LOS ANGELES — Quinton Byfield scored 27 seconds into overtime and the Los Angeles Kings ended a five-game losing streak with a 2-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.
Adrian Kempe forced a turnover by Dylan Holloway in the offensive zone, allowing Byfield to get the puck and score on a wrist shot from the left circle under the crossbar.
“They had to stay on that puck,” Los Angeles head coach Jim Hiller said. “That wasn’t, you know, down the ice, 2-on-1 shot. It was work.”
STL@LAK: Byfield wins it for Kings in OT
Byfield scored for the second straight game. He had gone 12 games without a goal before scoring in the first period of a 3-2 shootout loss to St. Louis on Wednesday.
“I think he’s starting to assert himself, and once you do that, you get more confident,” Hiller said. “Get more confident, you shoot the puck. You want the puck, you’re gonna shoot it. You don’t overthink it … It was a heck of a shot.”
Anze Kopitar also scored and Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves for the Kings (32-20-9), who were 0-3-2 in their previous five games.
Nick Leddy had a goal and Joel Hofer made 21 saves for the Blues (31-27-7), who are 7-1-2 in their past 10 games. St. Louis was playing the second game of a back-to-back after winning 4-3 at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
“The blocked shots, the sacrificing for each other, the screen by [Zack] Bolduc on (the) Leddy goal, that’s winning hockey,” St. Louis head coach Jim Montgomery said. “We just keep playing like this, we’ll keep getting good results.”
STL@LAK: Kopitar redirects the puck for opening goal
Los Angeles went up 1-0 at 14:35 of the first period when Kopitar positioned himself in the slot and redirected Drew Doughty’s slap shot from the right point. Kopitar got his 15th goal of the season, reaching the mark for the 16th time in 19 NHL seasons.
It was the 307th goal Kopitar and Doughty have both factored on, tying Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang for second-most by a forward and defenseman in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey were involved in 350 goals together.
Leddy tied it up 1-1 at 4:16 of the third period on a long slap-shot through traffic that went in off the right post. It was Leddy’s first goal of the season.
“I just tried to get it to the net,” Leddy said. “Kind of had eyes, looked like it dipped a little bit too, so definitely very happy to get that first one.”
STL@LAK: Leddy banks it off the post to tie it
Hofer was under heavy pressure for the rest of regulation. He had to make 11 saves in the third, including dangerous shots from a charging Byfield at 12:11 and the follow-up by Alex Laferriere. Hofer is 1-0-2 in his past three decisions.
“So many big saves, he gave us an opportunity to get a point and get into overtime,” Montgomery said.
Brayden Schenn looked to have scored for St. Louis on the power play 36 seconds into the game, but video review showed the puck did not completely cross the goal line before Mikey Anderson pulled it back.
“It was great that it didn’t count, but it still kind of set us on our heels, I thought, a little bit,” Hiller said. “We were tight early.”
The Kings had Vladislav Gavrikov’s goal at 3:51 of the second period overturned by a Blues coach’s challenge because Byfield was offside prior to the puck entering the zone.
NOTES: Andrei Kuzmenko made his Kings debut, one day after the forward was acquired in a trade from the Philadelphia Flyers for a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. He played 16:02, including 3:20 on the power play, and was on the first line with Kopitar and Kempe. … Blues defenseman Cam Fowler did not play for personal reasons.
