FINAL – Kings 3, Blues 4 (OT) – Moore, Anderson-Dolan, McLellan

The LA Kings dropped another overtime decision, this a 4-3 defeat against the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon at Enterprise Center in Missouri.

The Kings jumped out to the game-opening goal just over four minutes after the opening faceoff, as the top line connected to put the visitors on the board. Forward Alex Laferriere held the offensive zone at the left point and fed the puck to Anze Kopitar down the wall. Kopitar spun onto his backhand and fed forward Adrian Kempe in the slot, where the Swede buried for his 17th goal of the season.

Midway through the first, the Blues tied the game at one, sending the game into the first intermission level at a goal apiece. The Blues cycled the puck from low to high in the offensive zone, with defenseman Nick Leddy collecting at the left point, walking into the middle of the ice and firing through traffic, past Kings netminder David Rittich, to tie the game at one.

The Kings pulled back on top with a shorthanded goal from forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan, who found the back of the net for the first time on the season. Attacking off the rush, forward Trevor Lewis drove the net and put a backhanded shot off the pad of St. Louis netminder Joel Hofer, with Anderson-Dolan following up on the play to convert the rebound for a 2-1 lead.

St. Louis struck twice, off of distribution from defenseman Scott Perunovich, to open up its first lead of the evening.

First, with a power play winding down, Perunovich worked down the left wall and fed Blues winger Pavel Buchnevich in the slot, where he first-timed the shot into the back of the net, tying the game at two. Later in the period, Perunovich activated off the rush, one-touching a puck into the path of forward Jordan Kyrou in the slot, where he fired home high on the glove side for the first lead of the evening for the hosts.

With just over a minute to play in the third, forward Phillip Danault equalized the game at three, sending the game tied into the second intermission. After a good bit of work by Danault and forward Trevor Moore down the right-hand wall, Moore fed Danault in the slot, with the Quebec native snapping his shot off the post and in, blocker side, for his tenth goal of the season.

After the Kings killed two penalties in the third period to reach overtime, the Blues won the game in 3-on-3 play. A full-ice pass from Buchnevich found forward Brayden Schenn down the left wing and the St. Louis captain scored high on the glove side for the 4-3 victory.

Hear from Moore, Anderson-Dolan and Head Coach Todd McLellan following today’s game.

Trevor Moore

Jaret Anderson-Dolan
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
Good and bad, another effort where we’re right in there and we lose another game. We’ve got to find a way to get one or two of these games.

On if frustration levels right now are at a point where anything but two points is hard to accept
Yeah, after however long this stretch has been, it’s not enough to have these good games, we’ve got to find a way to come up with wins. I think it’s going to change here soon, it’s got to and we’ve got to get a lot better and, like I said, find a way to come up with these wins.

On an over-taxed penalty kill unit and how it held up to force overtime
Way too many penalties. Obviously, it’s hard for everyone to be involved and have a good team game when we’re on the kill six times or whatever it was. I mean, that can be momentum at different times of the [game] but it’s way too taxing on guys and leaves other guys out of the game.

On being a part of the PK unit tonight and as of late
Yeah, it’s got to keep evolving for me, and take advantage of the ice time I get. We’re just focused on turning this thing around, getting some wins right now, so it’s hard to think about that.

Todd McLellan
On the impact of six penalties against on tonight’s game
I think it took a lot of players out. I thought we had some key guys that were playing well and some third and fourth line players that were also playing well, but all of a sudden, they’re out of the game. Far too many. When you look at them, and we just quickly peeked, they’re penalties. We can whine and [complain] all we want, but they’re penalties, offensive-zone penalties, and when you’re playing like we are right now, that’s the last thing you can do is spend 12 minutes penalty killing.

On the energy provided by players like Anderson-Dolan and Turcotte
I thought that JAD had his best game of the season, I thought he really played well. Blocked shots, sacrifice, scored a goal. Turc came in and provided some energy and some skill, made a great play on an entry. He kind of lost out on some of the ice time because of all the penalties but certainly they weren’t the issue.

