Saturday night marked game No. 25 of the Kings current campaign, and it was their 12th overtime contest. It’s a stat that on the surface almost seems impossible, yet it’s true.
One consistent theme this year for coach Jim Hiller’s squad thus far has been needing more than 60 minutes to determine an outcome. True to form, that’s how things played out once again during the bookend of the team’s back-to-back weekend set — similar to how things unfolded the day prior in Anaheim. Only this time around, it was LA coming out on top.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar opened the scoring with a first period goal. In doing so, he’s now put the puck past 150 different NHL netminders.
A goal by Canucks forward Evander Kane in the second period tied things up, but that was all the offensive firepower either side produced through 60 minutes of regulation.
In the extra frame, Adrian Kempe buried his 10th career overtime goal — surpassing former captain Dustin Brown (9) and current captain Anze Kopitar (9) for second most in Kings history — and handed the Canucks their fifth loss over the past six games. By contrast, LA is now 6-1-3 over their most recent 10 games, tops in the Pacific Division.
Other Notes & Takeaways:
— Forward Corey Perry played in his 1,411th career regular season contest tonight, tying Hockey Hall of Famer and former Kings defenseman Harry Howell (1,411 GP) for the 40th most regular season games played in NHL history. It was also Perry’s 19th regular season game with the Kings. In his next start, he’ll earn his second performance bonus of the year.
— Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 19-of-20 shots, earning his ninth win of the season and 50th career victory as a member of the Kings.
— Kopitar’s goal was No. 304 of his career at even strength, tying Dave Taylor for
the third most in Kings franchise history. Overall, it was Kopitar’s 445th career goal, which passed Daniel Alfredsson for the 12th-most by a player that was born and trained outside of North America.
— More on Kopitar: With multiple shots on goal in the game, he leapfrogged Dustin Brown (3,360) for the second most in franchise history behind Marcel Dionne (3,848 SOG).
— Kempe increased his team-leading point totals to 22 (8G, 14A) with his sixth multi-point effort of the year. He’s also now just one overtime goal away from tying Jeff Carter (11) for the most in team history.
Full game highlights can be viewed here:
Pregame notes and lineups can be found in the article linked below.
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