FINAL – Kings 2, Jets 1 (OT) – Kempe, Spence, Hiller

The LA Kings returned to action for the first time in six days, coming back with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday evening at Canada Life Center in Winnipeg, MB.

After the opening period came and went without a goal, the Kings opened the scoring inside the first five minutes of the second period, through forward Alex Turcotte.

After an extended shift in the offensive zone, forward Adrian Kempe collected the puck at the left point, of a pass from defenseman Jacob Moverare. With his back to goal, Kempe spun and fired a shot towards the Winnipeg net, with Turcotte getting a high deflection, sending the puck past Jets goaltender Eric Comrie for the goal, his fifth of the season, and a 1-0 advantage.

On their second power play of the third period, Winnipeg finally got on the board to equalize the game at one goal apiece. Forward Kyle Connor worked the puck to forward Gabriel Vilardi in the slot, before the former Kings forward redirected it to forward Mark Schiefele in the left-hand circle, where he one-timed his shot past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper to tie the game at one goal apiece.

With the game advancing into overtime, the Kings collected the extra point to leave Winnipeg victorious. Skating the other way in transition, forward Anze Kopitar dished the puck out wide to Adrian Kempe down the left wing. Kempe moved into the offensive zone, dragged the puck onto his forehand and beat Comrie clean on the glove hand for the goal, his 20th of the season, and a 2-1 victory.

Hear from Kempe, defenseman Jordan Spence and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s victory.

Adrian Kempe

Jordan Spence
On the team delivering that type of performance, considering the circumstances
I think we should pat ourselves in the back, I think we did a good job. We knew that Winnipeg, they were going to come out hard and it was going to be a hard-fought battle, but at the end of the day, I think we just did our job, executed well in the OT and we’re really happy with our win. Hopefully there are some fans back there that are watching, that we kind of can give positive vibes. Overall, I thought we played a good game and we’re excited for tomorrow.

On taking on the challenge of stepping up with Joel Edmundson out
Eddy’s such a key factor, he has been the whole season. For him to be hurt right now, not playing and for us to kind of step up and just do the job that we do every game, it’s important. Obviously it takes the whole team to cover a lot of guys roles, so for us, I think it was a team win by everyone and we’re really happy with the result.

On seeing Jacob Moverare step up next to him and have a big night
Mo, I’ve played with him for quite a while now, so playing with him, he’s just such a steady defenseman that’s it’s really easy to read off him. The way he’s playing right now, he’s very consistent and he plays well every game, so partnering up with him, it’s really easy for myself. I think we work well with each other and today, he made a great pass to Juice and we got a great goal there. I think for us as a pair, I think we just have to keep it consistent, just do our job and keep it one game at a time.

On limiting a strong Winnipeg team, especially through 40 minutes
I think the Kings way is just playing well defensively, and that’s our biggest goal, is keeping them away from high-quality chances and I think we did that really well the first two periods. I think we minimized their chances and that’s one of the reasons why we’re having success with the teams that we’re playing against. If we do that, we can win a lot of games, so if we keep doing that, we’ll have success.

Jim Hiller
On the team coming out and playing like that, considering all of the circumstances
Yeah, we played well. We were, and right from the start, we were on our game. I was worried about it for a lot of different reasons, we talked about some of them, but yeah, I’m proud of them. They came out and played hard in a really tough building, that’s a really good team.

On Jordan Spence and Jacob Moverare stepping up with Joel Edmundson out
It’s very important. I think Spenny’s probably played more minutes, obviously, so for Moverare to jump up and play as many minutes as he did today against high level competition, I thought that was……Spenny, we’ve kind of seen that before or more often, but I think it was great to see Moverare do it. I really thought he was maybe one of the most important players for us tonight.

On Darcy Kuemper’s play and the team’s defensive showing
Oh yeah, he was great. The first two periods he didn’t have much. First period, a little bit, second period, I thought the second period was our best period, but then he was there when they got some momentum on the power play, the save he made on Connor, obviously, is the one that gives us a chance to come down and win the game.

On seeing the Winnipeg Jets hold a pre-game moment for the people of Los Angeles
I just think that it’s great, when there’s times of tragedy, people band together. There’s two teams out there battling hard against each other but ultimately in the end, we stand together. We understand there’s a bigger humanitarian issue going on and at that point, you stand together. So, we appreciated that from them for sure.

On taking a timeout in the third and what he was potentially looking for on a challenge
It was really difficult to see, but we thought maybe that on the faceoff, one of the centermen had a hand pass, pulled the puck back. It was really, really difficult to see. In the end, we have to double check I’m not even sure if that’s challengeable or if the ref just misses it and you can’t. You can challenge a hand pass but that might have been a face off one. So yeah, we never had a good angle, but we wanted to take a little more time to make sure we were sure.

Notes –
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) scored his seventh career overtime goal to extend his active goal-streak to a fourth game (4-2=6), mathcing a career high that he has set three times prior. In doing so, the Swedish winger reached the 20-goal plateau for the fourth consecutive season.
• In doing so, Kempe became the sixth Kings player in the last 30 years with four straight 20-goal seasons per NHL PR. He joins Anze Kopitar (6 from 2006-07 to 2011-12), Jeff Carter (5 from 2012-13 to 2016-17), Dustin Brown (5 from 2007-08 to 2011-12), Alex Frolov (5 from 2003- 04 to 2008-09) and Ziggy Palffy (4 from 1999-00 to 2002-03).
• Earlier in the contest, Kempe collected his 19th assist of the season on Turcotte’s second period goal to extend his season-long point-streak to a sixth game (4-4=8) dating back to Dec. 22 at Washington.
• The assist also extended Kempe’s point and assist streak against the Jets to a third game (2-3=5), dating back to April 1, 2024. With his 12 career points (4-8=12) against the Jets franchise, Kempe enters the top ten in scoring against Winnipeg amongst active skaters selected in the 2014 NHL Draft, tying Detroit’s Dylan Larkin (5-7=12) for the ninth most.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (1-0=1) deflected a shot by Kempe to score his fifth goal of the season, his first career goal against the Winnipeg Jets and his second point (1-1=2) against the franchise in as many games following an assist on Nov. 27.
• Defenseman Jacob Moverare (0-1=1) picked up his fourth assist of the campaign, his third in his last four outings. The helper is the Swedish blueliner’s second road assist of the campaign, tying his single-season career high for road assists set in 2021-22. Moverare played in his 10th road game of the season tonight, which matches his single-season career high for road games in a season set in 2023-24.
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) recorded his 19th assist of the season and has now recorded assists in back-to-back games against the Jets (0-1=1; Nov. 27, 2024).
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) racked up his team-leading 28th assist of the season with his helper on Kempe’s overtime tally. In doing so, the center clinched his 19th consecutive 40-point season (12-28=40), the most such seasons in franchise history. Kopitar is the 18th skater in League history to record as many 40-point seasons.
• The assist also extended Kopitar’s point streak against the Jets to a seventh game (7-4=11), dating back to Feb. 23, 2023.
• The captain played his 1,412th career regular season contest this evening, breaking a tie with Harry Howell (1,411) for sole posession of the 39th most games played in NHL history.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 18 of the Jets’ 19 shots on goal in tonight’s contest to improve his record to 12-2-5 on the campaign. PerNHL PR, Kuemper (8-0-2 in 10 GP) became the fourth goaltender in franchise history with points in 10 consecutive appearances and the first since Robb Stauber (10 GP from Oct. 10 to Dec. 12, 1992).

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow, in advance of tomorrow’s game versus Calgary. The team returns to the ice tomorrow evening at 7 PM Pacific against the Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome.