Kopitar scores twice, Kings rally past Coyotes

LOS ANGELES --Anze Kopitar scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, to help the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-3 win against the Arizona Coyotes at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday.

Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick made 18 saves for the Kings (13-9-4), who extended their point streak to four games (2-0-2).
"I don't know about a statement game, but I thought our energy was there right off the start," said Kopitar, the Los Angeles captain. "It was a bit of a test in the second period where you go down two goals, and we came back."
Matias Maccelli had a goal and an assist, Christian Fischer scored short-handed, and Dylan Guenther had two assists for the Coyotes (7-11-3), who have lost three in a row (0-2-1). Karel Vejmelka made 27 saves.
"It's frustrating when you don't make the simple play and turn it over," Fischer said. "That's when they come and they score and they win. Just have to tighten up defensively."
Kopitar's second goal of the game gave the Kings a 4-3 lead at 5:22 of the third period. He skated in along the right boards to get behind three defenders before scoring on a wrist shot from the right face-off circle during a 4-on-4 situation. He has five points (four goals, one assist) in his past four games.
"I've been feeling pretty well the past few games." Kopitar said. "I thought our line (Kopitar, Fiala, Adrian Kempe) throughout the last four, five, six games, we've been creating quite a few chances, just maybe not necessarily cashing in on a whole lot of them. But tonight, it kind of opened up and we're going to need more of the same going forward."

Arizona went up 3-1 in the second period before Los Angeles rallied.
Maccelli redirected Troy Stecher's long wrist shot through traffic off a face-off win by Guenther to take a 2-1 lead at 4:28, and Nick Bjugstad made it 3-1 at 7:01, standing alone at the left post to put in Guenther's centering pass through the slot after Kings defenseman Alexander Edler lost his skate blade in the corner playing the puck.
Trevor Moore cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal at 9:09, and Carl Grundstrom tied it 3-3 at 18:28 when he kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and beat Vejmelka under his left arm.
"Effort was there. It still maybe wouldn't have went our way, but it was the right response," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "The fact that we got the win was icing on the cake for further response."

Fischer scored his first NHL short-handed goal at 12:45 of the first period to give the Coyotes a 1-0 lead. Los Angeles defenseman Sean Durzi fell at the blue line in the offensive zone trying to reach for a pass from Viktor Arvidsson, which set up Fischer for a breakaway.
Kopitar tied it 1-1 at 13:21 on a one-timer from the right circle set up by Gabriel Vilardi during a power play.
"Sometimes the goals coming off his tape aren't there, but he's done really good things this year," McLellan said of Kopitar. "Wherever he is on the power play, he seems to get it done, so pretty good utility player there."
Fiala scored an empty-net goal at 18:02 of the third for the 5-3 final.
NOTES: It was Arizona's 11th of 14 straight road games (4-5-2). … Coyotes defenseman Josh Brown returned after missing three games because of an upper-body injury. He was minus-1 and had two hits in 17:24 of ice time. … Coyotes forward Lawson Crouse did not play because of illness. … The Kings scored two power-play goals for the third straight game and were 2-for-4 with the man-advantage. They killed each of the Coyotes' three power plays. … Los Angeles forward Samuel Fagemo got his first NHL point in his fifth game with an assist on Grundstrom's goal. Fagemo was a second-round pick (No. 50) at the 2019 NHL Draft.