FINAL – Kings 3, Red Wings 4 (SO) – Byfield, Perry, Hiller

The LA Kings picked up a point for the seventh game in a row but were unable to collect the second one in a 4-3 shootout loss against Detroit in the opener of a four-game homestand.

With the Kings on the penalty kill midway through the second period, forward Alex Laferriere flipped the script with a shorthanded goal to open the scoring. Laferriere chipped the puck around Detroit forward Emmitt Finnie to create some space for himself down the left wing. Moving in on his backhand, Laferriere beat former Kings goaltender Cam Talbot on the blocker side to put the hosts ahead 1-0.

On the same power play, however, Detroit answered with a goal of its own to knot the score at one. Forward Lucas Raymond worked the puck to forward Alex DeBrincat in the left-hand circle and he beat Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper to the near post for the goal, his third of the season, as the Red Wings made it 1-1.

The Red Wings buried a second power-play goal, with controversy, as they took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. A shot from the point was deflected into the back of the net by forward Marco Kasper, but the play was reviewed for being played with a high stick. After video review, it was determined that the call on the ice stood, giving Detroit the lead, although it certainly appeared to be above the bar.

Detroit added a 5-on-5 goal with under six minutes to play in regulation, opening up a 3-1 lead in the process. Skating in transition, Kasper buried his second of the evening from the front of the crease, tapping in a spinning setup in transition from forward Mason Appleton, capping off a tic-tac-toe play to put the visitors ahead by apair.

With just over two minutes on the clock, the Kings found the back of the net skating 6-on-5 to pull within a goal late in regulation. With the net empty, forward Corey Perry got to the front of the net, corralled an Adrian Kempe rebound, spun onto his forehand and slotted his shot past Talbot and in at the back post to get the hosts back to 3-2 down.

Perry made it a multi-goal game less than a minute later as redirected home the game-tying goal. With the Kings again playing 6-on-5, forward Anze Kopitar got the puck into the slot with a shot-pass to forward Quinton Byfield, who saw his redirection attempt blocked, but he collected the rebound, fired on net and Perry tipped it past Talbot to extend the game and force overtime.

The Kings thought they found the winning goal in overtime, as Kevin Fiala had the puck in the back of the net, but upon video review the play was overturned for goaltender interference. After neither team scored in the remainder of the extra session, Detroit won in the shootout on a goal from forward Lucas Raymond.

Hear from Byfield, Perry and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Quinton Byfield

Corey Perry
On the takeaways from tonight’s game, coming away with the one point
Two points would have been ideal, I thought we had it, but those things happen. It’s a crapshoot when you go into a shootout. We battled. It’s not easy coming back, your first game at home after being on the road for five, so I thought we battled hard right until the end.

On what helped to spark the late rally and comeback effort
It shows there’s a confidence on the bench in knowing, under three minutes, and we still have a chance. There were some fortunate bounces.

On seeking a full 60 minute performance
It’s there, but it’s there in spurts. When we do it, we look really good doing it. Now, it’s just a matter of finding it, sticking with it and doing it for a full 60 minutes. I know it’s a cliché, but the things that we do work and when we get away from it, things go sideways.

Jim Hiller
On the two goals impacted by video reviews tonight
The league looked at both of them, Detroit didn’t have to challenge. They decided that they were both [not in our favor], there’s not much we can do. Yeah. I’ve got nothing else for you.

On what he liked 6-on-5 that led to the Kings tying the game
We had traffic and we were able to get the puck there. Kopi won a couple of big draws, that’s always an important part of that. People at the net, Perrs at the net and that’s how you score goals. We executed that well, but it’s too bad we had to be in that situation. We’ll take the point and just really disappointed we didn’t get the second one.

On if he expected this level of production from Corey Perry this early on
I’d be lying to you if I said I expected him to have this many already. We knew playing against him long enough that he’s effective, he’s a goal scorer. I said it a couple times, it just ends up on his stick somehow. Some guys, it just ends up on their stick. That was Perrs there. He spends the time there, he takes a beating to do it, but yeah, what an addition to our team.

On his takeaways from the 5-on-5 play tonight
Detroit’s playing pretty well, they’re a good team. I think, if we track the chances at 5-on-5, probably close to our season high, I would think, enough to win for sure. So, we liked lots about our game. I thought our 5-on-5, after the Chicago and San Jose games, we didn’t generate much of anything in the offensive zone. Big difference tonight. We forechecked better, we got pucks, I think Eddie had six shots from the blueline, so stuff like that. There’s a lot of good.

On the special teams being a reason behind not getting the win tonight
It’s very frustrating. I mean, I guess the encouraging part is you can see where the issue lies. That’s pretty clear for us, where the issue lies. Our penalty kill got rolling there a little bit and then now we take a hit again tonight. Power play, I thought was pretty good. I mean, we probably had 7,8,9 chances on a power play tonight, I know Kevin [had a number] and then he breaks a stick, so one of those has just got to go. That’s just really, in the end, comes down to the difference in the game. They had, I think, maybe three or four chances on the power play and scored two goals.

*Forward Trevor Moore did not play tonight due to personal reasons.

Notes –
– Forward Corey Perry (2-0=2) scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season, extending his point streak to a fifth game (5-2=7). With his fourth goal of the campaign, Perry passes Larry Robinson (3-10=13 in 56 GP) for sole possession of the most goals scored by a skater 40 years of age or older in franchise history.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his third goal of the season, the first shorthanded tally of his career. Laferriere joins Shawn McEachern, Bob Kudelski and Steve Jensen as the only American skaters in franchise history to score a shorthanded goal against the Detroit Red Wings. The native of Chatham, N. J., becomes just the second to do so on home ice after Kudelski did so on Oct. 8, 1989. The Kings’ trio of man-down markers are the most shorthanded goals by any team in the League through this point of the season.
– With the goal, Laferriere extends his point streak to a third game (2-1=3) and has now recorded five points (1-4=5) over his last five games against the Red Wings, dating back to Jan. 4, 2024.
– Forward Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) notched his fourth assist of the season and now has 497 points (216-281=497) is now within three points of becoming the second skater of Swiss nationality to reach the 500-point mark, following Roman Josi (191-538=729).
– Forward Quinton Byfield (0-2=2) collected his seventh and eighth assists of the season.
– Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) assisted on Byfield’s game-tying goal for his fifth helper of the campaign. The assist marked Kopitar’s 33rd career helper against the Red Wings, tying Butch Goring for the fifth-most assists against Detroit in franchise history. He also tied Wayne Gretzky (14-38=52) for the fifth most points in Kings franchise history against the Original Six organization.
– Among active skaters, Kopitar’s 52 points (19-33=52) against the club from the Motor City are now tied with Nikita Kucherov (21-31=52) for the third most against the Red Wings behind John Tavares (20-34=54), and current Detroit forward, Patrick Kane (18-38=56).
– Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) tallied his 10th assist to become the first LA King to reach the double-digit mark in the category this season.
– Defenseman Cody Ceci (0-1=1) recorded his second assist and third point of the campaign with the 13th shorthanded assist of his career.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty skated in is 39th career contest against the Red Wings, tying Mattias Norstrom for the most games played against Detroit by a defenseman in franchise history.
– With tonight’s result, the Kings extended their home point streak against the Red Wings to an eighth game (6-0-2) dating back to March 15, 2018. It is tied for the Kings’ third longest active home point streak against a single opponent.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.