FINAL – Kings 3, Canadiens 4 – Laughton, Laferriere, Smith

The LA Kings were unable to make a third-period lead stand up, as they fell by a 4-3 final score against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Los Angeles opened the scoring through the top line, which continued its positive momentum from Thursday’s win. After forward Artemi Panarin exited the zone with possession, he was able to work his way into the offensive zone and jar a loose puck free at the top of the right-hand circle. Forward Adrian Kempe collected it and fed forward Anze Kopitar at the back post for the goal, his seventh of the season, and a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Montreal tied the score early in the second period, as forward Jake Evans buried his third goal of the season. Evans’ shot from the outside found it way through traffic in front, past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper and in. Los Angeles took its timeout following the goal, to consider a challenge for goaltender interference, but opted not to go that route, as the score became tied at one.

After a sustained period of possession by the Kings, Montreal scored against the grain to take its first lead of the game late in the middle stanza. Forward Juraj Slafkovsky made a really nice individual play, as he worked his way off the wall, split a pair of Kings defenders while protecting the puck before he buried his shot, high on the glove side, to put the visitors ahead 2-1 with his 22nd goal of the season.

Less than two minutes after going behind, Los Angeles battled back to tie the game heading into the second intermission. Forward Jared Wright used a burst of speed to win the race to a puck below the goal line, before he made a nifty feed to the newest member of the Kings, Scott Laughton. Laughton spun and fired a heads-up shot to beat Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes along the ice for his first goal with the Kings, equalizing the score 2-2.

The Kings pulled back in front just shy of seven minutes into the third period, as they converted off of an offensive-zone faceoff win. Forward Trevor Moore worked the puck back to defenseman Brandt Clarke at the left point and after his shot was kept out, forward Alex Laferriere got on the end of the rebound and buried it for his 16th goal of the season, putting the hosts ahead 3-2.

With the Kings seemingly in control of the game, a span of 49 seconds turned a 3-2 lead into a 4-3 deficit, which Los Angeles was unable to come back from.

First, the Canadiens capitalized on the power play, after a Trevor Moore slashing minor put the Kings shorthanded. Slafkovsky was the goalscorer, his second of the game, to knot the score at three. The Montreal top line cashed in on the next shift, with forward Nick Suzuki burying a one-timer from the left side, off a Slafkovsky assist, to put the visitors ahead by a goal, a lead they would not surrender.

Hear from Laughton, Laferriere and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith following tonight’s defeat.

Scott Laughton

Alex Laferriere
On how tough of a loss this game is to stomach
I think that’s one that we definitely want to have two points from. I thought we outplayed them pretty much for 59 minutes of the game. It definitely stings a little bit, but I think we’ve got to learn from this one. There’s been nights where we get outworked and we sneak away with two points, and obviously we’ll take that when it happens but on a night like tonight, when we seemingly out-worked them in every area of the ice and felt like we were all over them to not come away with a win, it hurts pretty bad.

On if it is too late in the season to be learning from games like this
Yeah, definitely. Time is running out. We’ve got 20 games left now and we need every single point. When I say we need to learn from this, I think I mean that we can’t change what just happened. So, we’ve got to take the positives from the game and make sure it doesn’t happen ever again.

On what the breakdown was for the team in the third
I don’t know, honestly, like, I think we played a pretty complete game in every area of the ice. We were good defensively. We were good offensively. I think just couple little bounces, and they have some unbelievable offensive players, and I think that they were just able to hurt us with those little bounces.

On him getting to the net more with encouragement from his coach
A lot of the goals in the NHL are scored from right around net and I think a guy that I looked up to a lot during this year was [Corey Perry], and learning from him. He’s always at the net, getting a stick on pucks, creating havoc in front of the net and you can see he’s able to do what he’s able to do at such a high level. I think he was someone that I really looked up to this year and just wanted to learn from him as much as I could. I think [Smith] has been harping on us to get to the front of the net and my goal doesn’t happen if [Byfield] is not there in front of the net, creating that screen, and the goalie wasn’t able to see it and popped right out to me. If he doesn’t get to the net, it’s not a goal.

On the way the power play unit played
That was my first time getting to go out there with those guys. We didn’t have any practice time so I think our touches right from the start were pretty crisp, and I mean, I hit a post. Juice almost scored a couple times. Kopi almost scored a couple times. I think for not having any practice time with those guys, I felt pretty positive about it, but obviously, we’d like to get one for the team.

D.J. Smith
On the losing result after seeing his team play well
Yeah, it’s real tough. When the game’s on the line, you got to make plays. With six minutes to go, their top guys made plays. We did a lot of good things. To a man, we worked, we checked, their goalie made a lot of saves, and it’s part of the NHL. We have a refocus to work ethic and effort, and that’s a hard one, but you got to let it go and we got a huge road trip coming.

