FINAL – Kings 2, Blues 1 (OT) – Moore, Forsberg, Smith

The LA Kings found a way on home ice as they skated to a 2-1 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Neither team found the back of the net in the first period, with Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg providing a handful of key saves to preserve the 0-0 scoreline. Late in the opening frame, Forsberg made an athletic left-pad save while shorthanded, on St. Louis forward Dalibor Dvorsky, to keep the Kings in it.

It took nearly 37 minutes of game play, but the Kings finally opened the scoring with a power-play goal late in the second period, taking a 1-0 lead into the second intermission. Skating on the man advantage, forward Alex Laferriere was the facilitator, as he took a feed from forward Artemi Panarin down low and fed forward Adrian Kempe, with an open net, with Kempe burying his team-leading 28th goal of the season to put his team ahead.

St. Louis tied the game with 3:53 remaining in regulation, as forward Robert Thomas got the visitors on the board. At the point, defenseman Philip Broberg got a shot through, with Thomas deflecting the puck with his skate, through the legs of goaltender Anton Forsberg for the goal. The play was not reviewed for a kicking motion and the goal stood, sending the proceedings into overtime.

As the game progressed into overtime, forward Trevor Moore won the game with a dazzling individual effort. Moore used his speed down the right wing, working his way in behind the St. Louis defense, and he snapped his shot past Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington on the blocker side to earn his team the second point.

Hear from Moore, goaltender Anton Forsberg and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith after tonight’s win.

Trevor Moore

Anton Forsberg
On getting the job done and there not being style points in April
Yeah, we don’t have much time, so we’re moving on. It’s a good feeling for the group, obviously, to get the win tonight, and hopefully we can build on it and bring it in tomorrow with some more energy, and take another two points.

On keeping the game close early with a handful of huge saves
I just tried to work hard. They were doing a good job of getting pucks to the net when guys in front of the net, tried to shoot from the D. I thought their guys box that real well and then it’s up to me to try to find the puck somehow and it worked out pretty well.

On where he felt the team improved between the first and second periods
We were skating harder and we made it way more simple. Got it deep in their zone for some shifts and we tired them out a little bit. It was a grinding game today, for sure.

On his thoughts on the penalty kill getting the job done tonight
I thought the details went really well. We talked a lot about details, that we have to have good details. Every team has a lot of skilled players on their power play, so the details can’t slip. Tonight, I thought we played it basically perfect.

D.J. Smith
On Trevor Moore being the hero tonight and playing in overtime
I think Mooresie is such a reliable player for us, he always gives you an honest effort. He’s team first. He never complains. In today’s game, a guy misses a shift or doesn’t get an o-zone draw, there’s guys that dwell on those things. Mooresie is complete team, always is. I think over this last little bit, he’s been as good as anybody. He’s dangerous, he’s scoring, as you can see, that speed is a big difference. I have no problem putting him on the ice at any time in the game.

On the start tonight and turning things around at the first intermission
There has to be a level of urgency at this time of the year, especially in our building. We just haven’t had enough. I didn’t think the first period was indicative of what I think of our hockey team. I thought we were on the outside, I mean, we always play defense and we try but that wasn’t enough. If you want to make the playoffs and win games at home on a regular basis, you’ve got to be willing to check and fight for every puck. I didn’t think we did that in the first period. I thought the second and third period, we did that.

On if there was any instruction to play more direct in overtime
No, I mean, it’s big boy time in overtime and you’ve got to let them make those plays. I think the top players decide on when they’re going to shoot and what they’re going to do. Typically long shots, long passes, don’t work in overtime, that’s when you turn pucks over, we saw that early in overtime, you know. It’s unfortunate that [the game went] to overtime. I thought we could have closed it out, we got a bit of a bad bounce.

On Anton Forsberg tonight and his role in the victory
Anton Forsberg works extremely hard away from the rink at all times, takes care of himself, and when the opportunity comes, he’s able to do things like this tonight and he was exceptional. Especially a couple of those reads there. It’s easy to root for a guy that tries and gives you everything.

On the penalty kill’s performance tonight
Numbers wise, since I took over, the inner slots and the chances against have been really good and the underlying numbers are really good. We’ve had some bad breaks. Shoot it, break a stick, they shoot it, right back to a guy and it goes in. Tonight, they probably win us the game. Early on, if you give one up, you’re trailing, you play a different game. It’s something we haven’t won a ton of, is special teams and [tonight] we score on the power play. We don’t want to take three penalties. That’s not what we’re looking for, especially offensive-zone penalties, but I feel confident right now that the guys are doing the job.

Notes –
– Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his 28th goal of the campaign to open the scoring tonight, extending his point streak against the St. Louis Blues to a fourth game (2-3=5), dating back to March 8, 2025. The goal marked Kempe’s 40th career tally on the man-advantage. Kempe is the 21st skater in Kings history to record 40 power play goals (PPG), the first Swedish-born player to do so. Kempe is the 13th skater selected in the 2014 NHL Draft and third Swede to reach the 40 PPG mark, joining Victor Olofsson (43 PPG) and William Nylander (80 PPG).
– Forward Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his 11th goal of the campaign to win tonight’s matchup in overtime. The strike is the first overtime goal of Moore’s career, making the Thousand Oaks, Calif., native the first California-born player to score an overtime goal for a California-based team in NHL history.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) recorded his 19th assist of the season on Kempe’s game-opening goal, his fourth power play point of the season. With tonight’s helper, Laferriere has four points (2-2=4) in his last three consecutive games against the Blues dating back to March 8, 2025.
– Forward Artemi Panarin (0-1=1) notched his 50th assist of the year with a secondary helper on Kempe’s power play strike tonight. Panarin recorded the eighth 50-assist season of his career and became the eighth player born outside of North America with as many, per NHL PR. He is joined by Jari Kurri (10), Nicklas Backstrom (9), Peter Stastny (9), Jaromir Jagr (9), Henrik Sedin (8), Stan Mikita (8) and Leon Draisaitl (8).
– Panarin also became the fourth undrafted player since 1963-64 to record eight or more seasons with 50 assists. The others are Wayne Gretzky (18), Adam Oates (12) and Peter Stastny (9).
– Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) notched his 23rd assist of the season with a primary set-up on Moore’s overtime game-winner.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty (0-1=1) posted his 17th assist of the season with a secondary helper on Moore’s goal. Doughty skated in his 1,271st career regular-season NHL game tonight, breaking a tie with former Kings blueliner Rob Blake (1,270 GP) for sole possession of the 26th-most games played by a defenseman in League history.
– The Kings extended their home point streak to 11 games against the Blues dating to the 2020-21 season, which is their longest active run versus a single team.

The Kings are back in action tomorrow evening at Crypto.com Arena as they host the Nashville Predators at 7:30 PM.