The easy part is now over, even though there was nothing easy about it.
When the Kings left Los Angeles last week the front-half of their upcoming six-game road trip looked to be the easier portion of the schedule. Although things were about to begin with games against Nashville, Chicago and Philadelphia, those three-in-four-nights lined up as a better stretch than the back half of the trip against Florida, Tampa Bay, and Carolina.
There’s a reason they still play the games, though. And that’s because the outcome on paper isn’t always what manifests itself in real life. Coach Todd McLellan and crew picked up four points in their front half, with the latest two points secured via a 4-3 overtime victory against the Flyers on Tuesday night.
As he’s been known to do at times, captain Anze Kopitar seemingly took things into his own hands early in the contest, scoring a pair of goals in the first period to bring the game even at 2-2 after 20 minutes.
It was a game that was tied on three separate occasions and the Kings never held a lead until the final score. When trailing 3-2 late in the second period, rookie Sammy Fagemo recorded his second career goal to knot things up for the final time in regulation. Kevin Fiala wasted little time in the extra session, scoring with just over a minute gone by in the extra frame — on a play that came mere seconds after goaltender Pheonix Copley made a key save at the other end of the ice.
Three stats from the game:
– Kopitar’s 43rd career multi-goal game tied him with Butch Goring for seventh-most in franchise history. With his first goal of the night coming with the man advantage, Kopitar now has 107 career power-play goals, surpassing Dustin Brown for sole possession of fourth all-time in Kings history.
Anze Kopitar recorded his 3rd multi-goal game this season at age 35
The last Kings player to have 3+ multi-goal games in a season at age 35 or older was Marcel Dionne (4 such games) in 1986-1987@alex_faust @DooleyLAK
— Blake Warye (@bwaryeofblake) January 25, 2023
– Fiala now has 51 points (17G, 34A) on the season. Not only does he continue to lead the Kings in scoring, he’s also the first LA skater since Pavol Demitra to record his first 50 points with the team in 50 games or fewer. His 51 in 49 GP comes after Demitra put up 50 points in 41 GP in 2005-06.
– Pheonix Copley continues to be a big story around the NHL, and it’s at least worth pondering… If he came up earlier in the year, would he be in the All Star Game next week? Copley is now 14-3 on the season; and those 14 wins are more than any other goaltender in the league since his call-up in early December. On Tuesday, he stopped 28-of-31 shots by the Flyers.
Crazy stat of the day: Pheonix Copley is on pace to be the 4th goalie since the NHL started tracking save % in 1955 to have a +.800 win % despite a sub .900 save % in a season
He would join Mike Vernon (1988-89), Pete Peeters (1979-80) & Michael Larocque (1977-78)@alex_faust
— Blake Warye (@bwaryeofblake) January 25, 2023
Below are select highlights from Sunday night’s game:
Additional Post-Game Notes:
https://twitter.com/BallySportWest/status/1618087200888872960
Hear from Flyers head coach John Tortorella following #LAKvsPHI. https://t.co/HTVGDUtDPK
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) January 25, 2023
Lead photo via NHL
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