Kings top Flyers behind Kopitar’s two late goals, extend home win streak to seven games
LOS ANGELES –– The Kings trailed 2-1, 3-2, 4-2 and 4-3, but ultimately prevailed, 5-4, over the Philadelphia Flyers at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night, concluding a perfect weekend at home after beating archrival Edmonton just 29 hours earlier.
Anže Kopitar scored two goals in the third period to swing the game in the Kings’ favor. His running mate Adrian Kempe added a goal and an assist. Kevin Fiala and Warren Foegele also lit the lamp. David Rittich stopped 17 shots.
Matvei Michkov and Scott Laughton contributed a goal and an assist apiece for Philadelphia, which also got goals from Tyson Foerster and Joel Farabee. Aleksei Kolosov came up with a meager 15 of 20 saves.
The Kings seized control during the third period, producing nine of the game’s 10 shot attempts through an early stretch to tie the score and then converting on a power play to earn their first edge since they led 1-0.
Kopitar scored both goals, eking Quinton Byfield’s rebound across the line after the Kings sustained heavy pressure at 6:44 and then deflecting Kempe’s shot home 2:11 later and just five seconds after Travis Sanheim took a hooking penalty.
Philadelphia had scored consecutive goals for the second time in the game, at the 11:03 and 13:42 marks of the second period, but the Kings would recoup a critical goal before the intermission.
Michkov’s resourcefulness came into play on two scoring plays, the second of which was his heady shot from below the goal line that banked in off of Rittich’s skate. Michkov had gone pointless in his prior seven games but still led all rookies in scoring before adding two more points on Sunday.
A failed keep-in at the blue line by Joel Edmundson and a heady pass by Ryan Poehling created a two-on-one rush, during which Garnet Hathaway found Farabee, who had driven hard to the back post to beat Brandt Clarke for position and a goal.
Foegele sensed sloppiness in Philly’s passing game and devoured Travis Konecny’s blind, between-the-legs pass at the blue line, dashing off on a breakaway so clean that he was able to shoot, recover his rebound and score with no defender within 10 feet of him.
The Kings entered the contest having allowed the fewest first-period goals in the NHL while having scored the third-fewest, with the Flyers also ranking in the bottom third of the league in both categories. Those trends were bucked by a four-goal opening salvo.
A fervent start to the game culminated in a three-zone effort from Fiala, 5:14 after the puck dropped. He made the outlet pass on the breakout, recovered the puck on the forecheck and finished the sequence with a blast that he managed to tuck inside the far post for his 14th goal of the season.
The Flyers would pull even at 8:17 and ahead at 14:09.
Former Junior Duck and Anaheim native Cam York’s long pass for Foerster made Foerster turn back for the puck before he pivoted past a scrambling Vladislav Gavrikov and darted in to slip the puck between Rittich’s pads.
Michkov then alchemized something out of a whole lot of nothing, popping a sharp-angle shot from in tight off of Rittich and skyward to create a rebound that was guided home by Laughton.
With 3:06 left in the first period, Kempe made it a new game. What had been a three-on-three counterattack was enlivened by the presence of Brandt Clarke, who settled the puck and slid it to Kempe for a one-timer and his team-leading 17th goal of 2024-25.