FINAL – Kings 7, Senators 8 (OT) – Kempe, Clarke, Hiller

The Kings collected a point for the third straight game to open the season, but dropped a topsy-turvy, 8-7 decision against the OTtawa Senators on Monday afternoon at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Kings opened the scoring with a goal on the game’s first power play. Forwards Kevin Fiala and Anze Kopitar executed a low-to-high, give-and-go play, with Fiala working it down from the left side of the umbrella, before the captain teed up Fiala for a one-timer, which he buried for his first goal of the season. Kopitar and defenseman Brandt Clarke collected the assists on the play, Kopitar’s team-leading fourth point of the season.

The visitors doubled their advantage 56 seconds later, as the fourth line scored their first goal of the season. Center Alex Turcotte showed good awareness to circle the net and fire the puck into a dangerous area, with forward Trevor Lewis providing the screen. The puck deflected off Lewis and in for his first goal of the season and a 2-0 advantage.

Ottawa struck back with a power-play goal of its own, however, pulling to within 2-1 midway through the opening period. With Fiala in the box on a roughing call, forward Brady Tkachuk sent a puck into open ice high in the slot, into the path of defenseman Jake Sanderson, activating from the point. Sanderson sent a shot from the slot inside the post, past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper on the glove side, making it a one-goal game.

The Kings restored a two-goal advantage early in the second period, shortly after they had a goal called back. Skating on its third power play of the game, Los Angeles connected on several consecutive passes in the offensive zone, with Clarke eventually teeing up forward Adrian Kempe, who hammered a one-timer past Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg for his first of the season, with Clarke and Kopitar each collecting their second assists of the game.

Once again, Ottawa cut the score to a single goal, as the Kings conceded a 5-on-5 goal for the first time this season. On a bit of an odd play, former Kings forward and current Senator Zack MacEwen fired a slap shot from the left wing, which beat Kuemper clean from distance, for his first goal of the season, as Ottawa pulled to within 3-2.

The seesaw battle continued midway through the second period, with the Kings once again pulling ahead by two goals. Forward Alex Laferriere worked his way into the slot and got a stick on a shot from the right point by defenseman Kyle Burroughs, with the redirection getting past new Ottawa goaltender Mads Sogaard, who entered the game following an injury to Forsberg.

In a span of just 19 seconds, Ottawa turned 4-2 into 4-4 with a pair of goals. First, skating on a power play, forward Drake Batherson won a battle in the slot, collected the puck on his forehand and snapped a shot past Kuemper for his first goal of the season. The Senators tied the game just seconds later, on an outnumbered attack in the slot, with Thomas Chabot deking to the forehand and burying the game-tying goal.

The Kings pushed back, on the power play once again, as Fiala scored his second goal of the game. Stationed this time at the center point, Fiala’s shot evaded traffic from distance and found its way past Sogaard for the goal. On the play, Clarke and Kopitar each collected an assist, the third helper of the game for both players.

MacEwen continued his revenge tour with his second goal of the game, scoring with just over two minutes to play in the second period, sending the game into the second intermission tied at five goals apiece. In what amounted to a 3-on-3 situation, MacEwen was left uncovered in the slot, collecting the puck for a wrist shot and firing through traffic, past Kuemper, for a 5-5 score after 40 minutes.

Early in the third period, the Kings pulled ahead once again, as Laferriere scored his second of the game. After defenseman Kyle Burroughs forced a turnover in the neutral zone, Laferriere gained possession at the offensive blueline and made a silky-smooth move to create space in the slot. He picked his spot and placed a wrist shot past Sogaard and in for a 6-5 lead.

With two additional power-play goals, the third and fourth of the afternoon, Ottawa took its first lead of the game before the halfway point of the third period. First, working off the rush, forward Claude Giroux took a feed through the slot, deked to the backhand and lifted his shot past Kuemper to tie the game at six. The Kings challenged for goaltender interference but were unsuccessful. Forward Josh Norris then made it 7-6 for the hosts, two penalties later, with his first goal of the game.

With just over five minutes remaining in regulation, forward Tanner Jeannot tied the game with his first goal as a member of the LA Kings, taking the contest into overtime at 7-7. Jeannot went in aggressively on the forecheck, initially disrupting the play in the corner to establish the offensive zone. He then gloved down an attempted clearance, took the puck to the net and scored on the blocker side with a wrist shot, tying the game and earning a point for his team.

Norris eventually ended the game in overtime, with Ottawa winning 8-7.

Hear from Kempe, Clarke and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s game.

