The LA Kings found a way in San Jose, as they completed a 4-0-1 roadtrip with a 4-3 victory over the Sharks on Tuesday evening at SAP Center.
Seconds after a Kings power play expired, the visitors opened the scoring as forward Corey Perry buried his third goal in four games. Forward Alex Laferriere made a diving pass to keep the play alive, over to defenseman Brandt Clarke, who saw his shot deflected off the post and into the crease, where Perry worked it over the line for an early 1-0 advantage, as he continued his hot start in a Kings uniform.
Inside the first four minutes of the second period, the Kings doubled their advantage by capitalizing on a 2-on-1 rush. After Perry worked the puck out of his own end, it sprung forward Jeff Malott the other way, leading an odd-man attack. Malott kept the puck himself and fired underneath the crossbar and in for his second goal of the season, coming in his return to the lineup, for a 2-0 Kings lead.
Just over three minutes later, the Kings made it 3-0 with another good finish, as defenseman Drew Doughty buried his first goal of the season. With Perry providing the screen, Doughty worked his way in from the right point and buried high stick side, past San Jose goaltender Yaroslav Askarov. With the goal, Doughty tied Rob Blake for the franchise record for goals by a defenseman, the 161st tally of his NHL career.
After sustained stretches with possession in the offensive zone, San Jose finally broke through with just under five minutes to play in the second period. Forward Macklin Celebrini was the facilitator, as he found forward Will Smith for a one-timer from close range, which he put just past the best efforts of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper to bring the hosts within 3-1.
With 2:44 remaining in the second period, San Jose pulled to within a goal as forward Philipp Kurashev scored his second goal of the season. After forcing a turnover on the forecheck, the Sharks turned it around quickly as forward William Eklund fed forward Alexander Wennberg, who worked it across the crease to Kurashev for the goal, bringing San Jose to just a goal down.
Shy of the five-minute mark in the third period, San Jose tied the game at three with the a power-play goal. After he picked up the primary assist on the second Sharks goal, Wennberg this time got the reward, as he connected again with Kurashev to bury his second goal of the season from the bottom of the left-hand circle, pulling the hosts level in the process.
With the Kings in need of a moment of magic, defenseman Brandt Clarke was the player to step up late in the third period with the game-winning goal. Clarke activated down the right wing and took a long pass from forward Adrian Kempe, into the offensive zone. Clarke picked his spot and buried a heavy wrist shot, inside the far post and into the back of the net for a 4-3 Kings lead they would not relinquish.
Hear from Clarke, Doughty and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s trip-ending win.
Brandt Clarke
Drew Doughty
On how the team found a way to get the win tonight
Just got to thank Darce really. He played unbelievable tonight. That’s our worst game of the season by far, but at the end of a roadtrip and we had a great road trip. We’ve got to learn from all the mistakes we made tonight, but at the same time, just move on.
On the team not having their legs at the end of a long trip overall
I don’t even know if it was our legs, it just felt like we were cheating for too many pucks. We’d have 50/50 pucks and we’d have guys blowing the zone on a 50/50 puck. Then, all of a sudden, we’d have long shifts in our zone. You get tired, they get to change and then you’re basically screwed. We just weren’t connected tonight. I don’t think anyone but Darce can say they were happy with their game.
On learning from the blown three-goal lead, despite the win
Oh yeah, that should never happen. We’re one of the better defensive teams – I don’t know if the stats show it this year – but I know we are and we should never be giving up a three-goal lead. Unfortunately, we did, but we stayed with it and won the game.
On learning from the blown three-goal lead, despite the win
I looked up to Blakey as a kid, I was a big Kings fan and he’s one of my favorite D [to watch]. So, it’s kind of cool to be with him there. Wishing it hadn’t taken this long, but it has.
On his impressions from the trip as a whole
Great, great trip. Very happy, like you said before, we had some hard travel, getting in at 2:30 in the morning, playing games and back-to-backs and traveling all over the place, that was a tough trip. So, very happy with that. We needed that.
Jim Hiller
On the game tonight, the performance and the overall result
We were just talking about it, that we there’s no question we didn’t [play well] but there’s been times this season where we have and we’re come out of the short end of a pretty good goaltending [performance] ourselves. So, we’ll take it. It’s great to see Darcy back in full form, the type of season he had last year, so that’s really important for us. They had better legs than we did, that was really clear, but what a road trip. It takes a lot of character to get nine out of 10, and we’ll take it, but we need a break, though. We need a rest, there’s no question.
On what was missing tonight
Clearly we had no legs, but then we compounded the issue by turning the puck over and over and over again. Sometimes when the legs aren’t there, the brain’s not there and the hands aren’t there and I don’t think any of those three were working in unison tonight for us, but we’ll take it. We’ll take it. It’s a long season, it’s 82 games, there’s games like this. You’re just happy when you can sneak a few of those ones out.
