The Kings capped off a brief two-game homestand on Tuesday night as they faced off against the 3-2-0 Arizona Coyotes. In their first of two straight games against the desert dogs, the Kings picked up their first win on home ice with a 6-3 victory.
The night started with a quick tally by the Coyotes when Jack McBain picked up a rebound in front of the Kings net after a defensive zone turnover supplied the opportunity 2:59 into the game. Just five minutes later it was the Kings who responded, doing so in bulk. Across a five-minute span, the Kings scored three times and chased Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram from his net. Anze Kopitar got the offense going with a power-play goal off a beautiful cross-ice pass from Kevin Fiala. The assist for Fiala was his eighth on the season, placing him in a tie for third in the NHL in helpers. Quickly after the game-tying goal, Trevor Lewis scored his first goal of the season, finishing off a pass from Blake Lizotte in the slot. Then, closing out the offense for the first period was the other Trevor on the Kings, Trevor Moore. Moore won the position battle in front of the Coyotes’ crease and capitalized on another great centering pass, this time from Phillip Danault. Ingram was pulled and closed his night out with six saves on nine shots.
The offense had just begun between the two teams as fans at Crypto.com Arena were treated to three more goals in the second period. In the second frame it was the Coyotes with the upper hand, outscoring the Kings 2-1 and brought the game within one goal. Nick Bjugstad first cut the Kings’ lead in half 6:17 into the period, but quickly it was the fourth line that stretched the lead back to two when Lizotte took a feed from Drew Doughty and buried his second goal of the season. With a lead of 4-2, the Kings found themselves on the penalty kill in the remaining minutes of the period. Clayton Keller would net a power-play for the Coyotes and make it a 4-3 game in favor of the Kings heading into the final 20 minutes.
While ranking third in the NHL in assists, Fiala had yet to find the back of the net through the first five game of the season. The goalless streak came to an end on Tuesday night when Fiala won a net-front battle and tapped in a Vladislav Gavrikov rebound. Midway into the third period, the Coyotes thought they had brought the game back within one, but goal was overturned and deemed offsides after a Todd McLellan challenge. Sealing things for the Kings was Adrian Kempe, who netted his second empty net goal of the season.
Pheonix Copley returned to the net for the Kings and stopped 24 of 27 shots, earning his first win of the season and improving his record to 1-0-1.
