FINAL – Kings 4, Flames 3 (OT) – Kempe, Lizotte, McLellan

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

The LA Kings extended their winning streak to four consecutive games with a 4-3 overtime victory over Calgary on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

• Adrian Kempe
• Blake Lizotte

• Todd McLellan

# Adrian Kempe

Yeah, I caught a loose puck in our d-zone and knew I had [Viktor Arvidsson] with me for a 2-on-1. I tried to make the pass over the d-man early and obviously I was expecting him to shoot but I was staying at the back post in case the puck ended up there and he made a great play back to me for an easy tap-in. Fun goal.

Yeah, that was huge. It’s a divisional game, first of all, and they’re a couple of points behind us, it was an important game. They came back late in the third period, so I think we showed some good character to get the two points from them in OT. Obviously we wanted to win the game after 60 minutes, and I think that’s something we should have done, but they’re a good team, they have some good lines up front. I think it showed some good character from us to come away with the two points.

Yeah, I think so. It was two good teams out there, both teams had a good game I felt like, we played well, they played well. Bad things are going to happen when you play a team like that, they have a lot of offense up front and they’re going to create their chances, but overall I think we were pretty happy with our game. We could have cleaned it up a little bit at the end, in the third period, but other than that, there are a lot of things we can take with us.

# Todd McLellan

I think that’s fair. I thought there was a well-played game by both teams, it was tight checking, not a lot of space, the odd breakdown and then the goaltenders played well, special teams were dangerous on the powerplay, but yet the penalty kill was pretty good. It felt like a playoff game, that’s sort of what it felt like.

[Blake Lizotte] elevated his game, he was all over the rink. I thought physically he received but he also gave back and that’s important. Good in the circle, his tenacity is hard to handle. The size advantage doesn’t always go to the bigger guy when you’ve got [Lizotte] buzzing around all the time, in your equipment and stripping pucks. He was a really effective player tonight.

It’s interesting, I think [Gabe Vilardi] is still a top-three, top-six player in my mind. He needed a little rejuvenation with the gas tank and a little bit of confidence. He scored tonight, so obviously that’s a real big thing for him, but he had a heck of a night I though. Going out there and being ready, never knowing when your number is going to get called a little bit more than it has been, it’s important. He passed that test.

I thought checking was tight, there wasn’t much space in it, from that perspective it felt playoff-like. You had about three feet of ice to work in and then somebody else got three feet. The stick-on-stick bottles, the body positioning, faceoffs to net play to corner work, it felt a little [tighter], a little heavier, a little quicker, faster. I’m not sure if the players about that felt that but we did be behind the bench

Structure was pretty good, but if I could wave a wand, I think we have to learn to play a little bit better with the lead. I thought that shift length got a little long, there were some risk plays that we didn’t need to deploy. I thought we played 1-on-1 standing still and that’s often a dangerous thing, especially against that team but win is a win, we’ll take it. Get some rest and play tomorrow.