FINAL – Kings 1, Coyotes 2 (SO) – Iafallo, Lemieux, McLellan

The LA Kings extended their point streak to five games, but fell short of their fifth consecutive victory, with a 2-1 shootout defeat on Friday evening in Arizona.

The Kings got a second-period goal from forward Alex Iafallo, his fourth goal of the season. Goaltender Jonathan Quick made 23 saves on 24 shots over the course of 65 minutes as he returned to the net tonight.

Arizona scored the lone goal of the opening period, a 5-on-3 power-play goal, to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. After a sequence of penalties by the Kings in quick succession, forward Clayton Keller fed teammate Nick Schmaltz with a cross-crease pass, with the latter tapping home to open the scoring.

The Kings fought back in the second, however, with a power-play goal of their own to force a 1-1 tie heading into the second intermission. On their first man advantage of the evening, defenseman Sean Durzi fed forward Alex Iafallo in the right-hand circle, where he wired home a one-timer past Arizona netminder Karel Vejmelka for his fourth goal of the season, his second on the power play.

Neither team was able to score in a tightly-contested third period, nor were they able to score in the five-minute overtime. The Kings had to once again face a full two minutes of 4-on-3 penalty time during the extra session but came up with the kill to force the shootout. LA was unable to score in the shootout, however, with Arizona’s Nick Bjugstad scoring the lone goal in the skills competition, giving the hosts the second point.

Hear from Iafallo, forward Brendan Lemieux and Head Coach Todd McLellan following the game.

Alex Iafallo
On finding a way to get a point going into the holiday break
For sure, definitely, you know it was a good point that we needed. Obviously wanted the two points, to get a win, but looking at positive, we did get a point going into the break, so halfway. It’s good for us to look up.

On if he viewed tonight as a “special teams” kind of game
Yeah, definitely, a lot of kills and a lot of power plays. At that point, you’ve got to try to get momentum from either one, either the PK or the power play. We tried to do that and it was pretty even throughout the whole match.

On his one-timer goal on the man advantage
I was just trying to shoot the puck to be honest, a good screen. We just talked about it before, Durzi made a nice pass and I just had to shoot in there. Just trying to get shots to the net………[I’ve been] working on getting the shot off quicker, not such a high slap shot, just more of a lower shot, get the puck to the net faster.

On playing the right way in front of Jonathan Quick tonight
Yeah, for sure. He had a hell of a game, he made a lot of huge saves for us. We gave him a lot of chances that we shouldn’t have and he made some huge saves. We owed it to him and it was a huge point for us.

Brendan Lemieux
On his thoughts from tonight’s gamea and getting back into the lineup for the first time since November
As a team, we started off slow and had some penalty issues, which doesn’t set our game and style up well. I thought we got our footing under us and just couldn’t capitalize. Personally, it’s obviously tough coming back after being away for the last little bit. Nice to be on the bench instead of watching and rehabbing and hope to build off this after the break.

Todd McLellan
On finding a way to get a point tonight in Arizona
I thought it was a gutsy point or by our team. Gas tanks were running low and they checked very well, it was a gutsy, gutsy [effort] by our team. Quickie played well, there’s a lot of clogging up of the neutral zone by both teams, wasn’t a lot of free play. Penalties affected our start, or at least our first period, the last thing we needed to do after basically playing three lines yesterday was play six players for five minutes straight and that’s what happened today, but penalties played a big part. I thought in the second and third, we settled in. It’s a lot of things we wanted to do, but just couldn’t find the net.

On getting the right kind of performance in front of Jonathan Quick
It all goes together. Our group owed Quickie a good, honest effort, a checking effort, an effort with a conscience and I thought we got that today. In return, I thought he paid back the guys with some pretty big and timely saves. Not a lot of them, but timely ones when we needed them.

On hearing about having only one referee in tonight’s game
Travel. There’s so many games and a lot of referees couldn’t get where they were going. I thought Kyle Bremen did a good job, it’s a hard thing for officials to do, is to change their routine and their positioning. We’re always going whine and [complain] about calls here and there, but he did an admirable job.

On the penalty kill tonight
On the 5-on-3, I think we can adjust a little bit and even do a better job there, but they scored quite quickly and still had a full minute and 45 or whatever it was left, so that kill in itself was important not to go down two in that situation. The succession that the penalty kill had to go to work in the first period really got tested and they did a good job.

On Alex Iafallo getting the power-play goal via a one-timer
Without Arthur here that hole needs to be filled and I’ve seen Alex one time a lot of pucks in practice, I think he’s got that skill set, he fits that spot pretty good. Tough go for him over the last few months, trying to get his game back, but he’s starting to finally look polished up and I’m sure it’s starting to feel better. We’re lucky to have him.

On the importance of taking a point into the holiday break
It’s important to get something from a game any time you can. Three games in four nights, we overplayed probably some players, fell behind. The fact that we came back, I think it was a character [performance], I keep going back to that. These games, pre and post All-Star break, Christmas, they’re hard ones to play. A lot of times they can be blowouts, one team just takes off and the other team is done. I was happy the way the guys dug in.

Notes –
– Alex Iafallo scored his fourth goal of the season, giving him points in each of his last three games (2-1-3).
– Sean Durzi registered an assist to reach the 20-point mark (4-16-20) for the second consecutive season. Durzi becomes just the fourth Kings defenseman in the past 25 years to have recorded 20-plus points in each of their first two or more consecutive seasons in the NHL.
– Phillip Danault also earned an assist, as he extended his point streak to four straight games, tying his season high.
– Goalteneder Jonathan Quick started tonight for he first time since December 11 and made 23 saves on 24 shots. Tonight marked the fourth time this season Quick has allowed one goal or fewer.

The Kings will be off until December 27, with the NHL’s league-wide holiday break. The team will next hit the ice for morning skate that day from Toyota Sports Performance Center.