LA Kings vs. Ducks: Twitter breakdown, three stars, quotes in 6-5 OT loss

In a back and forth affair, Adrian Kempe tallied a hat trick for the LA Kings, but the Ducks scored in OT to take game one on Monday night.

In what feels like a broken record for this team, the LA Kings trailed 1-0 on Kevin Shattenkirk’s goal 2:45 into the opening period. This is significant because it marked the third straight game the Kings gave up the game’s first goal on the first shot. Exactly seven minutes later, Adrian Kempe responded on a beautiful pass from Blake Lizotte to even the score at one goal apiece.

Rickard Rakell, who had seven points in his last four games entering Monday night, continued his hot streak, tallying the game’s second goal with 3:14 left in the first period. The Ducks would take a 2-1 lead into the locker room.

The puck dropped for the middle frame and the LA Kings were on 1:55 of power play time, carrying over from the first period. Dustin Brown wasted little time to even the score. The former LA Kings captain tallied his 13th goal on the season and seventh powerplay goal.

The Ducks responded with two very frustrating goals if you’re the LA Kings. Ben Hutton, who signed with Anaheim a couple of days after the regular season was underway, tallied his first goal in a Ducks uniform 8:30 in the middle stanza. Less than six minutes later, and with the LA Kings on a powerplay, Jakob Silfverberg scored a shorthanded goal to extended the Ducks lead.

The second period saw both teams score a combined five times, including Adrian Kempe’s second goal of the contest on a powerplay. Kopitar had a beautiful pass to the left dot where Kempe fired it past Ducks’ netminder John Gibson. However, Rakell tallied his second goal of the game less than two minutes later, giving the Ducks a 5-3 lead heading into the second intermission.

Much like how the second period started, the Kings came out on fire and wasted little time getting on the board. Some nifty stick-handling from Andreas Athanasiou made it a one-score game again, his fifth goal of the season.

It’s a must-watch play. See below.

It looked like Drew Doughty tied the game up at five goals apiece with just over four minutes to play in the final period, but the goal was waved off due to incidental contact from Brown on Gibson. LA Kings head coach Todd McLellan elected not to challenge the play, which at the time was confusing, considering he had a legitimate case here.

You be the judge.

Anyway, it didn’t take long for Kempe to make LA Kings fans forget about that sequence, re-directing a shot into the back of the net, marking his second-career hat trick.

Both teams earned at least a point, with overtime deciding the second point. For the most part, the LA Kings controlled the puck well in the extra frame, but it was an odd-man rush led by Trevor Zegras to Adam Henrique that ultimately sealed the Kings’ fate. A 6-5 overtime loss.

LA Kings Three Stars

3 stars

Adrian Kempe: who else, right? He’s responded well to being called out by the coaching staff.

2 stars

Anze Kopitar: two more assists for the LA Kings captain. His 24 assists this year are tied for fourth-most in the league.

1 star

Drew Doughty: The former Norris Trophy winner is quietly having a great season. Another two assists for him on Monday, marking his 15 total assists on the year tied for fourth-most in the league among defensemen.

Postgame Quotes

Kempe on answering the challenge of Todd McLellan

I mean, yeah, obviously [I] put the puck in net more. I think before that, I was excited to play. I was happy with my play still. [I] didn’t score as much as I wanted to, but still, have my chances and just been trying to be around the net more and that more since the last couple of games back.

McLellan on the team’s resiliency and overall thoughts on Monday’s play

Oh, the St. Louis game, we were happy with resiliency. Tonight, we’re really disappointed with the mistake; six goals against is your answer. We had some dismal performances by some individuals. And yet there was others that had great games really played well. So half the team was ready to play. The other half still isn’t ready to play. The night’s over. And that’s disappointing.

McLellan on why he decided not to challenge the no-goal

[The] officials signaled good goal on the ice. We right away, we go and look at the video, and we thought that was our only chance is if we could get away with a good call on the ice, and then they wouldn’t have enough to turn it over. But they got together. They did what they were supposed to do. They overruled it. And then it was up to us to challenge. We didn’t feel like we were gonna win that, and we don’t want to put our team shorthanded in the last four or five minutes. Three minutes, probably.

McLellan on Kempe responding to being called out

We, you know, [it] was about four or five games ago. We asked him to find a way to contribute a little bit more, and he certainly has offensively.

LA Kings Schedule

The LA Kings can still salvage a possible three-of-four points against their rival. These two teams will meet again on Wednesday evening with puck drop set for 6:30 pm PT.