LOS ANGELES — The Kings took the ice looking to secure their third consecutive victory against the best team in the NHL so far this season, the Vegas Golden Nights. Things started promisingly for Los Angeles as they took a 2-0 lead courtesy of goals from Alex Laferriere and Trevor Lewis. However, the Knights would respond quickly in the second period as they added two goals of their own to even up the score at 2. With things all tied up heading to the third and final period, the situation was intense.
Vegas would end up securing a 3-2 lead at the 13:34 mark in the period as Mark Stone scored the go-ahead shot on a Golden Knights power play. With things looking grim for Los Angeles, they deployed the empty net strategy and scored the desperation goal to tie the game at the 1:03 mark in the contest. After a scoreless overtime, Vegas would go on to win the shootout and prevent the Kings from grabbing the 2nd point on the day.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Doughty keeps things rolling in the clutch
Just a day after collecting his third multi-goal game of his career in Arizona, defenseman Drew Doughty came up clutch one again. It turned out that even after his go-ahead goal with 1:59 to go in yesterday’s game, he still had some magic left in him. With the team down 3-2 late in the game and no goalie guarding the net, he was able to deliver a big-time strike into the Vegas goal to tie the game and force an overtime session.
It was his fourth goal on the season, as well as his 5th point. Just yesterday, he collected the 31st game-winning goal of his career, as well as the fourth in the final 2 minutes of regulation. The Kings will certainly hope to see more of the same clutch performance going forward for Doughty as he looks to keep getting involved more often for Los Angeles.
Trevor Lewis, Anze Kopitar reach career milestones
In the same game, 2 Kings players both reached impressive milestones in their careers. For Lewis, it was the 900th game of his career. As for Kopitar, he reached game 1300. The accomplishment puts him amongst some nice company, as he stands alone with Ryan Suter, Alex Ovechkin, and Brent Burns as the only active players to reach such a mark. In his career against Vegas, Kopitar has 32 total points through 30 career games. More impressively, he has only been held pointless in 9 of those matchups. Kopitar stands as the skater with the most points against the Golden Knights since they joined the NHL in the 2017-2018 season.
On Trevor Lewis’ side of things, the game was also significant. He was able to put the cherry on top of his 900th career game with his second goal of the season in the second period. While he was disappointed at the shootout loss and wanted the team to come away with both points, he did share some words on what game 900 meant for him and how he looks at the situation.
Fiala keeps his streak alive
Kevin Fiala headed into Saturday night’s game against the Golden Knights riding a six-game point and assist streak. Leading all Kings’ skaters in the assist category, he looked to keep his momentum rolling and tie Elias Peterson for the 3rd-most assists in the entire NHL. Although Los Angeles fell short, Fiala was able to pick up an assist in the final moments of the 3rd period as Drew Doughty tied the game with his dramatic goal. Fiala has been on a roll so far this season and is just the fourth different Kings skater in the last 20 years to collect 10 points within the team’s first 7 games. The last time the feat was accomplished was in the 2020-21 season, courtesy of Anze Kopitar. As Fiala’s streak has now extended to 7, he will look to keep it rolling on the upcoming road trip for Los Angeles.
The Kings will now have a couple of days off as they travel to Canada for a game against the Maple Leafs on Halloween night.
The game is set to begin at 5 p.m. PT.