On the way the team has played since he took over as the head coach, against not getting a result tonight
Well, they’re working, but they’re working smart. We’re starting to play heavier in the o-zone, but I still think we can get a lot more pucks to the net. I think from the back end, every chance you can to sling it or get it there, and then the forwards got to do a better job, or continue to do a good job of climbing on the goalie and scoring like how we scored our third goal. But, that’s a tough one. We’ll look at it, but you got to throw it out. And there’s nothing you can do. You deserve probably a point for sure.

On whether he considered challenging on either close call goal in the first period
Yeah, the guys in the back know what they’re doing. Whenever the ref typically calls it on the ice is usually what stands. They called it and then they discussed it and then took it back. If they would have called it a goal, I’m not sure if they would have challenged or not but it probably would have stayed a goal. In saying that, we had the next power play, we had a chance to score. It’s probably as dangerous as we’ve been all year. We had chancesm we had shots. Give their goalie credit, sometimes that’s what happens. We’ve run into that a little bit, but we scored three goals, that should be enough to win.

On not allowing a second shot on goal until the second period
I think we were playing offense. I think we’re more committed to making some plays, holding on to the puck more. I still think we can do more of that. But when you have the puck, they don’t, and then when we did have to defend, we defend really hard. I thought we broke the puck out well, we held on to a ton. It’s as good a start as you can have. You’d want more than one nothing, and you would have loved that goal to stick to make it 2-0, but again, as good as you play, it comes to those moments with the game on the line you’ve got to make a play.

On Alex Laferriere and him having success around the net
Yeah, I like the line. They were big and they were heavy, and they held on to it. They track and they work. They’re a load for the other team and I think if they embrace that style of play and then track you back and check for the chances, I think you’ll see that line will be dangerous.

Notes –
– Captain Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his seventh goal of the season to open the scoring tonight, extending both his current point streak to three straight games (1-2=3), as well as his point streak against the Montreal Canadiens to five straight (2-5=7) games as he played his final regular-season contest against the club.
– The captain now has 1,304 career points (447-857=1,304) and is now just three points shy of tying Marcel Dionne (550-757=1,307) for the LA Kings franchise scoring record and needs just four points to own the record outright.
– Forward Scott Laughton (1-0=1) scored his ninth goal of the season, his first goal as a member of the LA Kings. Per NHL PR, Laughton became the third skater in the past 15 years to record a goal in his first Kings game after being traded to the franchise. The native of Oakville, Ontario, joins Sean Durzi (1- 1=2 on Nov. 24, 2021) and Carl Grundstrom (1-0=1 on March 9, 2019). Notably, all three skaters were acquired from the Maple Leafs.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his 16th goal of the season, his 29th point of the year (16-13=29) to take sole possession of fifth most points among all team skaters.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-2=2) recorded his 25th assist of the season with a secondary assist on Laughton’s goal before adding his 26th helper of the
campaign on Laferriere’s tally. By netting his 33rd and 34th points of the year (8-26=34) this evening, Clarke surpasses his career-high in points (5-28=33 in 2024-25) and leapfrogs Quinton Byfield (13-20=33) for sole possession of the third most points among all Kings skaters. Clarke (0-2=2 on March 5 v. NYI) has now posted consecutive multi-point games for the first time in his career and ties Quinton Byfield (9 GP) for the most multi-point efforts among Kings skaters this season behind Adrian Kempe (11 GP).
– Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) recorded his team-leading 30th assist of the campaign, extending his point streak to a fourth game (2-3=5), dating back to Feb. 28 versus the Calgary Flames. Kempe also secures his third consecutive 30-assist season, following the 2023-24 (47 A) and 2024-25 (38 A) campaigns.
– Forward Artemi Panarin (0-1=1) notched his 43rd helper of the year on Kopitar’s game-opening goal, extending his point streak against the Canadiens to 15 games (6-22=28) dating back to Feb. 27, 2020. Panarin’s streak against the Canadiens is the second longest streak against the 117-year-old franchise in NHL history behind Gilbert Perreault (5-23=28 in 17 GP from Oct. 25, 1980 – Nov. 29, 1983).
– Forward Jared Wright (0-1=1) assisted on Laughton’s goal for his first career NHL point.
– Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) picked up his 10th assist of the campaign with a secondary helper on Laferriere’s goal.

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Columbus tomorrow and will return to action on Monday afternoon against the Blue Jackets, with puck drop set for 1 PM Pacific at Nationwide Arena.