FINAL – Kings 5, Coyotes 4 – Doughty, Talbot, McLellan

The LA Kings overturned a three-goal deficit to win in come-from-behind fashion, a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Friday evening at Mullett Arena in Tempe, AZ.

Arizona opened the scoring on the first shot of the evening, as they got out in front just 37 seconds into the game. The Coyotes attacked 2-on-1 in transition and forward Matias Maccelli kept the puck himself down the right wing and snapped his shot past goaltender Pheonix Copley for his first goal of the season and second point in as many games versus the Kings.

The Kings pushed back, however, to knot the game at one just a few minutes later. Forward Quinton Byfield drove down the left wing with authority, curled back and hit a trailing Mikey Anderson, who buried his first goal of the season from the slot to equalize for the visitors. Byfield’s helper was his first of the 2023-24 campaign.

The Coyotes scored three goals in a span of just 1:09 to open up a 4-1 lead heading into the first intermission.

First, defenseman J.J. Moser collected a rebound off a high deflection off the crossbar and slotted home on the backhand from close range for a 2-1 advantage. Less than 60 seconds later, forward Jack McBain scored on a deflection, off a Liam O’Brien shot, to extend the lead to 3-1. The Kings opted for a goaltending change after McBain’s goal, with Cam Talbot entering in relief of Copley. Former King Sean Durzi scored on the first shot Talbot faced, however, as he got to the front of the net down the left wing to score his third goal of the season.

The visitors scored the lone goal of the second period to pull back to within two goals after 40 minutes. With the Kings skating on the man advantage, defenseman Drew Doughty powered up for a one-timer from the center point, off an Adrian Kempe assist, to fire home his second goal of the season, bringing the Kings to within 4-2.

Less than two minutes into the third period, the Kings pulled to within a goal through Byfield, who buried his second goal of the season. With the Kings coming off a power play, Byfield got on the end of an Arthur Kaliyev assist to bring the Kings to within 4-3. Byfield’s goal was his second point of the evening, giving him his fifth career multi-point game in the NHL.

Just shy of seven minutes into the third period, the Kings came all the way back to knot the score at four through captain Anze Kopitar. Kopitar displayed patience in the offensive zone to retain possession, before his shot from the right-hand circle deflected off of an Arizona defenseman and in for the game-tying goal, Kopitar’s fourth of the season.

With less than two minutes to play in regulation, Doughty buried his second goal of the game. After an elongated shift in the offensive zone, the Kings took advantage of tired, defensive legs to seal a comeback victory. Forward Trevor Moore fed Doughty at the center point for a nearly identical goal to his first of the night, to give the visitors the two points in dramatic fashion.

Hear from Doughty, Talbot and Head Coach Todd McLellan after tonight’s game.

Drew Doughty

Doughty speaks with media postgame🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/gNZAf17Fed

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) October 28, 2023

Cam Talbot
On coming in off the bench and trying to provide some stability for the group
I mean, it didn’t start off great for me, that’s the mentality when you come in, you want to make some saves and when the first one goes in, that can be deflating, but give our guys credit. We could have packed it in there, 10, 11 minutes into the game down 4-1 on the road, but this team has been around before, lots of experience in this room. We knew we had lots of time to come back if we played our game, so I give our guys a ton of credit for the resilience tonight.

On seeing the resilience and character of the group to win a game like that
Yeah, it can be huge. Coming in off the bench after the first period, I came in and told the guys that’s all that’s going to get by me. Just play our game and we’re going to have a chance to come back here. It shows a lot of character, a lot of resilience, maturity in this group. Like I said, give them credit, we came back and we established our game and came out with a huge two points tonight.

On the importance of special teams tonight in coming back to get the win
Yeah, both were great. Games like that, you can win and lose based on special teams and tonight our special teams got us back in the game. Then, Dewy was a beast, just bombing away at the point there, so he played a heck of a game tonight and got us another big goal.

On being a teammate for one of those performances from Doughty
I’ve been on the other end of that, seen him do it multiple times. He’s a world-class defenseman, and everyone’s known that for a very long time. So, to be able to play behind him and be on the right side of these victories is a lot more fun.

