FINAL – Kings 2, Blues 1 – Kempe, Kuzmenko, Hiller

The LA Kings snapped a five-game losing streak with a 2-1 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings collected the only goal of the first 20 minutes, taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. Defenseman Drew Doughty got a shot off from the point, with forward Anze Kopitar getting a deflection in the slot to send the puck past St. Louis netminder Joel Hofer to open the scoring. The goal marked the 307th time Kopitar and Doughty have connected on a goal, tied for the second most in NHL history between a forward and a defenseman.

Just over four minutes into the third period, St. Louis tied the game at a goal apiece, via defenseman Nick Leddy’s first goal of the season. Forward Jake Neighbours moved the puck from low-to-high, finding a charging Leddy, who hit the shot first time, through a lot of traffic in front, off the post and in past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, putting the visitors on level terms early in the third.

Throughout the remainder of the third period, neither team found the back of the net, setting the stage for the Kings and Blues to head to overtime for the second straight game.

Early in the extra session, forward Quinton Byfield scored the game-winning goal, his 13th goal of the season, to earn the hosts the extra point. For the second consecutive game, Byfield beat a goaltender clean with his wrist shot, as he went shortside high from close range in the 3-on-3 skate, past Hofer and in for the game-winning goal.

Hear from forwards Adrian Kempe and Andrei Kuzmenko, along with Head Coach Jim Hiller, following tonight’s win.

Adrian Kempe

Andrei Kuzmenko

Jim Hiller
On Andrei Kuzmenko’s first game with the Kings
Yeah, I thought he played really well. Difficult game out there, not a lot of time and space and I thought, if we just rewind and say what we talked about him before the game, I think it was pretty clear that’s exactly what we saw from him while he was out there. Good on the power play, kept some pucks alive under the hash marks, turns quick. I thought it was a really good start for him.

On Kuzmenko’s role on the power play and his ability to play at the netfront and below the goal line
We’ll probably stay there, just the way the hands are set up. I guess if you got over to the other side, he could be in the in the bumper, but primarily, if you think back, you think about Gabe and you think about Arvy, that’s kind of what it’ll look like with the righty down there. He’s somebody that’s experienced and seems to be comfortable making plays from that spot. I mean, what a pass to Juice. We haven’t seen that one all year, have we, I think we were used to seeing that one from time to time before. So it’s great to see.

On Kuzmenko’s fit on a line with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe
I sure hope so. I think historically, I would say Kopi and Kempe have been really good off the rush, I think a lot of their offense comes off the rush, they’re really dangerous. We’ve kind of always felt like it’d be nice to get more o-zone danger out of them and I think with Kuzy, he’s an o-zone player. He’s a rush player, but I would primarily say he’s his greatest strengths are in the o-zone, he’s hard to handle. I just think, hopefully, we’re going to see more zone time and those quick, tight little plays. Having a righty, even though it’s not the power play, it still makes a difference at 5-on-5.

On the team’s grit in tonight’s game to get the two points
Again, St Louis plays hard. It was a physical game. The goal, the disallowed goal, obviously we had to come back from that. It was great that it didn’t count, but it still kind of set us on our heels, I thought, a little bit, we were tight early. They played last night, thought they still had a pretty gutsy effort, but we started taking the game over as it went along.

On carrying third-period momentum into overtime tonight
Anything can happen in overtime, but yeah, that was important. You just think about the game, somebody talked about the grit, they had to stay on that puck. That wasn’t a down the ice, 2-on-1 shot, it was work and we just don’t go away from playing tenaciously, which is, I think, what we did, certainly the second half of the game.

On Quinton Byfield scoring the game-winning goal and his game tonight
He got banged into early again too and he came back. That’s been now three games, going back to Chicago, it has been three games in a row where he’s taken a hit or initiated and I really, really think that’s important. We’ve talked a lot about him, so I don’t want to beat it up, but he came back strong again, I think he’s starting to assert himself. Once you do that, you get more confident, get more confidence shooting the puck, you want the puck when you shoot it, you don’t overthink it. I was thinking he should bring that thing across the goal line on his backhand, I don’t know what you guys thought this one, but he had about this much room short side and he hit the back of the net. It was a heck of a shot.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) fired home his second overtime goal of the season (also Dec. 28 vs. EDM) to seal tonight’s victory over the Blues. Byfield is now the only skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to have scored multiple overtime goals this season.
• Forward Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) opened the scoring this evening with his 15th goal of the season, reaching the 15-goal plateau for the 16th time in his career.
• With the goal, Kopitar (21-44=65) ties Alexander Ovechkin (21-17=38) for the third most cumulative goals scored against the Blues amongst active NHL players. Per NHL PR, Kopitar (670) also passes Luc Robitaille (669) for sole possession the second most home points in Kings history, trailing only Marcel Dionne (700).
• Defenseman Drew Doughty (0-1=1) notched his fifth assist of the season. The assist marked his 33rd career helper against the St. Louis Blues, tying Ryan Suter for the most assists against St. Louis by an active defenseman.
• Doughty played in his 595th career home game tonight, passing Chris Phillips (594) for sole possession of the 40th most by a defenseman in League history.
• Doughty and Kopitar factored on the same goal for the 307th time to pass Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito (306) and tie Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang (307) most by a forward-defenseman duo in League history. Only Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey (350) and have done so more times.
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) notched his 12th assist of the season and now has helpers in back-to-back games (0- 2=2). The assist marks the 59th of his career, breaking a tie with Vancouver’s Carson Soucy for the third most all-time among active NHL defenseman from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) assisted on Byfield’s overtime tally with his 25th helper of the campaign. Kempe has now reached the quarter-century mark in the assist column for the third consecutive season.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside 19 of the Blues’ 20 shots on goal to improve his record to 19-8-7 on the year.
• With tonight’s victory, the Kings’ home record now stands at 20-3-4 through 27 games played at Crypto.com Arena. This marks
the fastest pace to reach the 20-win mark at home in franchise history (previous best: 20-9-1 in 30GP, 2005-06).

The Kings are traveling to Vegas this evening to take on the Golden Knights tomorrow evening at 5 PM Pacific.