FINAL – Kings 3, Canucks 4 (OT) – Anderson, Laferriere, Smith

The LA Kings collected their 90th point of the season on Tuesday evening in Vancouver but were unable to collect the second as they fell by a 4-3 margin in overtime against the Canucks at Rogers Arena.

Vancouver opened the scoring midway through the first period as defenseman Elias Pettersson got on the board. Petterson took a pass across the blueline from his defensive partner, Kirill Kudraytsev, and with a moving screen in the high slot, he got a shot through from the left point, past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper at the near post, for his third goal of the season and an early 1-0 lead.

Inside the final three minutes of the opening period, the Kings tied the score as forwards Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore combined again for a nice goal off the rush. Moore played the puck off the wall to Laferriere, creating a tight, 2-on-1 into the offensive zone. Laferriere fed Byfield driving the net for his third goal of the roadtrip and his 23rd of the season, tying a career high and the game at 1-1.

The Canucks scored on their first power play of the game, inside the first 60 seconds of the second period, to pull back in front by a goal. Just moments after Kuemper bailed out the penalty kill with a windmill glove save, Vancouver got one to go as a bouncing puck kicked around in the slot before forward Jake DeBrusk got it across the line with a backhanded effort, putting the hosts ahead 2-1.

It took only 12 seconds for the Kings to answer back, however, as forward Adrian Kempe tied the score at two. Attacking out of the corner, forward Artemi Panarin fed forward Anze Kopitar in the circle, before Kopitar worked the puck to Kempe uncovered at the back post for the goal, his 36th of the season. Kempe’s goal was his ninth in the month of April, three more than the next closest player.

The Kings took their first lead of the game just 73 seconds later, as Laferriere and Byfield collected their second points of the evening. After Byfield got the puck to defenseman Drew Doughty at the point, the veteran defenseman got a shot on net, which was kicked out by Vancouver goaltender Kevin Lankinen, but Laferriere collected the rebound and scored for the second straight game to put the visitors ahead 3-2.

The hosts answered back midway through the second period, equalizing through defenseman Zeev Buium. The Kings got hemmed into their own zone after a broken stick and lost track of Buium, who drove the net and buried a pass from forward Nils Hoglander to tie the game at three goals apiece.

After neither team found the back of the net in the third period, the game advanced into overtime, with Vancouver finding the game-winning goal, scored by forward Jake DeBrusk. With the one point, Los Angeles moved into a tie for the third playoff spot in the Pacific Division with Anaheim, with three different seeds remaining in play entering Game 82 on Thursday in Calgary.

Hear from Laferriere, defenseman Mikey Anderson and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith after tonight’s game.

Mikey Anderson

Alex Laferriere
On if it was challenging to get up for the intensity of tonight’s game
I wouldn’t say that, no. I think for us, I mean, we know how important all these games are. We know that we can pass anybody in the standings on any given night, so I think it was kind of a sense of relief for us to know that we clinched but we knew that we still wanted to push and get as high up in the in the standings as we could.

On when he feels the Kings started to believe they could be a playoff team
Yeah, it’s hard to say. I think the whole time, we knew that we were going to be right there and have a chance to get in. We knew that kind of the way that we had been trending towards our game and the positive stuff that was happening, we knew that we were going to string together some wins. There was never any doubt in here that we weren’t going to make the playoffs, but for us, it was just a matter of using that mentality and showing it on the ice. We were lucky enough to string together some wins and yeah, it was huge and we got in

On the third period tonight and feeling a little unlucky not to find the game winner
Yeah, I think so. I think we crept a little away from our game in the second there, some little bounces and stuff like that, but I thought we responded well after they took the lead. I think the third period was more our style of game and we were dictating pace. I think it would have been nice to get one on that power play there, we had a couple chances, but yeah, I think we were hounding them and just couldn’t get the bounce.

D.J. Smith
On the challenges of bringing the intensity tonight, the game after a clinch
Yeah, I mean give the other team credit, three in a row, they play hard, it’s the NHL and it’s our fourth game in six nights too, with a lot of emotion. I mean, we could have won that game. We had lots of chances in the third period to win the game. I thought that was our best period, we played defense, we checked, you can’t complain about it. At the end of the day, we’ve got one game left and regardless of who we play, we’re going to have to be ready.

