Kings beat Coyotes for first home win of season
LOS ANGELES » Although they let their opponents off the mat at times, the Kings ultimately pinned the Arizona Coyotes, 6-3, in a seesaw affair at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night.
It was the Kings' first home victory of the season and it put them on the right side of a .500 points percentage for the second time in the young campaign.
The Kings got goals from six different scorers: Anze Kopitar, Trevor Lewis, Trevor Moore, Blake Lizotte, Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe. Fiala and Kopitar also contributed an assist apiece, as did five of the six Kings defenseman in uniform Tuesday.
Pheonix Copley earned his first win in his second start of the season after losing a 6-5 overtime contest to Carolina on Oct. 14.
Jack McBain, Nick Bjugstad and Clayton Keller each tallied for Arizona. Connor Ingram stopped just six of nine shots he faced before being relieved by Karel Vejmelka.
With 36 seconds remaining, Kempe lofted the puck into the empty net for his second goal, both of them empty netters.
Early in the third period,
THE SCORE
KINGS 6, COYOTES 3
Up next: Kings at Coyotes, Friday, 7 p.m., BSW
the Kings absorbed play, brushing up against another tie score at least twice before Fiala authoritatively stuffed home a Vladislav Gavrikov rebound for a two-goal lead. With 9:11 to play, the Coyotes appeared to pull back within one, but Barrett Hayton's goal was nullified on a review initiated by the Kings because the play had gone offside.
The second period saw the Kings' two-goal lead halved, re-established and then reduced anew to a solitary goal.
A dizzyingly deft passing sequence saw rookie Logan Cooley execute a perfect dish for Keller, who flared into the right circle for a one-timer after players and puck whizzed about the Kings' zone, 2:32 before the second intermission.
Lizotte had regained a two-goal edge for the Kings with the fourth line's second tally of the night, as he snuck behind the rush and into the low slot unmarked 82 seconds after Arizona scored.
At the 6:17 mark, Lawson Crouse flicked an innocuous-looking shot on net, but the rebound trickled out to Bjugstad, who had gotten position on Moore and allowed his imposing size to do the rest as he effortlessly scored his second goal of 2023-24.
After an early wobble, much of the first period was carried by the Kings.
Moore scored his teamleading fifth goal after a disrupted counterattack became a workmanlike trip into the offensive zone. It culminated in Danault's centering pass along the goal line for a swift redirection that chased Ingram from the game after surrendering three goals in just over four minutes between the 8:13 and 12:34 marks of the game.
The Kings had taken the lead after Andreas Englund and Lizotte's rush opened up space for a trailing Lewis to slide his first goal of the season far side past Ingram.
Kopitar drew the Kings even with a one-timer off a Fiala seam pass through the center of both faceoff circles. It was the captain's third goal of the season and his second on the power play.
The Coyotes started strong, when three minutes into the match McBain stuffed home a rebound from a dangerous Travis Boyd shot that came off a slick pass from behind the net.