In the 2022 finale, the Kings and Philadelphia Flyers faced off in a Saturday matinee to close out the year. The afternoon game at Crypto.com Arena saw the Kings in their 1982 themed Reverse Retro jerseys for the last time at home. On the ice, the tightly contested game saw six goals and of all sorts.
The Kings began the game's scoring with an Adrian Kempe one-timer on a 5-on-3 power play midway through the first period. Kempe's goal gives him 14 goals on the season, good for second on the Kings. Assisting on the power-play goal was Drew Doughty who picked up his 19th assists and Kevin Fiala who picked up his team-leading 27th assist.
The Flyers would even the game with their own power-play game just under three minutes after the Kempe icebreaker as Scott Laughton also used a one-timer to beat the goalie on the glove side. In true Kings fashion, a response was immediate as Phillip Danault scored just 57 seconds later, extending his point-streak to seven games (5-4=9). Assisting on Danault's goal was Viktor Arvidsson, who recorded his team-leading 18th primary assist.
Following the Danault goal with 6:48 remaining in the first period, the Kings offense would be no more… Over the next two plus periods, the Flyers would net three more goals, including an empty net goal to seal the 4-2 win for the visitors.
Notably, Alexander Edler skated in his 1,000th NHL game to become the sixth Swedish-born defenseman in league history to skate in 1,000 career NHL games. Edler becomes the 12th active defenseman, second defenseman from the 2004 NHL Draft class (Alex Goligoski, 1,012 GP) and seventh overall skater from his draft class to reach such mark.
Jonathan Quick started for the Kings and stopped 19 shots.
12/31 FINAL - Kings 2, Flyers 4
PHI@LAK: Kempe nets PPG to kick off the scoring
PHI@LAK: Danault hammers puck by Ersson for goal
