FINAL – Kings 2, Islanders 3 (OT) – Doughty, McLellan

The LA Kings saw their 11-game road winning streak come to an end on Long Island, picking up one point in a 3-2 overtime defeat against the New York Islanders.

After a first period that saw neither team find the back of the net, the Kings opened the scoring with a power-play goal just beyond five minutes into the middle stanza. Forward Kevin Fiala threaded a pass through the slot to forward Adrian Kempe, who one-timed the feed home with authority for his ninth goal of the season, the second straight game with a power-play goal for that unit.

The Kings doubled their advantage just shy of the game’s midway point, courtesy of Fiala’s second primary assist of the game. Stationed on the right-hand boards, Fiala sent a saucer pass across the ice to defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who buried his shot through a Trevor Moore screen for his third goal of the season and a 2-0 advantage on the evening.

With two goals in the third period from forward Anders Lee, the Islanders came from behind to force the game into overtime at 2-2.

First, off a Kings turnover in the defensive zone, a shot from defenseman Mike Reilly was kicked aside by goaltender Cam Talbot, but the rebound redirected straight to Lee in the low slot, where he buried it for his sixth goal of the season. Lee equalized with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, again via a rebound. This time, the shot came from defenseman Scott Mayfield, with goaltender Cam Talbot making the save, before the New York captain scored again to force overtime.

On the first shift of overtime, the Islanders ended the game with a breakaway goal from forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau. With the puck quickly sent in transition the other way by forward Simon Holmstron, Pageau earned a breakaway, went in alone on Talbot and slotted a backhanded deke through the five hole for the game-winning goal.

Hear from defenseman Drew Doughty and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Drew Doughty

On the game flow tonight, ending in the eventual overtime defeat
I mean, obviously we kind of gave them momentum in the third period. It seemed like we had that game under wraps, seemed like we were going to do the job and then just one mistake and then all the sudden they got the momentum and they came back.

On if he felt the Kings could have put the game away with another goal in the second
Yeah, of course, but when we’ve got a lead like 2-0, we just simply can’t be making mistakes like we did. We talked about net play and two of the goals were net play. We’ve got to do a better job.

On if tonight can be one to learn from, for the first time after a road loss
I mean, this is going to happen, this is the NHL, there’s going to be times. You never want to give up a third-period lead, but there’s going to be times when you do it. I guess fortunately we got a point, but we’re going to definitely have a sour taste in our mouth because I thought we should have had two.

On what he liked most from the second period tonight
We were direct. We were making some good plays, the power play got us one, penalty kill was awesome tonight, goaltending was good. We just can’t have any lapses. In the NHL, teams take one opportunity and they make the most of it and we’ve just got to take those out of our game.

Todd McLellan
On his evaluation of tonight’s game and game flow
Well, it didn’t end up where we wanted it to. I thought the first period was a little bit risky on our behalf. I thought the second period was outstanding. We played real good, straight ahead hockey, our hockey. Then, when I told you in Montreal that we played playoff-type hockey in the third, we only did it for half a period and it’s amazing how one play can change the momentum of a game, a play that didn’t have to be made, but it was. When you’re in tight games, little mistakes like that add up. A faceoff loss and it’s in our net and all of a sudden, we’re on the losing end. We had complete control of the game until that happened.

On if he felt the Kings could have put the game away in the second with another goal
That was the other part of the game, we had multiple chances, especially in the second, even in the third we had a few I think of Kempe’s breakaway. We’ve got to give ourselves a little bit of a cushion offensively to make mistakes, but when we didn’t do that, we still should be able to shut that game down. That’s the disappointing part. Were built to do that and we have done it all year and again, one mistake can magnify real quick.

On seeing Alex Laferriere sell out to block a shot with seconds left, to get the game into overtime
Absolutely. He sells out, we’ve seen that a number of times from him, where he is really willing to lay out in front of a shot. I’m not even sure on the second one, if we were in the shooting lane or not, I’ll have to go back and look at it but Laf did a real good job in that situation with only a few seconds left. They had a good look at the net.

On if he thinks not talking about a winning streak anymore could be a benefit
You know what, I don’t even feel like we have been talking about it. We don’t talk about it in here, only you guys do. We didn’t come in and say hey, we’ve got to get to whatever it was, 11 in Montreal or 12 here. We just worry about our game and it’s as simple as that. Tomorrow, nobody’s going to ask me about it, which is fine, but it wouldn’t have mattered one way or the other.

On the status of Vladislav Gavrikov and Trevor Lewis coming out of the game
They both came back and played, so I’m assuming they’ll be sore a little bit, but when you play a good, hard hockey game, you’re going to be sore.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his ninth goal of the season to extend his point streak to four games (1-4=5).
– Vladislav Gavrikov (1-0=1) registered his third goal of the campaign in his 300th career NHL game. In doing so, Gavrikov became the 18th different Kings skater to score in their 300th career game.
– Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) recorded his second multi-point performance in as many games (0-2=2 on Dec. 7 at MTL) and seventh of the season. Fiala’s leads the team with 19 assists on the year.
– Fiala now has 97 points (29-68=97) in 93 games with the Kings organization. The only players in franchise history to record 100 points with the Kings in 100 games or fewer are Wayne Gretzky (47 GP), Charlie Simmer (72 GP), Tomas Sandstrom (80 GP), Marcel Dionne (86 GP), Ziggy Palffy (88 GP), Jari Kurri (91 GP), Luc Robitaille (93 GP), Jason Allison (94 GP) and Jimmy Carson (96 GP).
– Drew Doughty (0-1=1) extended his point streak into a fourth game (3-2=5) with an assist.
– Phillip Danault (0-1=1) netted his 10th assist for his 16th point this campaign (6-10=16).

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow in New York. The team will return to action tomorrow evening at 7 PM at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers to conclude the four-game roadtrip.

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