The LA Kings ended their road trip with another win, this 3-2 win over Winnipeg on Saturday night at the Canada Life Centre.
Forwards Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Gabriel Vilardi scored in the win while Cal Petersen won his second straight start with 25 saves between the whistles.
The Kings opened the scoring after just over two minutes with a goal from a man down by Kempe to take an early lead. When the visitors were down a man, Phillip Danault had a shot on target, his shot was thwarted by Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, but Kempe slammed into the net and let the puck slip off his skate, opening the game.
However, Winnipeg fought back to equalize just over four minutes later. Seconds earlier, after a tremendous save from Petersen at the back post, forward Nikolaj Ehlers got a step down the left wing on the next trip down the ice and fired a shot past the Iowan on the rush to level the game at one.
Just after halftime in the opening game, the Kings came back and went into the first break with a 2-1 lead. Defender Sean Durzi stepped forward at the blue line to intercept a faulty pass and created a quick onslaught in the other direction. After his pass to Kempe was broken off, Kopitar conceded the rebound and pushed it past Hellebuyck for his 18th goal of the season.
The special teams goal tally went from one to two early in the second period as Vilardi scored his third goal of the season. With the Kings man advantage, Jordan Spence’s shot deflected off the right point of Vilardi’s racquet, peed off the skates of a Winnipeg defender, and put the Kings two ahead.
With less than seven minutes to go in the second period, the Jets pulled back to within a goal through forward Adam Lowry. After Petersen parried defender Ville Hinola’s one-off shot from the right circle, the rebound fell into a dangerous area with Lowry winning a stick fight and scoring his 11th goal of the season.
The Kings held out a scoreless third period to seal the 3-2 win and close the road trip with five points from a possible six.
After today’s game, hear from Kempe, Sean Durzi and Todd McLellan.
Adrian Kempe
🧃 joins Carrlyn after the big 2 points #GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/Rq3TqKyBGV
— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 3, 2022
Sean Durzi
To the victory and the crowning of the journey with a high note
yes it is huge 5 out of 6 is a pretty good road trip. We knew that good teams find a way and we believe we are a good team. We did our best tonight, I thought we played a pretty good phase, they had a pretty good push there and we handled it well. We got two points, that’s all that counts.
About him playing a bigger role with others outside of the cast lately
Yeah it’s awesome and I think one thing for me is to just build a full game for myself. I look at a guy like Drew and he does everything, he really does everything. He’s someone I’ve really looked up to my whole life and I’ve learned so much just from playing with him this season that you can’t teach in class, you learn through experience and play with that types. I learn from him every day. I always give him credit for what a great player he is, but with the experience this season I’m more comfortable, doing better reads and just being more confident in the systems. Reading what players are doing, tendencies, used to NHL speed. Many of the top players will make that extra pass and you need to be prepared for that. With my experience and every game I learn a lot and make the best of it.
On to whether there’s talk in the room about being able to move into the postseason or is it just one game at a time
I mean it’s a bit of both. We know what’s at stake, we have a good leadership group that kind of lets us know what that is, but for a young man going through this and with how many young guys we have, maybe we’re not used to it how important it is This is to be in this opportunity to play games now what is important. There are a lot of teams just finishing their season, playing hard every night and working on themselves, but we play as a team and we play to win. It’s really exciting. They sit back, look at what’s at stake and it’s exciting for a rookie in the league to have that opportunity and pull it off with this group. I think we’re going to be a pretty big family in there, with every single win, every single character moment, every shot blocked, every hit you get closer. Passing this run together is something special.
Todd McLellan
On special teams are playing tonight
Yeah, we certainly didn’t want to practice taking penalties for 11, 12 minutes tonight, most of that came in the second half of the game. I really thought they were two different games. We played the game we wanted early on, in the middle of the night we started taking penalties and we gave them every opportunity to get back in. Once we were on the run we were exhausted, after that we got the game. Two games in one, found a way to win along the way, tough schedule, good omens.
On his thoughts on how the team got out early after yesterday’s day off
Yes it was. I thought we needed more of low minute players tonight and it was a tough game for them because there were so many penalties but when they got out of there they had to give us a little bit more. I’m thinking of Lias’ line in particular, by the end of the night we had it down to three lines, but mid-game we needed a little more of them. It’s a learning opportunity for them, a day off on the road, just a bit flat there, but these three guys really helped on the road and they will continue to do so. We believe in them.
On a scale of 1-10, about their satisfaction with this road trip
Probably the best way to answer that is five out of six, change the scale to six. That was a tough run. Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg are not easy places to play for many different reasons. Each of the teams is a bit different, they all have game-breaking superstars, excellent goalkeepers for the most part, difficult buildings to play with, no easy travel plan. This is also what our team needs right now. We have to get through these moments so that we can get better at them later. Down the road it could be Monday vs Calgary, it could be in two weeks, it could be next year, I don’t know where it’s going to take us. We learn lessons as we go.
Cal Petersen showed his attitude in today’s win.
That’s a big part of taking penalties when your goalkeeper is calm. He made a lot of early saves and then he was really good at scramblings, getting whistles for us when we needed them. He knew what was happening in the game, he knew how the dynamic was changing and he was really good at controlling himself. A big part of the profit.
When he got shot blocks from Kopitar and Danault in the last 30 seconds
Phil had one in Calgary last night, slapped it in the hand, Kopi today, these are our star players and they get it. you understand. You are not perfect, you will make mistakes. We want them to score, to be in the top 10 scorers list, but they do some of those little things that allow us to win. I think it was Marc Bergevin who told me the other day that there is statistical hockey and there is hockey to be won. The beauty of most of our guys is that they want to play hockey to win. They don’t reveal their stats, they just want to win. It’s in our DNA, so we’re doing a good job.
Remarks –
– Defenseman Alex Edler extended his points streak to three games, with four points total (1-3-4) on the three-game journey.
– Striker Adrian Kempe scored his 29th goal of the season in the lead early in the first half and added an assist for a multi-point game.
– Striker Anze Kopitar scored his 18th goal of the season, in addition to an assist for the winning goal, for a multi-point game.
– Tonight was Kopitar’s 1200th career NHL regular season game where all 1200 arrived in an LA Kings sweater.
– The Kings scored a power play goal, a shorthanded goal and an equal goal in today’s 3-2 win. They also went 6 out of 6 in the penalty shootout tonight.
The Kings will not be skating tomorrow and will return to action with Morning Skate on Monday in El Segundo.