Final – Kings 6, Jets 5 (SO) – Kopitar, Kempe, McLellan

The Los Angeles Kings beat Winnipeg 6-5 on penalties Tuesday night at the Canadian Life Center in Manitoba.

The Kings scored four goals from striker Anze Kopitar in the win while Gabi Velarde scored the equalizer at the end of the third period and striker Adrian Kempe buried the winning goal in the shootout.

Winnipeg jumped out to an early two-goal advantage, courtesy of two goals from defender Josh Morrissey. First, after a point deflected off the backboards and into the crease, Morrissey bumped the inside and turned it into a scrum to open the scoring. Less than two minutes later, he buried his second goal of the period with a slap shot from the left circle, which went up the glove for his 12th goal of the season.

The Kings responded through Kopitar, however, who got the visitors on the board with a powerful goal less than 60 seconds into the middle segment. After an early small penalty assessed on the Jets, the Kings set up Kopitar in the right circle, burying once for his 21st goal of the season and making the score 2-1.

However, the Jets pulled back to regain a two-goal advantage off the rushers. Forward Kyle Connor sliced ​​his way into the offensive zone, skated to the left circle and buried a high shot to the side of the glove for his 27th goal of the season, the second-most on the team.

Kopitar brought the game level with a pair of deflected attempts, completing his hat-trick 10:17 into the second period. First, the captain drove into the net and got a stick into defender Alex Edler’s shot from the left, which put the guests back into the goal. The Kings evened the score when Kopitar deflected a shot from defenseman Drew Doughty to complete the 10th-fastest hat-trick in franchise history.

Forward Kevin Stenlund responded with a pair of goals of his own to put the Jets ahead 5-3 going into the second intermission. Stenlund scored his fourth goal of the season 12 minutes into the middle section, shooting the top keeper from the right circle 4-3. He extended the lead to 5-3 with a shorthanded goal, catching a pass from forward Adam Lowry and scoring 2-on-1 on a rush to complete a six-goal stretch.

The visitors responded in the third to tie the game at two goals to force overtime. First, Kopitar buried his fourth goal of the night to tie one game, a career high. Velarde continued to equalize in the final five minutes of regulation, forcing a substitution in the attacking zone, single-handedly moving to Hellebwick and firing into the top shelf for his team’s fifth goal of the night.

After a scoreless overtime period, the Kings got a shootout goal from Adrian Kempe and three saves from goaltender Pheonix Copley to clinch their second point in the skills contest.

Hear from Quimby, Kopitar and Coach Todd McClellan after the win.

Adrian Quimby

Postgame ideas from Kempe after W! 🎙#GoKingsGo | @tweet | @tweet pic.twitter.com/wyTk1stKSl

– Bally Sports West (BallySport West) March 1, 2023

Anzi Copitar
Its a huge night and a big win on the road
Yes, it was a huge win. Obviously I’m happy to contribute, but for showing character to fall down a few times, come back and eventually win the shootout, those are two very big points for us.

At the team’s comfort level even when they fall behind in third place
We like to be on the other side of things and play with the lead, but sometimes you have to come from behind to win and that feels good.

On the physical nature of tonight’s match
We know they are an up-and-coming physical team this time of year. Everyone plays their best, they play physically with a lot of emotion and we had to reward them.

Todd McClellan
On Anzhi Kopitar’s performance in tonight’s match
Hot hand, any shot that had a chance, he had a four but could have got a six, so we’re really happy for him. Great driving steps in and pulls us into the back end of the ride when it’s not really looking good. Many other men followed him. I’m still disappointed, though, in some of our players, believe it or not. We’ll have this kind of game, we just don’t have enough players right now. This should change for the next 20 games.

At the team’s comfort level even when it’s down 5-3 in the third period
Well, the one thing we think we can score is, which is a nice change from years ago. Keeping the disk out of the network continues to be a challenge for us, for various reasons and we’ll continue to work on that. For me, if you’re not recording regularly, you have to do a few more things and do them well, and do them consistently, day and night.

On whether the issues he saw tonight are the same game in New York
To some extent, yes, it was different but the same. You know, I get back a bunch of guys and I’m going to deal with that, but we need more of them. We need more.

On the play of Gabi Velarde since his return from injury
I think it’s getting better. I will say, I thought he was skating better before his injury, that’s normal. I stopped for a long time, plus the game just got faster. I think some guys who come back from injury, even Trevor Moore when he came back, he’s faster, it’s March hockey now, it’s not November or December hockey. It’s fast and the games are moving and you have to be able to move. Gabe has done the best job of injured players coming back and being able to find his game faster.

Notes –
– Anzhi Kopitar (4-0-4) scored his second match with four goals in his career, matching his record for the most goals scored in a single match (4-0=4, March 22, 2018 in COL). He is the second Kings skater to score a four-goal game this season (Adrian Quimby, 4-0=4, Feb. 11 vs. Pete) and the fifth different skater in Kings history to score multiple four-goal games over the Kings. Career (Marcel Dion, Mike Murphy, Bernie Nichols and Luc Robitaille).
Kopitar (35 years, 188 days) is the oldest skater in franchise history to record a four-goal game and the fourth-oldest player to score a hat-trick. The only older players at the time of their game with three goals are Luc Robitaille (39 years, 336 days on January 19, 2006) and Bob Nevin (36 years, 307 days on January 19, 1975; 36 years, 209 days on October 13, 1974).
Kopitar’s four-goal game marked his 44th multi-goal game, tying Charlie Simmer for sixth in franchise history. He also surpassed Wayne Gretzky (125) for the third-most multi-point road game in Kings history.
Gabriel Velarde scored his 19th goal of the year with a tying mark in the third period.
Adrian Kempe scored his 12th penalty goal, which was also his second career goal.
– Kevin Fiala extended his team-leading total to 64 (21-43-64) with a mission. Only six players have caught more assists in their first season with the Kings: Wayne Gretzky (114 in 1988-89), Larry Murphy (60 in 1980-81), Joseph Stumpel (58 in 1997-98), Jason Allison (55 in 2001- 02), Marcel Dion (54 in 1975-76) and Craig Conroy (44 in 2005-2006).
Drew Doughty (0-2-2) collected assists in his 115th career multi-point game.
Alex Ivalo skated to his 400th career NHL game, becoming the 24th active undrafted skater to reach the milestone.

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Los Angeles after tonight’s game and have a vacation squad tomorrow.