FINAL – Kings 3, Capitals 2 – Sparks, Wolanin, McLellan

The LA Kings overturned a two-goal deficit this evening as they skated to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals to conclude a four-game road trip with a 2-1-1 record.

The Kings got 33 saves from goaltender Garret Sparks, and goals from Blake Lizotte, Christian Wolanin and Adrian Kempe in tonight’s victory.

At the start though, it was Washington that controlled much of the momentum early, turning it into the game-opening goal through forward Connor McMichael. The rookie forward drove the net and put a Jake Snively shot top shelf, beyond the outstretched Sparks, to open the scoring. McMichael’s goal was his fourth of the season.

The Capitals doubled their advantage in the second period, capitalizing just after the Kings killed off a double-minor assessed to Lizotte. Defenseman Justin Schultz saw his first shot blocked, before he followed up on the puck and fired home the second effort for his second goal of the season.

After playing 10 of the 20 minutes in the second period on the penalty kill, the Kings got on the board with a shorthanded goal late in the second period. Forward Alex Iafallo attracted a crowd in the corner, but managed to slip a pass to Lizotte in the slot, where the LA forward snapped his shot top glove to get the visitors on the board. Lizotte has now scored in consecutive games.

The Kings scored twice in the third period to complete the comeback and claim the victory to end the road trip.

First, with the teams skating 4-on-4, Wolanin drove the net and got on the end of a Matt Roy rebound for his first goal as a member of the LA Kings. The visitors completed the comeback in the latter stages of the period, as Kempe skated to a puck in open ice and worked it past Washington netminder Vitek Vanacek for the game-winning goal.

Hear from Sparks, Wolanin and Head Coach Todd McLellan following the game. If I can implore you to watch one video interview this season, I’d recommend it be the conversation below with Garret Sparks. Raw emotion, hard not to be rooting for that guy.

Garret Sparks

The flow travels!! Sparks fly in an emotional win for the goalie!#GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/MyLyGBkbMG

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) December 20, 2021

Christian Wolanin

On the conversation in the room during the second intermission, before the comeback
I don’t know if it was a conversation, maybe lack there of. It was a long, long week on the road, tough road trip, a lot of great hockey teams. Coming on the back half of it here, in a back-to-back, it was more about just giving everything we had on the ice. Just thankful we came away with the win.

On his first goal as a King
I’m just really thankful. It’s been a long time since I scored in the NHL and to do it and tie it up for the boys, and obviously Juice with the winner, just a long road trip. To win it in a rink like this, against a really good team, it was a lot of character from the group and I’m having an awesome time. It was a big sigh of relief to get that one for sure.

On Garret Sparks and his performance tonight
Awesome. Similar stories, actually. It’s been a while since he’s gotten a win in the NHL, he’s been through a lot of adversity, a lot of ups and downs. All the way from the [ECHL] to the American League and now back where he belongs. Another awesome night, an awesome night for him for sure.

Todd McLellan

On what the win tonight meant to him, and to Garret Sparks
Obviously, the win’s important to me, but Garret and the team is what matters and I guess we’re part of that. Obviously, he’s got a very interesting story, he’s had some real highs and some real lows, playing wise and health wise. For the group to play hard and come back with him, I think for him, and he in turn for playing as well as he did tonight, it’s a chapter in a book really, when you think about it. We’re excited for him, the guys were really happy for him. [Someone] this morning asked about him, and that’s what we signed him for. We believe in him and he played a hell of a game.

On the technical side of Sparks and looking every bit the part of an NHL goaltender
And he should, he’s a talented goaltender. He’s played in the National League in the past, he played in a fishbowl, if you want to call it that, in Toronto and he’s played well in the past. We didn’t sign him because we didn’t believe in him, we signed him because we did believe in him. He gave us a good night.

On overcoming the shorthanded situations and finding a way to win
I actually think getting through the penalty kills, it helped one team and hurt the other. What I mean by that is they had a lot of time on the power play, they were a really heavy forecheck team early in the game and the power play sort of took that away from them a little bit, it allowed us to get back into the game. While we were doing that, we lost a lot of players too and we had to get them back in the game quick. I think the shorthanded goal helped us, the break helped us, and then everybody got involved after that.

On Christian Wolanin getting his first as a King
Really good for him. There’s another chapter in the book. If we’re writing a book tonight, we have Sparksy’s chapter and we have Wolly’s chapter. With his travel since training camp, he’s in game six now, he’s into the first, second regular-season game and he’s getting better every night. Good for him, big goal, it’s got to make him feel good and give him some confidence.

On the current climate around the league right now
I can sit here and say we’re in good hands, the doctors are going to take care of us, and I believe all of that, but I can also tell you that it’s a very uneasy time right now for the players and the people that are involved in the game. What’s strange, for us anyhow, I don’t know about other teams, but we have players, for the most part, that are feeling perfectly fine, that are being pulled from the game. We’ve got a bit of a flu bug, cough, typical winter stuff going through our team and those players are playing, which is odd. I get the protocols, I get the health directive and I do believe we’re in good hands, but it’s confusing for the players. I can tell you, this time of year is not easy. There’s little ones at home, with wives, and family becomes really, really important. We’ll have a bunch of happy players getting on the plane. The ones we have to leave behind, we’re going to get them home, we’ll figure out a way.

Notes –

– Goaltender Garret Sparks made 33 saves tonight as he recorded his first victory as a member of the LA Kings. It was his first victory at the NHL level since March 20, 2019.
– Forward Blake Lizotte scored for the second consecutive game to put the visitors on the board late in the second period.
– Lizotte’s shorthanded goal was the second of the season for the Kings and the third SHG of his professional career.
– Defenseman Christian Wolanin scored his first goal as a member of the Kings and the sixth of his NHL career. It was Wolaanin’s first NHL goal since March 14, 2019.
– Forward Adrian Kempe scored the game-winning goal this evening, his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
– Defenseman Matt Roy collected two assists tonight, his third multi-point game of the 2021-22 season.
– Anze Kopitar collected an assist and led all Kings skaters with 24:32 in time on ice, while defenseman Sean Durzi set a new NHL career-high, as he logged 24:12 on the backend to lead all defensemen.
– Tonight marked just the third time over the last three seasons that Kopitar has logged more than 24:30 in a game that ended in regulation.

The Kings are not scheduled to skate tomorrow. The team is slated to return to the ice on Tuesday at Toyota Sports Performance Center.