FINAL – Kings 3, Blackhawks 4 (SO) – Laferriere, Danault, Hiller

The Los Angeles Kings were unable to make it back-to-back wins, as they picked up a point but fell in overtime on Saturday afternoon by a 4-3 final against the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Kings opened the scoring early in the first period on the man advantage, with forward Alex Laferriere burying his first power-play goal of the season. All five Kings on the ice touched the puck on the play, ending with forward Anze Kopitar firing a dangerous pass through the slot to Laferriere at the back post, where he buried his team-leading seventh goal of the season for a 1-0 advantage.

Laferriere doubled his total, and his team’s total, late in the second period, as he put his Kings ahead 2-0 heading into the second intermission. This time at even strength, forwards Phillip Danault and Alex Turcotte connected up the wall, with Turcotte dishing the puck to Laferriere in the slot. Laferreire fired a wrist shot past Chicago netminder Petr Mrazek and in, his second goal from that area in as many games, putting the Kings on top by a pair.

Chicago stormed back in the early parts of the third period, overturning a multi-goal deficit to tie the game at two.

First, forward Nick Foligno got a shot on goal from the slot, which was stopped by goaltender Darcy Kuemper, but the rebound trickled through the crease and Kuemper accidentally knocked it into his own net to get the visitors on the board. Forward Craig Smith made it 2-2 just shy of halfway into the third, as he one-timed a centering feed from Lukas Reichel, past Kuemper and in for the goal.

Midway through the third period, the Kings broke the deadlock through forward Phillip Danault, who got off the schneid to open his account for the season. Forward Trevor Moore fed linemate Kevin Fiala in the slot, who fired wide, but Danault was first to the rebound, burying it from close range to put the hosts ahead 3-2. Fiala’s collected the primary assist on the play, giving him two helpers on the afternoon for his second consecutive multi-point game.

Inside 60 seconds to play, the Blackhawks tied the score and forced overtime as Tyler Bertuzzi evened things up at 3-3. With Chicago skating 6-on-5, forward Ryan Donato fed a pass into the low slot, with Bertuzzi finishing from close range for his fourth goal of the season, as the visitors equalized at three goals apiece.

After a 3-on-3 session that saw several Grade-A opportunities, mostly for the Kings but also a couple for Chicago forward Connor Bedard as well, the game proceeded into a shootout. The Kings got shootout goals from Trevor Moore and Adrian Kempe but Chicago scored on all three of its attempts to secure the bonus point.

Hear from Laferriere, Danault and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s game.

Alex Laferriere

Phillip Danault
On controlling much of the game but not being able to get the result
Yeah, I mean, that’s how quick it can change in the game. One goal to gain momentum and I thought we played pretty good, I’m not going to say we played bad because we lost, but we definitely need to find a way to win that game.

On if he feels there is a problem with the team taking its foot off the gas
It’s probably mental. We took the foot off the gas, but it wasn’t horrendous, but yeah, it’s the learning process too. We have to learn to play with the lead like that and to close out the game. 2-0, it should be no chance to come back and they didn’t have a power play in the third. We should haver shut it down, for sure.

On if three goals should have been enough to get that one over the line
Yeah, it should have been. Plus, we took the lead in the third as well, but we’ve got to find a way. They have some good players as well, but it just happened that way tonight.

On the relief in getting his first goal of the season
I played the same way the last seven, eight games, just didn’t go in and tonight was just the night. My wingers were great, we did the o-zone draw there, they set it up and I was there for the rebound.

On if that felt like the strongest game his line played together this season
Yeah, that game and last game as well, it was coming and we want to keep it rolling too. We were in a slump all together and we got out of it. We want to keep it going and help our team as much as we can.

Jim Hiller
On where he felt the team lost the game today
The second 10 minutes of the first period, for me, probably that’s where, in the end we lose the game, because we were all over them for the first 10. I thought if we could’ve continued to play the second 10 of the first the way we played the first 10 of the first, we might’ve been able to create separation and not put ourselves in the position that we ended up in. I would say, to your to answer your question, what happened, where did we lose it? That, for me, is where we lost it.

