FINAL – Kings 2, Mammoth 6 – Kopitar, Doughty, Smith

The LA Kings skated to one of their worst defeats of the 2025-26 season, a 6-2 loss against the Utah Mammoth on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Utah opened the scoring just 2:31 into the game, off the rush, to take an early 1-0 advantage. After Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson turned the puck over in the neutral zone, Mammoth defenseman John Marino attacked down the right wing and found forward Alexander Kerfoot driving the net, with the Utah forward deflecting the puck past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper for the one-goal lead.

The Mammoth then doubled their lead inside the final four minutes of the opening period. Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev intentionally iced the puck, with forward Logan Cooley winning the race down the ice. Cooley took the puck off the endboards in stride and beat Kuemper through the five hole for his 19th goal of the season and a 2-0 advantage for the Mammoth.

With just over two minutes remaining in the opening period, the Kings pulled a goal back through forward Anze Kopitar. Cycling through the offensive zone, defenseman Joel Edmundson teed up forward Adrian Kempe for a shot from the center point, with Kopitar getting a deflection on the way through for his 12th goal of the season, bringing the hosts within 2-1 at the first intermission.

The visitors made it 3-1 inside the final 10 seconds of the first period, to take a two-goal lead into the first intermission. Skating on the game’s first power play, Cooley doubled his tally for the evening as he cut inside of Anderson, coming off the right-hand circle, and placed his shot top shelf, on the blocker side, for his second goal of the evening and a 3-1 advantage.

Midway through the second period, Utah opened up a three-goal advantage. Attacking 2-on-2, the Kings allowed Kerfoot tons of time off the rush as he moved down the right side. Kerfoot kept the puck himself, unpressured, and beat Kuemper from close range high on the blocker side for his second goal of the game and his fifth tally of the season, giving the visitors a three-goal advantage.

Skating on their second power play of the game, the Mammoth made it 5-1 with another goal on the man advantage. Forward Clayton Keller worked the puck into the slot with a backhanded pass, finding the skate of forward Nick Schmaltz. Schmaltz kicked the puck onto his stick and ripped a quick shot, past Kuemper and in, for his 27th goal of the season and a four-goal lead late in the middle stanza.

Early in the third period, the Kings pulled one goal back, as Kempe picked up his second point of the evening. Kempe shuffled up to the center point and got a shot off from up high, through lots of traffic and in, as he buried his 27th goal of the season to bring the hosts within 5-2.

With the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, the Mammoth got the final goal of the night, from forward Jack McBain, to seal the game at 6-2.

Hear from Kopitar, defenseman Drew Doughty and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith after tonight’s defeat.

Anze Kopitar

Drew Doughty
On tonight’s performance, considering the magnitude of the game
Disappointing. We got down early, all areas of the game we weren’t ourselves tonight. It’s definitely our worst game in the last three, four weeks. As big of a moment as it was, we need more out of our guys and I’m definitely one of them.

On the start tonight and not having what was needed early in the game
I think they scored their first goal pretty early, and then yeah, I don’t know what it was. I felt like we were ready to go. We had a good day of rest yesterday. Really, there’s no excuses for the way we performed.

On putting this game behind them, with nine games remaining
Yeah, we’re definitely going to flush this one. I’m sure we’ll go over some video tomorrow and look at the things why we weren’t playing the way we can play. I think we already all know what those things are but we should go over them anyway and yeah, flush it down. We’ve still got, whatever, nine games remaining. We’ve got to win, take it one at a time and win everyone.

On the goals against tonight, with several coming in transition
We were one and done. We’d get it on the forecheck, they break it out and all of a sudden, it was an odd-man rush. That’s not our style of hockey, that’s not the way we play. Like I said, we’ll look at those things. They’re simple things we know. We know what to do in those situations and for whatever reason, we weren’t doing them tonight,

On not translating road performance into home games
Just have the same mentality as we have on the road. Go out there in the first period and we’re going to want the crowd into it, not take the crowd out of it, like we’re on the road, but have that same mentality. Just go out there, grind, get on the forecheck early, things will start opening up to make plays later on in the game.