Todd McLellan
On a tale of two hockey games tonight
Quite disappointed, really disappointed in the start. We had a goalie that bailed us out a couple days ago, early in the game, and we left him hanging today, had to make the change. Then, obviously pleased with the change and it came from them tonight, not from me. In between periods, they obviously made their minds up, they had a little talk and they got going, but we can’t keep going this route. We’ve got to start games better, something’s got to change.

On deciding to make a goaltending change and if he got what he wanted from the move
You’re trying to change momentum a little bit, buy a little bit of time. I’m not sure we did that, the first shot was a goal, they went wide on Dewy there and the first shot is a goal, it’s in your net, so now the momentum is really against you. The team did a good job, we got to the break without giving up anything else and like I said, then they took over and they had a discussion. That type of intensity, that type of directness from the group has to show up at the beginning of the game, not just when we’re trailing.

On if he also considered line changes to spark the group
Well, we considered it, but we wanted to give them the chance at the beginning of the second period. As we rolled them out, obviously all four of them showed up to play, so there was no need to juggle it at all. Again, the goalies were trying to change momentum. The lines were coming but they fixed some things that we didn’t need to change.

On Drew Doughty’s game and response to the fourth Arizona goal
I think that can be there every night, I really do. He doesn’t have to get into a situation where he’s upset, it can be there and he’s got a bomb, he can use it. The power play became much more effective, we became a more effective team with a direct attitude, rather than pretty and it was much better.

On Quinton Byfield’s play tonight
I thought he had a real good game. We go down one and he makes a tremendous play to get us back in and then his ability to hunt and he’s getting better around the net. I thought he had a tremendous night.

Notes –
– Drew Doughty (2-0=2) collected his first multi-goal game of the season, including the game-winning goal scored at 1:59 of the third period. Doughty is only the 17th defenseman in NHL history to record multiple two-goal games against the Arizona Coyotes, and the first to do so since Roman Josi on Feb. 26, 2023.
– It is the fourth time in Doughty’s career he has scored the go-ahead goal in the final two minutes of regulation, tying Marcel Dionne for the most in Kings history. Doughty also tied Glen Wesley for the second most in NHL history among defensemen, trailing only Ray Bourque (7).
– Doughty’s go-ahead goal is the 31st game-winning goal (GWG) of his career and fourth against the Coyotes, tying Paul Coffey, Sheldon Souray, and Roman Josi for the most GWG’s by a defenseman against the Coyotes franchise in league history.
– Mikey Anderson (1-1=2) scored his first goal of the season and recorded an assist. It is his first career goal and sixth career point (1-5=6) in 16 games against the Coyotes.
– Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) recorded his first multi-point game of the season. It is the third time in Byfield’s career he has notched at least three points (1-2=3) in a two-game span.
– Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his fourth goal of the season, for his 397th career goal. It also marked his 94th career point against the Arizona Coyotes (27-67=94), surpassing Luc Robitaille (43-50-93) for sole possession of the eighth-most points against the Arizona Coyotes in league history.
– Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) recorded his ninth assist of the season, extending his active point and assist streak to six games (1-9=10). It is the second time in Fiala’s career he has recorded an assist streak of six games (5-7=12, Feb. 25 – Mar. 3, 2020; with MIN). With the assist, Fiala becomes the fourth different Kings skater in the last 20 years to collect 10 points within the team’s first seven games to start a season and the first to do so since Anze Kopitar (1-9=10) in 2020-21.
– Adrian Kempe (0-2=2) recorded his fourth and fifth assists of the season for his second-consecutive multi-point game, and his third of the season, tying teammate Kevin Fiala for the team lead.
– Jordan Spence (0-1=1) recorded his second assist of the season. It is the third time in Spence’s career he has recorded points in back-to-back games.
– Arthur Kaliyev (0-1=1) and Trevor Moore (0-1=1) each recorded an assist.
– The Kings’ three-goal comeback tonight is the third three-goal comeback in the last 10 years: March 6, 2021 (4-3 OT W vs. STL) and Dec 18, 2014 (6-4 W vs. STL).
– The Kings scored five goals for a second consecutive game (6-3 W on Oct. 24 vs. ARI) and for the fifth time this season. It is only the second time in franchise history the Kings have tallied at least five goals in five of the first seven games to start a season, joining the 1988-89 Kings team (5GP).

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow before hosting the Vegas Golden Knights at 7:30 PM at Crypto.com Arena.

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