R1, G3 FINAL – Kings 3, Oilers 2 (OT) – Moore, Kopitar, Iafallo, Korpisalo, McLellan

The LA Kings claimed a 2-1 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers following a 3-2 overtime victory on Friday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Forward Trevor Moore scored the game-winning goal 3:24 into overtime for his first goal of the playoffs, while forwards Alex Iafallo and Adrian Kempe also scored in the victory. Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo made 38 saves on 40 shots to secure his second victory of the postseason.

After an aggressive and fast-paced opening period, the Kings opened the scoring inside the final minute of play to take a 1-0 lead into the first intermission. After he initially got a deflection on Matt Roy’s shot from the right point, Iafallo stayed with the play in front and slotted home the rebound for his second goal of the series.

Edmonton responded through its captain, however, who scored twice on the power play, less than two minutes apart, to pull the visitors ahead. First, Connor McDavid walked into the left-hand circle and beat Korpisalo clean on the glove side for his first goal of the series. From nearly an identical spot, McDavid fired home on the blocker side for his second tally of the period, both on the man advantage, for a 2-1 lead.

The Kings answered back just 18 seconds after McDavid’s second goal, however, to equalize the game at two. Forward Viktor Arvidsson fired a hard stretch pass off the endboards, with Kempe winning the race and one-timing the puck off the wall, past Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner on the glove side, for his third goal of the series.

After a third period that saw neither team breakthrough, the game progressed into overtime. Early in the extra session, the Kings took a 2-1 series lead through Moore, who scored his first goal of the series in dramatic fashion. With the Kings on the man advantage, forward Gabe Vilardi fed Moore in front, where he finished first time from just outside the crease for a 3-2 victory. After a lengthy review for a potential high-sticking infraction, the goal was upheld, giving the Kings the win and the series advantage.

Hear from Anze Kopitar, Moore, Iafallo, Korpisalo and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s win.

Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore

Kopitar and Moore speak on the huge game three W in overtime 🔊@LAKings | #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/mWvhK1nUIR

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 22, 2023

Alex Iafallo
On the team’s start tonight and if he and the Kings got what they wanted
It was good, it was a huge team effort right off the start, what we were talking about. Just battling hard in the corners, defensively, offensively just trying to win pucks and I thought everyone did a great job.

On the importance of special teams and the overtime game-winning goal
Yeah, special teams is huge and to get a goal like that, in overtime, that’s what we’ve worked for and we’ve got to keep doing good things special-teams wise. It’s going to be a huge part of the series.

On when he knew his goal went in
Kind of when I tipped it. I saw it go in the air and I didn’t get enough wood on it, but I just saw it going to the net and I was hoping it was going in.

On Joonas Korpisalo’s play again tonight
Yeah, he’s done an amazing job for us. Korpi is playing great, he’s making huge saves on the power play, he’s been great for us and that gives us energy. Going forward, especially in the d-zone, he’s able to save those and we’re able to break them out and move forward.

Joonas Korpisalo
On what happens for him during a lengthy review like the one in overtime
Yeah, we were just waiting, I had no clue what they were reviewing either, so I went back to my net and just got ready to get back into it, in case they overturned the goal. Just reset and get back into it.

On how he saw the team come out of the gate
Yeah, we played hard, we had a lot of hits and we played hard in front of both nets. I’m really happy with that, the guys played awesome today.

On how he saw the team come out of the gate
I feel okay, I just go game-by-game and I’m just trying to do my best. I feel pretty good.

On finally getting to play in the playoffs in front of a full crowd
That crowd was electric. We just fed off of it and just seeing the building erupt on the last goal, it was pretty cool. I had never played playoffs in front of a crowd before, so it’s really good, it’s fun. You’ve got to enjoy that.

Todd McLellan
On his team continuing to show resilience in this series
There’s no secret, there’s not a magic potion, we don’t want to be rallying from behind, but a lot of character in the room. The guys have a pretty good belief system and we understand that every minute is important. We’ve got to use every second that the game gives us to try and beat a very good club.

On what went through his mind during the lengthy goal review in overtime
Quite frankly, I didn’t know that it was being reviewed, we all left the ice obviously and thought everything was good. There was a pause and then all of a sudden we’ve got notice, the coaching staff, that it was being reviewed for a high stick. After that, it’s done, both teams just stand there, it’s out of our hands, it goes to the league officials who review it and they deem whether it’s good or not.

On a much improved start from the Kings tonight
We were better in the first and fortunately for us, we were able to kill off a penalty a minute in. That I think gave us a little bit of confidence, a little bit of energy, and then our fans. They were there to begin with, it got quiet for a little bit, but once we killed that penalty, the fans were engaged and we could feel a little bit of a boost of energy and belief again.

On getting another timely goal from the power play tonight
Well, a lot has been made and rightfully so, about Edmonton’s power play. They’re dangerous, you’re not going to shut them down and for us to play as close to even as possible in special-teams situations gives us the best chance at success. We’re trying our best to do that, whether we’re scoring or preventing, and take our chances 5-on-5. We’re only three games, a lot of hockey left and we’ve got a lot of work to do.

On improvements in the faceoff circle and if it led to more puck possession
Yeah, we were better in that area at times. It’s not just the win, it’s not just the win or the loss, it’s kind of what happens immediately after that’s important, both for and against us. We were a little better in that area tonight, I think we still have room to improve.

On any potential larger storylines carrying over between games
Each of the games has been I guess similar but different, if that makes any sense. Each game has its own personality and the way it rolls out is a little bit different, but we’ve played – the two teams have played, what, 18 times in the last 15 months – there aren’t a lot of secrets. There’s not a sneaky play here or there, there might be the odd one, but for 60 minutes, it’s two good teams playing real hard hockey and I don’t see it changing.

Notes –
– Adrian Kempe scored his team-leading third goal of the playoffs. His second-period goal marked his 10th career playoff point (5-5-10) against Edmonton, the most among any active skater. Kempe’s five playoff goals vs. the Oilers are tied for most among active skaters with Jakob Silfverberg.
– Alex Iafallo tallied his second goal of the series and his third career playoff point. Iafallo scored with 33 seconds remaining in the first period, marking the third Kings goal this postseason scored with under a minute to go in any period: Gabriel Vilardi, 19:16 of P2, April 19 at EDM and Anze Kopitar, 19:43 of P3 on April 17 at EDM).
– Trevor Moore scored his first career playoff overtime goal and the fourth of his Stanley Cup Playoffs career. Per NHL PR, Moore (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) is just the fourth California-born player in NHL history to score a playoff overtime goal, joining Brooks Orpik (Game 2 of 2019 R1 & Game 6 of 2013 CQF), Auston Matthews (Game 4 of 2020 SCQ) and Jason Zucker (Game 3 of 2013 CQF).
– Drew Doughty assisted on Kempe’s game-tying second-period goal for his 31st career home playoff point (11-20-31), tying Tomas Sandstrom (13-18-31) for the fourth-most home playoff points in franchise history.
– Anze Kopitar registered his team-leading fourth assist and fifth point of the postseason. It was also his 75th career playoff point (23-52-75), making him the third player to record 75 playoff points as a member of the Kings, the two others being Luc Robitaille (41-48-89) and Wayne Gretzky (29-65-94).
– Viktor Arvidsson, Quinton Byfield, Matt Roy and Gabriel Vilardi each notched an assist, Vilardi’s first career playoff assist.
– Joonas Korpisalo stopped 38-of-40 shots for his fifth career playoff victory as he improved to 2-1 in the series.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.