FINAL – Kings 3, Sharks 2 (SO) – Anderson-Dolan, Moore, McLellan

The LA Kings made it back-to-back shootout wins, with a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Forwards Phillip Danault and Jaret Anderson-Dolan scored for the Kings in the victory, while forward Trevor Moore picked up the game-deciding goal in the shootout for the second consecutive game. Goaltender Pheonix Copley earned his fourth win of the season with a 23-save performance in net.

The Kings opened the scoring just shy of six minutes into the game as they converted off the rush, on the power play, through Danault. After he took a pass from defenseman Drew Doughty in the neutral zone, Danault weaved way into the attacking end, pulled the puck to his backhand and beat San Jose netminder James Reimer clean for his eighth goal of the season.

San Jose answered back with a power-play goal of its own, however, to tie the game at one heading into the first intermission. Forward Timo Meier buried a tap-in at the back post, his 12th goal from his last 17 games played against the Kings, the most by any player versus LA in that span.

Late in the second period, a breakdown in the defensive zone put the Sharks ahead for the first time in the game. Forward Kevin Labanc found himself all alone in the slot, where Meier fed him for a one-timer after forcing the turnover, and Labanc sent his shot past Kings netminder Pheonix Copley for a go-ahead goal, his seventh of the season.

Less than a minute later, however, the Kings answered back through Anderson-Dolan. On the shift immediately following the San Jose goal, Mikey Anderson’s shot rebounded into the slot, directly to Anderson-Dolan, who snapped it past Reimer for his second goal from as many games versus the Sharks this season and the game-tying goal.

The Kings killed a penalty in overtime for the second straight game to force a shootout, which they won for the second straight game. Forwards Kevin Fiala and Trevor Moore scored while Copley made three saves on four attempts to earn the victory.

Hear from Anderson-Dolan, Moore and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s victory.

Jaret Anderson-Dolan

Trevor Moore
On his assessment of tonight’s game
I thought that we were alright tonight, it was kind of a neutral-zone game, I guess. They played well, maybe we had a long road trip and all of that stuff, but I thought that we played our game tonight.

On recording back-to-back games, and if it matters how it happened
It doesn’t matter how it happened, but I think we liked the way that it happened. I think we were consistent and we stuck with it the whole time, we decided to play our game unlike Buffalo and Columbus, where we slipped and tried to do it the wrong way. Shootout wins are shootout wins and we’ll take it.

On the team improving in one-goal games as of late
Yeah, I think we’ve played our fair share of high-scoring games, trying to risk it on offense and we learned that’s not our game. We’ve got to just check our way through games and if that ends up being one-goal games than we’ll take it, but I think we’re going to start scoring more goals playing like that.

On improvements on the penalty kill as of late
I think we want to be more aggressive, we kind of got away from that. When we were rolling last year, we call it pressure versus principles and we want to be pressuring the other team when they’re in trouble. I think we’ve been doing that a little better.

Todd McLellan
On finding a way to get a win
That was not an easy game for us to play. As I said this morning, I didn’t know if this was going to be a road game or a home game. It felt like a road game driving down, I know how I felt, so I can’t imagine how the players felt. The fact that we stuck with it to the end of the night and got pretty good efforts from a lot of players was a real good sign for us.

On Anderson-Dolan’s goal coming less than a minute after conceding
Really important shift. They had scored, we got a little momentum back, got our forecheck going again, which fell off in the second period I thought and it was a simple goal. We tried to make a lot of hope passes halfway through the game, through the middle of the rink. We finally played North, went to the pads a couple times and JAD found a rebound. It was a timely goal, it got us back on track, evened up the game and it was from our fourth line. There’s a lot of real positives there.

On the penalty kill tonight, and getting a kill in OT for the second straight game
Our penalty kill is not where it needs to be, I think that’s evident when you look at the number itself. Then, we have to break down the root causes of what’s going on. Some are completely in our control, others our bounces and good shots and that type of stuff. I thought tonight, our penalty kill did a good job. Even the goal they scored, they re-attacked the net, had a reboundm we had a chance to clear but we didn’t quite get there but the rest of the night we did a pretty darn good job, really good in overtime. When your special teams aren’t elite, which the penalty kill is not right now, sometimes you lose a little confidence in it but I don’t sense that. I felt like it was there in Boston, I felt like it was there tonight, so that’s a positive

On Pheonix Copley’s performance since joining the Kings
He’s fit in very well which isn’t a surprise. He has experience and carries himself well, guys enjoy being around him and want him to be part of the group. When he’s in the net he looks confident and calm, which can calm things down for all of us. He’s made some really big saves, he’s made some simple easy saves, obviously in the shootout he’s had success back-to-back nights. We have three quality goaltenders in our organizationm they’re all going to have to play at some point. Right now, he’s running hot and we’ll likely keep going there.

On if he feels the team’s play has trended towards identity over the last two wins
Well, this morning we talked about lessons and if we can string some games together. We might get scored on four times in the next whatever it they’re legitimate goals, that they break us down then great, but if we’re gifting goals, wide-open play, high risk, low-reward situational play that comes back to bite us, than we haven’t learned that lesson yet. I think we’re just in the middle of the test right now, I don’t think we can grade the paper one bit.

Notes –
– Jaret Anderson-Dolan tallied his third goal of the season, his second versus the Sharks. Four of his 10 career NHL goals have come against San Jose.
– Phillip Danault scored his eighth goal of the year and 90th goal of this career with a power-play tally in the first period.
– Trevor Moore scored the game-deciding goal in a shootout for a second consecutive game, marking the third of his career.
– Drew Doughty registered his second point in as many games. In doing so, Doughty improved his career point total against San Jose to 35 points (5-30-35), the most versus the Sharks among active defensemen.
– Pheonix Copley recorded his first point as an LA King and second of his career, with an assist on Danault’s power-play goal. Copley became the 13th different goaltender in the NHL to record a point this season.
– Copley stopped 23-of-25 shots and three of four shootout attempts for his second consecutive victory and fourth win of the season, improving to 4-0-1 from five starts.
– The Kings extended their home power-play goal streak to seven games with Danault’s PPG. The last time the Kings established a home power-play goal streak of at least seven games was from Feb. 9, 2021 to March 17, 2021 (9 PPGs).
– The Kings improved to 3-0 in shootouts this season.

The Kings have a scheduled off day tomorrow and will return to action on Monday for practice at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.