Philadelphia jumped out to a lead three different times on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center, but it was Kevin Fiala and Los Angeles who find the eventual game winning goal in overtime in this one.
Flyers defensemen Tony DeAngelo was hauled down beside the Kings’ net right before Fiala finished off a 2-on-1 rush with a blistering shot. DeAngelo was enraged by the non-call by the referees and verbally jousted with the crew after the game winner. It wasn’t a whole lot of a trip or interference on the play and it did appear that DeAngelo tried selling the contact, but the game had been poorly officiated throughout the contest and that likely led to the defensemen’s frustrations.
It certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort, as the Flyers hung in there and battled against a quality Kings team. LA’s speed clearly played a factor in this one, as they created several chances that way in the contest. Philly got their scoring from James Van Riemsdyk, Wade Allison, and Rasmus Ristolainen.
The Kings, on the other hand, got their other three tallies from Anze Kopitar (2X) and Samuel Fagemo. Kopitar made some Kings history tonight, as the Los Angeles captain recorded his 43rd career multi-goal game and tied Butch Goring for seventh on the Kings’ all-time list, according to NHL stats.
Also from the stat vault was this interesting tidbit about Van Reimsdyk’s opening goal as well:
James van Riemsdyk (8-12—20) became the fifth active player to record at least eight 20-point seasons with the Flyers, joining Claude Giroux (14x), Jakub Voracek (10x), Sean Couturier (9x) and Wayne Simmonds (8x).
The Flyers hope to return to the win column on Thursday, when they head to Minnesota to take on the Wild. The game can be seen on ESPN+ at 8:00 p.m.