On seeing this game as a teaching moment, no harm no foul, but lots to clean up
I don’t know. I mean, we’ve gone through some of that before. I just think tonight, we’re not going to spend a lot of time on this game tonight. They’re done, they’re fried. They need a rest, we need a rest. We’re just going to tuck that one away and look forward to Detroit.
On Brandt Clarke being the player to make the difference in the third period
It was great. What I really liked about it was, he came up the wide side, Juice delayed just a little bit, Clarkie read the ice, took the ice, and got himself available and those are the moments that he has to go. He’s got the green light, he just has to make the read and he saw the opportunity, he went and probably surprised us all a little bit with that shot. That’s not normally what he’s known for, the shot, but that was just an unbelievable shot.
On his evaluation of a 4-0-1 roadtrip as a whole
In the end, we’ll take all the points. That was a tough trip, lots of travel, lots of tight games with the overtime games, which were well documented. The one was an empty-net goal, right, so other than that, it’s been one-goal games. It’s hard. It’s hard mentally, it’s hard physically, when you’re in those types of games, sometimes, if you can get up three or four goals, it’s a little easier, if you get down three or four goals, you get blown out, the guys can conserve their energy, they know the outcome is probably decided, and maybe we’ll just turn the lines over and they can save some energy for the next game. This was just scratching and clawing from zero to 60 and into 65 some nights.
Notes –
– Forward Corey Perry (1-1=2) recorded his first multi-point game of the season to extend his point streak to a fourth consecutive game (3-2=5), dating back to Oct. 23 in Dallas. The veteran now has 59 career points (31-28=59) against the San Jose Sharks, breaking a three-way tie with two former LA Kings captains, LucRobitaille (26-31=57) and Dustin Brown (25-32=57), for sole possession of the 13th most points against the Sharks all-time.
– The 40-year-old native of Peterborough, Ontario, played in his 1,397th career regular season game tonight, breaking a tie with Stan Mikita (1,396 GP) for sole possession of the 44th most games played in NHL history. Perry also became the first 40-year-old player in Kings history to record a four-game point streak and tied Larry Robinson (3-10=13 in 56 GP) for the most goals by a Kings player at age 40 or older, per NHL PR.
– Forward Jeff Malott (1=0=1) fired home his second goal of the season in his first career visit to SAP Center.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty (1-0=1) scored his first goal of the season to reach 161 career goals, a total which ties Hockey-Hall-of-Famer Rob Blake (161 G) for the most by a defenseman in LA Kings history.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (1-1=2) registered his fifth assist of the season in the first period before scoring his second goal of the year to put the Kings ahead 4-3 in the final frame. Clarke now has five points (1-4=5) in his last three games played, dating back to Oct. 25 in Nashville.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-2=2) notched his fourth and fifth assists of the season, his third consecutive game with an assist, dating back to Oct. 25 in Nashville. This is the third time in his career that the Brandon, Manitoba, native has posted a streak of at least this length, tying a three- game point and assist streak (0-3=3) from Jan. 6 through Jan. 9, 2018, with St. Louis. Edmundson’s longest point streak is six games (2-6=8), recorded from Nov. 11 through Nov. 23, 2019, with Carolina.
– Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) assisted on Perry’s game-opening tally, his fourth point (2-2=4) of the Kings road trip, dating back to Oct. 21 in St. Louis. The newly-turned 24-year-old celebrates his birthday with his sixth career point (2-4=6) against the San Jose Sharks in his eighth matchup.
– Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) recorded his third assist of the campaign, his second helper in his last three games and his first point against the Kings’ in-state rival to the north.
– Defenseman Brian Dumoulin (0-1=1) earned his first point as a member of the LA Kings with an assist on Doughty’s franchise record-tying goal.
– Winger Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) increased his team-leading totals to nine assists and 14 points (5-9=14) on the campaign with his set-up on Clarke’s game-winning goal. In doing so, Kempe extends his road point streak to a career-long seventh game (5-6=11), dating back to Oct. 11 in Winnipeg and pushes his overall point streak to a sixth game (3-6=9), dating back to Oct. 18 against Carolina.
– Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves tonight to earn his third win of the season and 44th victory as a member of the Kings, tying Cal Petersen and Mathieu Garon for the ninth most in franchise history.
– Tonight’s win is the second time in franchise history that the Kings have scored four goals on 14 shots or fewer, joining a 5-3 victory over the original Winnipeg Jets almost exactly 41 years ago tonight, Oct. 29, 1984 (14 SOG).