Brandt Clarke

Adrian Kempe
On his takeaways from a disappointing night overall
Yeah, it’s tough right now. Not a good game from our side. We’re up 4-1 or 4-2, whatever it was in the second period and that’s just, I don’t care that they come back, we have to shut the game down at that point. Unacceptable from our side. Defending poorly, careless, everything. It wasn’t clicking tonight.

On the difficulties in establishing momentum in this game
I think kind of early in the second we had the momentum going the right way. I think everybody started feeling good and then a couple goals back and penalties started to happen, so yeah, a momentum shifter for sure, you kind of lose rhythm, all that kind of stuff. Still, out of character, how many penalties there were both ways. We have to be better than we were out there in the second half of the game.

On seeing so many defensive breakdowns in the slot over the first three games
There was a lot of chances, especially this game, and then against Buffalo as well. I couldn’t tell you right now, from all the goals throughout today, what cost it, [a lot] on the power play, obviously for them. That’s something we have to look at. On the other side, yeah, I think my feeling is that 50/50 [battles] that we lost around the bluelines and all that kind of stuff that cause 3-on-2’s, guys being open in the slot and on the wide side. We’re going to have to go back, look at it and regroup.

Jim Hiller
On how he evaluates a game when nothing when according to the script
Well, it was interesting, completely opposite of the Boston game, right? Both teams checked in Boston, and I wouldn’t say that Ottawa didn’t check tonight, but we didn’t win our checking game. That’s the bottom line for me. We didn’t have the mindset to check and it turned into a crazy game that we could have won. There was a reason that we didn’t win, though.

On the numerous defensive breakdowns in today’s game
That’s just a mindset, that’s just a mindset. There’s no video, there’s no explaining on something like that. There’s nights that you just don’t have it, another team makes good plays and not much you can do, but we were just all over the rink tonight. That just means we weren’t ready to play the type of game that was needed. It’s hard game to play. Took a lot out of us in Boston, mentally and physically, but the job is to do that every night.

On allowing four power-play goals, after starting the season 10-of-10
We’ll take time to break that down completely, but probably they came through off the entry. They did a really nice job, they’re dangerous, created good opportunities, quite a few of them, at least, off the entry. Good players made good plays but we’ll take a look at them and try to make an adjustment.

On what changed after feeling “in control” leading 4-2
Well, we were up, but I don’t think, but at any point we felt like we were in control of the game. We were pretty opportunistic to be up 4-2, so there was no real shift for me. It was just us trying to get playing the type of game that we needed to play. I don’t know that we got that for more than three or four shifts. It was penalties, power play, penalty kill, our strength is 5-on-5 and we just never got that.

On the coaches challenge on Giroux’s power-play goal
Yeah, that’s what we thought and the league thought differently. We move on.

Notes –
• Forward Kevin Fiala (2-0=2) tallied his first and second goals of the season for his fourth and fifth points against the Senators in the past four games. Fiala, who led the Kings with 11 goals on the powerplay last season, notched both of his goals on the man-advantage.
• Forward Trevor Lewis (1-0=1) scored his first goal of the season, the 99th of his career, one shy of becoming the 21st skater and fourth American selected in the 2006 NHL Draft to tally 100 career goals.
• Nepean, ON, native Brandt Clarke (0-3=3) registered his first points of the season in front of his hometown crowd while recording the first multi-assist and first three-point performance of his career. Clarke (21 years, 248 days) became the youngest Kings player to post a three-assist game since Drew Doughty (21 years, 5 days) on Dec. 13, 2010
• Anze Kopitar (0-3=3) registered his first three assists of the campaign, pushing his point streak against Ottawa to a fourth game (1-8=9), dating back to Dec. 6, 2022. The assists mark the 793rd, 794th, and 795th of Kopitar’s career, surpassing Guy Lafleur for sole posession of the 36th most in NHL history. With 1,217 total points (422- 795=1,217), the Kings’ captain now sits tied with former King Larry Murphy for46th most points all-time.
• Kopitar recorded his 303rd multi-point game and registered three points in a game for the 77th time in his career.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) notched his first goal of the season as part of his 69th career multi-point effort.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (2-0=2) recorded his first multi-goal game of his career, his third multi-point effort of
the 2024 calendar year.
• Forward Tanner Jeannot (1-0=1) scored his first goal as a member of the Kings to force overtime.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) and defensemen Kyle Burroughs (0-1=1) and Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) each
recorded their first points of the campaign. Today’s assist marked the first point of Burroughs’ career as an LA King.

The Kings have a practice scheduled for 9:30 AM Pacific tomorrow in Toronto, before returning to game action to take on the Maple Leafs on Wednesday evening.