On if he felt Mathieu Joseph’s fight in the third gave the team a spark
Yeah, for sure. He had a good hit and their guy came over, good for them to stick up for each other. We pushed to win. You get to overtime and you lose, the good thing is, we’ve only got one more game where we’re going to deal with these 3-on-3 overtimes. We get to overtime, you’re going to play 5-on-5 and we’re going to find out.

On if tonight’s result changes the approach of the team at all for Thursday
I don’t think so. I think other than guys being banged up, I think we’re going to go with our group and let the chips fall where they may. I mean, you can’t dictate what other teams are going to do. If you asked me a month ago, in your last 15 games, you’re going to lose one in regulation or whatever it is, you’d take it. At the end of the day, we’re going to go do our best and whoever we play, we’re going to play and we’ve got to be ready.

On home ice still being a possibility heading into Game 82
It would be crazy if that happened, but some good teams have got to lose and we’ve got to win. Calgary has been really good at home, so again, we’re going to go out and play our best, but you’ve got to let it fall where they may. Whoever we play is going to be higher than us, most likely, in the standings, if anyone wins. I don’t think you can sit back and try and pick who you’re going to play. You’ve got to go out and just make sure your team’s ready when the playoffs starts.

Notes –
– Forward Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) scored his 23rd goal of the season before notching his 25th assist of the year, securing his sixth consecutive multi-point game on the road, dating back to March 16 at the New York Rangers.
– Byfield’s current six-game streak (7-5=12) heading into Thursday’s regular season finale is just the fourth such run in Kings history. Byfield’s streak is joined by Marcel Dionne’s six-game stretch (7-10=17) from Oct. 14 – Nov. 5, 1980, and Wayne Gretzky’s six-game run (2-13=15) from Nov. 19 – Dec. 28, 1991, and his franchise-record nine game stretch from Feb. 14 – March 17, 1991.
– The native of Newmarket, Ontario, now has a five-game point streak at Rogers Arena (2-6=8), dating back to Feb. 29, 2024, and has recorded eight points (3-5=8) in his last seven games played against the Canucks overall, dating back to Nov. 7, 2024.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (1-1=2) notched his 22nd assist before scoring his 21st goal of the season to secure his fifth multi-point effort of the season. Laferriere’s 43 points (21-22=43) on the year establishes a new single-season career-high, surpassing his 42-point campaign (19- 23=42) last season.
– Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his team-leading 36th goal of the year this evening at Rogers Arena, extending his point streak against the Vancouver Canucks to a sixth game (6-3=9), dating back to Jan. 16, 2025. Kempe’s ninth goal in the month of April further extends the franchise record he established last night in Seattle.
– Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) picked up his 18th assist of the campaign and has now posted seven points (3-4=7) through his first eight appearances in the month of April.
– Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) recorded his 26th helper of the season, the 864th helper of his career to move within one assist of tying Denis Savard (865 A) for the 27th most in NHL history.
– Per NHL PR, Kopitar’s 864 career assists are the 11th most by a player with a single franchise, and third among active players behind Pittsburgh Penguins duo Sidney Crosby (1,107 A) and Evgeni Malkin (874 A).
– Kopitar’s 63 points (18-45=63) in 74 regular-season contests against the Canucks are tied for the 33rd most in NHL history and rank second among all active players behind only Connor McDavid (24-47=71).
– Forward Artemi Panarin (0-1=1) earned his 56th assist of the season. Panarin continues his point-per-game pace against the Canucks with his helper this evening, having recorded 25 points (8-17=24) in 25 career games played against the British Columbia-based club. Defenseman Drew Doughty (0-1=1) collected his 18th assist of the year. Doughty’s 30 career points (8-22=30) in 61 career games against the Pacific Division rival Canucks are the second most by an active defenseman behind only Brent Burns (13-35=48).

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow and will return to the ice for morning skate on Thursday, April 16, in advance of that evening’s game versus the Calgary Flames.