On what was said at the first intermission to get the team back on track
The players talked amongst themselves mostly, and they understood that, I don’t think it was just the coach who saw that the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes in the first contested. I think the players saw that, so they took it in their own hands. I don’t think it carried over and we got ourselves back together.

On if falling short against teams below them in the standings is a trend
No, that’s not worrying me. What I would say is this league is very hard and it’s very competitive from 1 to 32, you saw that. I mean, everybody was dumping on San Jose, they just won three games in a row. You know, it’s a good League, so I don’t really look at the opponent. Frankly, some guys are coming in hotter than other teams, but it’s a hard league, you have to play well to win and if you don’t, you put yourself in the danger zone.

On Quinton Byfield and Phillip Danault
[Byfield] had some really good looks tonight, I don’t think he’s been getting a lot of good looks, tonight he had some really good looks. So, we’ll take that as a step forward, and you’ve got to find the back of the net and it’s a relief [when you do]. I’m sure we’re going to talk about Phil, you saw when Phil finally scored, I felt the relief from the bench, you know what I mean? Now, I’m sure he’s going to get going and he played his best game of the year, coincidentally he scored, but he played his best game of the year.

On the play of the Fiala/Danault/Moore line in tonight’s game, leading to Danault’s goal
They looked like they did last year, when they put them together and had such a great run. That’s how they have to play. They were quick, they were strong on puck battles, I think that’s the one thing you saw. They made a couple plays off the rush, but mostly it was forechecking, lifting sticks, stealing pucks back and making quick plays and tight, which is what all three of them can do.

On if he feels that the team’s momentum has been halted there after Vegas
No, because outside of the 10 minutes, I wouldn’t say that we felt the opposite. Listen, Mrazek played really well, so give him credit. If a couple of those would have went for us, it might be just saying, geez, you played a good game and locked it down. S,o I’m not going to go there. That was disappointing, for sure, that we didn’t find a way to get the back of the net one more time, at least, but I’m not going down that one.

On if there were parallels between the game in San Jose and today’s game
They were completely different. Again, outside of the last 10 minutes of the first period……the San Jose game, they kind of took it to us after the first period, the last 40 minutes, and we were having trouble getting traction. I thought we got traction back again, we just weren’t able to score and they were opportunistic.

Notes –
• Forward Alex Laferriere (2-0=2) scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season for his second multi-goal game of the campaign. Laferriere’s first goal marked the first power play tally of his career.
• With the pair of goals, Laferriere has scored five points (4-1=5) over his first four career games against the Blackhawks. Laferriere’s 11 points (8-3=11) is tied for second on the team with Brandt Clarke (1-10=11).
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) tallied his ninth assist of the season, his team-leading fifth power play assist of the season. The helper is his 12th career power-play point (3-9=12) against the Blackhawks, breaking a tie with Luc Robitaille (6-5=11) and Rob Blake (0-11=11) for sole possession of the fifth-most power play points against the Blackhawks in franchise history.
• Kopitar’s assist also stands as his 429th career power play point (121-308=429), breaking a tie with Jarome Iginla (197- 231=428) and Daniel Alfredsson (135-293=428) for sole possession of the 45th-most in NHL history.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) recorded two assists to collect his ninth and 10th points of the season, his 20th and 21st career points (9-12=21) against the Blackhawks. With Fiala’s five career power play points (1-4-5) against Chicago, he surpasses Mark Streit (2-2=4) for the third-most versus the franchise amongst Swiss-born players all-time.
• Center Philip Danault (1-1=2) scored his first goal and tallied his fourth assist of the season. He now has seven points (2- 5=7) over his last six games against Chicago. This is Danault’s first multi-point game of the season.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) tallied his fourth assist of the season, establishing a new single-season career high in the category.
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) collected his third assist and fourth point of the NHL season. In doing so, Moore takes sole possession of sixth place all-time in points (4+4=8) scored against the Blackhawks by a California native, surpassing the likes of Matt Nieto and Rocco Grimaldi.
• The Kings secured one point in today’s content to extend their regular-season home point-streak to a fifth consecutive game, dating back to April 18, 2024 (3-2 OTW vs. CHI).

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Nashville tomorrow and will not hold a team practice. The group will return to the ice on Monday at Bridgestone Arena for morning skate, before playing the Predators later that evening.