PHILADELPHIA – The Los Angeles Kings got a goal from Milan Lucic with 56 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at two all with the Flyers and then Anze Kopitar scored the only marker in the skills competition to send the Kings to a 3-2 win.
“It was a good job by the guys keeping the puck in and executing up top and getting the shot through,” Lucic said. “Just able to find a loose puck sitting there. You’ve got to be lucky to be good right now, and right now, I’m getting that puck luck for sure.”
Jonathan Quick made 36 saves for the win.
Lucic has made a real difference in the Kings roster and to some extent his presence has been a stabling one when the club was struggling through its early games.
“Adjusting from being ingrained to play one way was definitely difficult,” he said. “I thought it would be an easier transition. Even when you’re on the same team, you change coaches and change systems, you’ve been through that. But that wasn’t the case in my scenario. It’s been nice because [Kings] coaches have done a good job working with me, making sure I understand what’s expected and what I need to do to fit in to this team’s game plan. That’s all I want to do, adjust as much as I can and see what I can contribute to the team.”
Steve Mason made 38 saves in the loss and yielded the Kopitar goal in the shootout.
Milan Lucic ‘s late goal forced OT
“It’s a little pregame scouting and a little bit that we’ve known him from (his time with the Columbus Blue Jackets) too,” Kopitar said of Mason. “Everything comes into play. Just wanted to come down and really pick a corner, and then decided to go high glove, and it worked out for me.”
For Philadelphia, it was another loss but their head coach was more receptive to the effort Tuesday night.
“Our team played hard and we played well tonight,” Dave Hakstol said. “… We’ll take the positives, push forward and have an effort that we can build off of going into Thursday night.”
The San Jose Sharks pay a visit to Philly Thursday.
Game report and images by the author
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