FINAL – Kings 5, Flyers 4 – Kempe, Kopitar, Hiller

The Los Angeles Kings won for the second time in as many nights, winning for the seventh consecutive game on home ice, with a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

A back and forth opening period saw the Kings and Flyers skate into the first intermission tied at two.

The Kings opened the scoring just over five minutes into the opening period through Kevin Fiala, who was perhaps the team’s most energetic player in the opening 20 minutes. Forward Alex Laferriere was the facilitator, passing the puck from low to high out of the corner, with Fiala burying his shot first time from the left-hand circle, past Flyers netminder Aleksei Kolosev, for the early 1-0 advantage.

Philadelphia surged back with two goals, coming just shy of six minutes apart, to take its first lead of the evening.

First, forward Tyson Foerster slipped in behind the defense in a 4-on-4 situation and buried his shot through the five hole on Kings goaltender David Rittich, Foerster’s fourth point in two games against the Kings this season. Forward Scott Laughton made it 2-1 just past the midway point of the opening frame, as Matvei Michkov’s shot off the side of the net deflected over the cage, into the slot, off Laughton and to put the visitors ahead.

Late in the period, Los Angeles capped off a high-event period with its second goal of the game, sending things into the first intermission tied at two. Off the rush, forward Alex Turcotte gained the offensive blueline with possession before dishing off to defenseman Brandt Clarke. Clarke then teed up forward Adrian Kempe for the one-timer, with Kempe burying his team-leading 17th of the season for a 2-2 score.

Once again, the Flyers scored twice in a row, this time opening up the first multi-goal lead of the game at 4-2.

Michkov made it a multi-point game individually with his first goal and second point of the game, banking a shot from below the goal line off the left skate of Rittich and in, putting Philadelphia ahead 3-2. Forward Joel Farabee made it 4-2 just over two minutes after Michkov’s goal, driving the net and burying a cross-crease feed from forward Garnet Hathaway for his sixth goal of the season and a two-goal advantage.

With just under five minutes to play in the middle stanza, forward Warren Foegele scored for the second straight day to bring the hosts back within a goal. Foegele went the length of the ice on a breakaway and although his first shot was stopped by Kolosev, Foegele stayed with the rebound and slotted home his 11th goal of the season, bringing the score to 4-3 at the second intermission.

The Kings tied the game via their captain, with Anze Kopitar burying his 11th goal of the season to tie the game at four. Off an extended shift in the offensive zone, the reunited line of Kopitar between Kempe and forward Quinton Byfield paid dividends for the Kings. Kopitar scored the goal, as he got a deflection on a rebound from Byfield, who got his shot through from the point to tie the game.

Kopitar then added the game-winning goal, once again coming from right around the net. With the Kings on their only power-play chance of the game, Kopitar worked his way to the front of the net, where he got a deflection on Kempe’s shot from the point, sending it past Kolosev for a multi-goal game and a 5-4 lead for the hosts.

Hear from Kopitar, Kempe and Head Coach Jim hiller following tonight’s victory.

Adrian Kempe

Anze Kopitar
On the team’s ability to come back in the third period to win for the second day in a row
A lot of work, really, sticking with the program. I don’t think we changed a whole lot in both games, first period versus third period, and just kept sticking with it. Then, obviously it worked out. I guess yesterday it took us a little bit longer, since we pushed it into OT, but tonight, just sticking with the program, showing the character, the grit and we were able to come back.

On similarities between tonight’s game and the win in Philadelphia
Yeah, I mean Philly, the third we busted open, so it wasn’t too exciting coming down the stretch, but yeah, a lot of chances back and forth. In Philly, it was tied going to the third this one being down one, but just like I said, sticking with it and making sure we get the job done.

On what made the difference in the third period tonight
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you’re down one goal going into the third, at home, you’re not out by any means. Usually in these types of games, the power play does make a difference and we were able to kill the penalties that we took and get one on the power play.

On continuing to produce in his 19th season in the NHL
It doesn’t feel like I’m getting any younger. The season’s been going pretty well so far, but as I said before, it’s always about the team. We’re plugging away, we’re racking up points and I guess we’re in a pretty good spot right now.

Jim Hiller
On the message after not getting the start the Kings set out to get
I tried not to panic or overreact, because at times you can make that worse, I’ve done that before. I’ve got a lot of trust and faith in the team that they can see it as much as you can see it, they’re playing it, they know this isn’t exactly the way it should be going and it’s just a matter of trying to just get everybody to gather themselves by taking a breath. Sometimes it takes longer than others.

On if there was any difference in the message before the third period today versus yesterday
It was pretty similar, because we’ve been there now in so many different ways. Usually we’re leading, tied quite a few times, we haven’t been trailing that often going into the third. Basically, the message was the same. If we stick with it, we’re a good team, we don’t have to get it all back right away and somebody’s going to get it done and it was number 11 this time around again….again.

On moving Quinton Byfield with Kopitar/Kempe in the third period
It just was a feeling. I think we had 15 shots after two, second period lots of good zone time though and I wanted to get Quinton out there quite a bit more, I hadn’t played him a lot in the first two, so I doubled him early and then got him with Kopi and Juice, I just felt maybe that would give us our best chance as a line to get something going. Phil’s line was dangerous, Q’s line wasn’t that dangerous, Kopi’s line wasn’t that dangerous, I didn’t think, for the first two periods. So, we just had to try to do something different.

On getting another multi-goal game from Anze Kopitar
Yeah, for him, playing against McDavid last night, back to back, that’s a lot of hockey for anybody. I didn’t think he had great legs the first two periods, but it doesn’t matter. He is who he is, so you get him out there and good things happen. Both goals, a tip and then one right at the right at the post, he goes to the net, he knows how to score.

On finally breaking through with a power-play goal
We’ve had opportunities this year to probably win games on the power play, those moments, and we’ve come up short. Those are big goals, they’re big moments and when you can score, it’s hard to score in the league, when you get one, as tonight, it’s the game-winning goal, it makes all the difference in the world. We just haven’t done enough of that this year, but you can see how important it is when the power play comes through for you.