D.J. Smith
On the team’s performance tonight, considering what was at stake
Flat. We just played slow. We just didn’t forecheck, didn’t play to the identity that we’ve played with and that’s fast, physical, above you. That’s a recipe for disaster tonight.

On the lack of energy and team play tonight
We had no legs, right from the get go. We made it hard on ourselves by playing East/West in the neutral zone and didn’t play fast at all. When you play that way, you allow the other team to get above you and that’s what we do to teams. They were ready right from the get go. We didn’t start on time tonight and before you know it, you’re just chipping it and changing, chipping and changing and we just simply weren’t good enough.

On the energy levels tonight and the mental impact coming into this one
For sure, it is. You always worry about that, coming back from a trip, that the first one is maybe not as sharp. Our passing wasn’t good. We were not sharp in any facet of the game, maybe other than 10 minutes in the third period, where we played a little bit like ourselves. For whatever reason, it’s not good enough. Against a team that is fighting for the playoffs, just like us, it’s just not good enough. So, we’ve got three days of practice to be fresh and to get fresh, and then we’ve got to play significantly better here at home than we did tonight.

On his decision to make a goaltending change and if he considered any other moves
You’re solely doing it – we gave up breakaways and clean looks and 2-on-1’s – for Darcy sake, I mean, none of it’s on him, that’s on us and that’s solely just to rest him and have him ready for the next one. That has nothing to do with him. I think it’d be hard to find, really, when you look at it, who was good? Tonight, it’s not like you had a couple guys that didn’t go, as a whole, we just were not very good tonight. The fortunate part is, there is nine games left. We’re going to look at the tape and we’re going to ask ourselves why, in the morning, why we weren’t ready, what didn’t we do, whatever the excuse is, it really doesn’t matter. All I know is, we’ve got two huge games coming up after three days, and we’ve got to be way better than we were tonight.

On the team’s continued inability to win at home this season
You know, I don’t know what it is. Last year, we couldn’t lose here and right now, we don’t lose very much on the road. That’s in your head. I can tell you this, people say it’s luck, there’s bounces, you make your own luck in this world. You do it right long enough, things happen. We didn’t come ready to play good enough today. Whether it’s our building or the road or wherever we played this game, that isn’t good enough. We’ve got three days to figure it out and then we’ve got nine games. The one thing about this team is there’s guys that care in there. So, it’d be different if there was one or two guys that just didn’t have it. Everyone didn’t have it. Maybe a few guys up front might have had it, but when that many guys don’t have it, you’re not blaming it on anyone. You’re going to take it as a group, me included, and we’re going to, turn the page and find a way to be better for the next one. It’s got to be a playoff mentality. If you lost Game 1 in triple overtime, you can’t dwell on it, you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to get better and you have to learn from why we lost the way we lost tonight.

Notes –
– Captain Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his 12th goal of the season, his 701st career point recorded on home ice (229- 472=701), breaking a tie with Marcel Dionne (288-412=700) for sole possession of the most home points in Kings franchise history. Kopitar now holds the franchise records for home points, road points, and overall points.
– Forward Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) recorded his team-leading 35th assist of the season before scoring his pacesetting 27th goal of the campaign. Kempe has now recorded eight points (3-5=8) over his last seven home games, dating back to Feb. 28 against the Calgary Flames.
– Tonight’s performance also marked Kempe’s sixth and seventh points (2-5=7) over his first six career games against the Utah Mammoth, dating back to Oct. 26, 2024, and marks his third multi-point game against the League’s newest franchise.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-1=1) notched his 17th assist of the season with the primary assist on Kopitar’s goal. In doing so, Edmundson increases his point total to six (2-4=6) in six career games played against the Mammoth.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty skated in his 1,270th career regular-season game tonight, tying former Kings defenseman Rob Blake for the 26th-most games played by a defenseman in NHL history.

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