R3 at CHI).
– Kopitar is also the 11th different Kings skater to score a game-tying goal in the final minute of a playoff game and the first to do so since Marian Gaborik (Game 1 of 2014 R2 at ANA). Per NHL PR, Anze Kopitar (59:43) scored the fourth latest playoff game-tying goal in Kings franchise history, trailing only Steve Bozek (59:55; Game 3 of 1982 DSF vs. EDM), Marian Gaborik (59:53; Game 1 of 2014 R2 at ANA) and Mike Richards (59:50; Game 5 of 2013 CF at CHI).
– Alex Iafallo scored his first career overtime playoff goal with the game winner midway through the first overtime period.
– Viktor Arvidsson (0-2-2), Quinton Byfield, Phillip Danault and Matt Roy all collected assists. Byfield’s assist marked his first career playoff point, while Arvidsson assisted on the game-tying and game-winning goals.
– With tonight’s game, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty have officially skated in their eighth postseason, tying Marcel Dionne and Dustin Brown for the fourth-most Stanley Cup Playoffs appearances in franchise history. Only Dave Taylor (13), Luc Robitaille (10) and Mike Murphy (9) have more postseason appearances in Kings history.
– Joonas Korpisalo stopped 37-of-40 shots for his fourth career playoff win in his LA Kings postseason debut.
Jaret Anderson-Dolan made his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut while Viktor Arvidsson and Vladislav Gavrikov made their Kings postseason debuts.
– Per NHL PR, the Kings earned a third-period multi-goal comeback win in the playoffs for the sixth time in franchise history (also Game 2 of 2014 SCF, Game 4 of 2001 CQF, Game 1 of 1990 DSF, Game 3 of 1982 DSF & Game 6 of 1976 QF). Game 1 of the 1990 Division Semifinals marked the only other instance where Los Angeles did so in a postseason opener.

The Kings are scheduled to practice at Rogers Place tomorrow at 1:15 PM.