On what is lacking in 3-on-3 settings right now, leading to another overtime defeat
We’ve talked about this, you asked me that question last time and each situation is different. We forced a 2-on-1 in overtime they picked it off and came back the other way and beat our goalie with a good shot. That’s how overtime goes sometimes.

On if the frustration of not getting two points is too high to not find positive takeaways
Everybody’s going to feel a little different about it, but I think we played pretty solid game. You take those penalties out, we got roasted on a bad line change and that can be cleaned up. You can take that out and you cut the penalties back, I think we have a good chance of winning but we didn’t do that.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his 17th goal of the season. Kempe has now scored goals in four straight games against the Blues (5-1=6) and has six goals over his last six games vs. St. Louis, dating back to Nov. 3, 2021. Kempe becomes the sixth skater in franchise history to score a goal in four straight games against the Blues, and the first to do so since Dustin Brown (4GP, 6-2-8) from March 4 – Dec. 11, 2008.
– Phillip Danault (1-0=1) notched his 10th goal of the campaign in his 600th career NHL game. Danault is the 11th different skater in Kings history to score a goal in their 600th career game, and the first to do so since Mike Richards (1-0=1) on Nov. 25, 2013, in Vancouver. Danault becomes the ninth different active Quebec-born skater to reach the 600-game mark, and the 25th player to do so from the 2011 NHL Draft.
– Jaret Anderson-Dolan (1-0=1) tallied his first goal of the season which also marked the first shorthanded goal of his career. Anderson-Dolan’s goal was the Kings’ eighth shorthanded goal of the season. Only St. Louis (11), Dallas (11), Calgary (10), Philadelphia (10) and NY Islanders (9) have more.
– Drew Doughty (0-1=1) extended his point streak into a fourth game (1-3=4) for the 20th different point streak of at least four games in his career, and second this season (3-2=5 in 4GP, Dec. 3-9, 2023).
– The helper was Doughty’s 30th career assist against the Blues, joining Ryan Suter (33A) as the only active defensemen to record 30 or more assists vs. St. Louis. Doughty is the third skater in franchise history to record 30 assists against the Blues, joining Anže Kopitar (43A) and Marcel Dionne (47A).
– Anže Kopitar (0-1=1) recorded his 26th helper of the season. It was his 43rd career assist against the St. Louis Blues, tying Patrick Kane for the most assists against the Blues among active skaters. With the assist, Kopitar has now picked up 774 helpers in his career, breaking a tie with Teemu Selanne (773) and Vincent Damphousse (773) for sole possession of the 41st-most assists in NHL history.
– Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) netted his ninth assist of the season, extending his assist and point streak to a career-best three games (0-3=3). Laferriere is the ninth Kings skater in the last 10 years to record an assist streak of three or more games in their rookie season, and the first third-round selection to do so in their rookie season since František Kaberle (76th overall, 1999) in the 1999-00 campaign (3GP, 0-4=4).
– Vladislav Gavrikov (0-1=1) registered his 10th assist of the season for his 95th career NHL point (21-74=95). This is the fifth time in Gavrikov’s career that he has hit the 10-assist mark. Gavrikov became the 12th Kings skater this season to tally 10 or more assists; only the New Jersey Devils (13), Philadelphia Flyers (13), Winnipeg Jets (13) and Dallas Stars (14) have more skaters with at least 10 assists this season.
– Trevor Lewis (0-1=1) notched his fourth assist of the season. It was his second short-handed assist and ninth short-handed point (7-2=9) as a member of the Kings, breaking a tie with Bob Kudelski (6-2=8) for sole possession of the sixth-most short-handed points by an American skater in franchise history.
– Trevor Moore (0-1=1) tallied his 13th assist of the season. Moore has scored four points over his last four games against St. Louis (1-3=4), dating back to Oct. 31, 2022.

The Kings have a scheduled team off day in Nashville tomorrow. The group will return to the ice on Tuesday, January 30 at noon in Tennessee.