Another road game, another win for the Kings. The Kings moved to 8-0-0 on the road to begin the 2023-24 season with a 4-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes, becoming just the fourth team in NHL history to do so. In their third and final meeting with the Coyotes, the Kings completed the season series sweep with the win, picking the maximum six points possible.
It was a back and forth first period with opportunities galore for both teams. For the second consecutive game, the Kings recorded a shorthanded goal in the first period. It was Trevor Moore tonight with the SHG just 3:36 into the game with a beautiful individual play. The shorthanded goal for Moore is his ninth since joining the Kings on February 8, 2020, the most among any King during that time. Anze Kopitar then doubled the Kings lead when Quinton Byfield created an offensive zone turnover and fed Kopitar backdoor with a beautiful pass. Kopitar’s goal gave the captain a team-leading ninth goal while the assist for Byfield was his 12th, one shy of Kevin Fiala for the team lead. With the goal, Kopitar tallied his 100th career point (31-69=100) against the Coyotes. Kopitar becomes the fourth active skater with 100+ points versus a single team, joining Sidney Crosby (PHI, NYI, NYR & WSH), Alex Ovechkin (CAR, TBL & PIT) and Evgeni Malkin (PHI, NYI).
Opportunities continued in the period as the Kings surrendered three breakaways in the first 20 minutes, two coming while on a Kings power play. Denying all three lone breaks was Pheonix Copley who returned to the Kings net for the first time in 11 days.
Up by two goals in the second period, it was Trevor Moore again who found the back of the net. For the second time in the game Moore made a beautiful individual play, this time intercepting a puck out of mid air and going in alone to beat the Coyotes goalie top shelf. Moore’s goal matched Kopitar for the team lead with nine. Late in the second period the Coyotes got on the scoreboard with a Lawson Crouse goal to bring the game within two goals heading into the second intermission.
The final 20 minutes saw a Phillip Danault distancing goal with 3:45 remaining in the period and no Coyotes goals. The Kings were undisciplined in this game, taking six penalties including a four-minute double minor. But continuing their excellent play on the penalty kill, the Kings didn’t allow a power-play goal for the seventh straight game and have successfully killed off 26 shorthanded situations.
Copley picked up his second win on the season, stopping 30 of 31 shots. Copley now holds a 2-0-2 record.
