In Calgary, the visiting Los Angeles Kings watched a 3-0 evaporate as the Flames rallied for three unanswered goals to force extra time.
Drew Doughty struck for the Kings just 50 seconds into the overtime for 4-3 win.
“We stopped making plays,” Doughty said. “We started sitting back. We started high-flipping pucks out of our zone and chipping it back to their D-men. When we were exiting our zone, we stopped making tape-to-tape plays. When you stop doing that, especially a team like Calgary, you’re letting them come back and tie up the game.”
The goal came on a power play.
“We work on the 4-on-3, 5-on-3 on the power play all the time. It’s not necessarily a set play, just running our routes and [Kopitar] has different options on the routes, and he found me as the option. I just tried to rip it, deflected, goal,” Doughty said.
Jack Campbell made 26 saves in the win, the Kings’ first of the season.
“It was a tremendous effort, a great start in a tough building to play in,” said Todd McLellan, who got his first win as Los Angeles coach. “We needed that. It healed the wounds of the Edmonton game, I thought, real quick and gave us confidence. They’re a good team. They ended up in first last year in the division for a reason. They pushed back, yet we had some resolve to continue on and find a way to win it.”
Matthew Tkachuk had two goals in the loss including the tying goal.
“It was a good feeling, and once you get to overtime, you get a point and try to find a way to get the second one,” Tkachuk said. “They made a nice play. Kopitar made an unbelievable pass, and that was the game. It was a good feeling for maybe a minute or two, but not anymore.”
Noah Hanifin also scored for the Flames.
Ilya Kovalchuk, Tyler Toffoli and Sean Walker scored for the Kings in regulation for the 3-0 lead.
“We’re so pumped, but at the same time, we can’t let a team come back like that,” Doughty said. “We’re so excited we got that win. We don’t want to give them one point, they’re in our division, but we got our first win under our belts, and we’ve got to go into [play the Vancouver Canucks] and win tomorrow.”
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Flames highlights]
David Rittich made 36 saves in the loss.
The Kings outshot the Flames 20-3 in the first period.
“It was almost like men against boys there. We were in their zone for a shot, maybe an attempt. We’d turn it over or just lose possession,” Tkachuk said. “They’d come back, get a couple shots, get a couple of O-zone shifts, and they kept doing what we did in the second and the third, setting the next line for success by having short shifts and attacking the net and playing as a team, just rolling each line and setting up the next line.”
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