OTTAWA — Viktor Arvidsson scored twice, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-2 at Canadian Tire Center on Tuesday.
“I think we played fast and we executed,” Arvidsson said. “They did too, but I think we made better decisions with the puck and we were more effective.”
Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist, and Anze Kopitar had three assists for the Kings (14-10-4), who started a six-game road trip.
“I thought it was a complete game by everybody,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “We didn’t have to rely on just one or two people, starting with the goaltender. I thought he played really well and gave us some confidence.”
Video: LAK@OTT: Arvidsson nets PPG to extend Kings’ lead
Pheonix Copley made 31 saves in his season debut after signing a one-year, $825,000 contract with the Kings on July 13. It was his first NHL win since March 19, 2019, with the Washington Capitals.
“Felt good,” Copley said. “It was nice. Guys played well in front of me so that’s always nice and, yeah, it’s great to be in the win column.”
Thomas Chabot had a goal and an assist for the Senators (10-14-1), who had won their previous two games. Cam Talbot allowed five goals on 14 shots before being replaced in the second period by Anton Forsbergwho made 14 saves.
“Just flat,” Ottawa coach DJ Smith said. “Gave up way too many chances, didn’t check hard enough. You know, that’s on me. Our preparation to start the game starts with me as the coach, and that’s certainly unacceptable. My job is to make sure these guys are ready to play.”
Matt Roy gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead 1:35 into the first period after a block Sean Durzi The shot bounced to him in the slot.
Mikey Anderson scored 40 seconds later with a wrist shot from the bottom of the right face-off circle to extend it to 2-0 at 2:15.
“For us to come out that flat and just [not help] ‘Talbs’ like that is just unacceptable,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said.
Video: LAK@OTT: Anderson snipes a goal to extend lead
Drake Batherson cut it to 2-1 on a power play at 5:14, scoring on the rebound off a Tim Stutzle one-timer.
“We weren’t ready to go, right off the bat,” Batherson said. “We kind of left the goalies out there to dry and, obviously, we can’t afford to do that at this point of the season.”
Arvidsson finished a cross-crease pass from Trevor Moore on a power play to make it 3-1 at 8:43, then scored into the top right corner on a wrist shot from the slot to extend it to 4-1 at 11:26.
“They were strong and it wasn’t at the cost of anything going the other way,” McLellan said of the Arvidsson-Moore-Phillip Danault line. “I thought they managed their shift length really well tonight. ‘Vintage’ is probably a pretty good way of putting it.”
Video: LAK@OTT: Arvidsson shoots from circle for 4-1 lead
Fiala made it 5-1 at 12:55 of the second period when he scored glove side with a wrist shot on a power play.
Chabot’s one-timer from the point beat a screened Copley on a power play to cut it to 5-2 at 9:34 of the third period.
“You’re not going to play perfect every single night,” Chabot said. “But once you start a game and you see it’s not going your way, then I think you take a step back as a team and you play a system. You play the way we know we can have success, and we didn’t do it. that tonight.”
Copley then made seven saves, including a sliding toe stop on the Ottawa forward Claude Giroux at 12:08.
“It was kind of a broken play and it ended up like that [Giroux] had an open net and I just tried to push over and get whatever I could in front of it and, fortunately, it hit the blade of my skate,” Copley said. “Sometimes you get lucky, I guess.”
Kings forward Alex Iafallo had one assist in 12:34 of ice time after missing 23 games with a lower-body injury.
“He’s just steady,” McLellan said. “He does a lot of little things. You could see early in the first period, he was ready to go. I’m sure his legs and his hands probably don’t feel as good as he’d like them to, naturally, but his mind was sharp. He went to the right spots and had a real good sense of timing.”
NOTES: Durzi had two assists to extend his point streak to six games (one goal, eight assists). … Kopitar has 24 three-assist games, tying him with Bernie Nicholls for the fourth-most in Los Angeles history. Only Wayne Gretzky (67), Marcel Dionne (43) and Dave Taylor (28) have more.
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