Kings reply with symmetry in OT win

The last minute or so play in Los Angeles on Friday was nearly pure symmetry.

The New Jersey Devils’ Pavel Zacha knotted the game, 2-2, with the Kings, with 24 seconds left on the regulation clock.

Los Angeles’ Alex Iafallo scored with 42 seconds gone in the extra session, for a 3-2 win over New Jersey.

“We were talking about it before the shift happened, before the face-off, just to get on them and stay on them,” Iafallo said. “I just wanted to get to the front because I saw [Danault] get the puck, and just had to shoot it in pretty much. Nice play by Phillip.”

Cal Petersen made 21 saves in the LA win.

“I think we’d all prefer the simpler win, where it’s not in overtime or anything like that, but we don’t always get what we want,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “To deal with adversity has been a good thing for our team during the streak, finding ways to win. It would be easy to get down. We find ways to stick with it, so there’s a lot of good things that are evolving. It’s just a matter of sustaining them now.”

Jesper Bratt also scored for New Jersey.

Adrian Kempe and Arthur Kaliyev (power plaY) were the regulation strikers for LA.

“I told Arthur on the bench after the first power play, ‘That’s what you’re here for. No one’s going to ever get mad at you for shooting the puck the way you shoot it.’ And he did. Good for him,” McLellan said.

Mackenzie Blackwood made 26 saves in his first action of the season, a loss for New Jersey.

“We just got to find a way to give our goalies a little more run support because they’ve been so good for us,” New Jersey’s  Damon Severson said. “But overall, again, just the team effort tonight, you can’t fault anything on that.”