The LA Kings dropped their second consecutive game by a single goal, as they fell in overtime in Game 2 of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, by a 2-1 margin in Colorado. <\/p>\n
The first period was filled with five penalties and several scrums but zero goals. Goaltender Anton Forsberg made 14 saves for the Kings, with five coming on the Colorado power play. The best Los Angeles chance in the opening 20 minutes came from forward Alex Laferriere, who had a clean look from the slot, which was denied by Avalanche netminder Scott Wedgewood, to keep the game 0-0. <\/p>\n
The story of the second period came off the ice, as Colorado fans behind the Kings bench shattered a pane of glass, which caused a delay of nearly 20 minutes early in the middle frame. The best Kings chance came from forward Quinton Byfield, who was stoned on a penalty shot by Wedgewood with a glove save. <\/p>\n
The Kings finally converted on the power play late in the third period to open the scoring after more than 53 minutes had elapsed. Late on the sequence, with the second unit on the ice, forward Trevor Moore fed the puck to forward Artemi Panarin in the slot. Panarin, who stayed on with both units, buried his second goal in as many games, blocker side, to give the Kings their first lead of the series. <\/p>\n
With less than four minutes remaining, the Avalanche tied the score as their captain, forward Gabriel Landeskog, scored from close range to equalize the game at one goal apiece. After the Kings were unable to clear their zone off a faceoff, Colorado forward Martin Necas worked the puck into the crease, just beyond the pad of Forsberg, with Landeskog burying the tying goal to force Game 2 into overtime. <\/p>\n
Just over seven minutes into overtime, Colorado scored the game-winning goal to take a 2-0 series lead to California. With the Avalanche sustaining a shift in the extra session, defenseman Josh Manson got off from the center point, which was blocked down in front, but forward Nicolas Roy got on the end of the rebound to slide the puck past Forsberg for the game-winning goal, a 2-1 victory for the hosts.<\/p>\n
Hear from Moore, Forsberg and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith after tonight\u2019s Game 2 overtime defeat. <\/p>\n
Trevor Moore<\/p>\n
Anton Forsberg
On the disappointment in going down 0-2 after two strong efforts
It\u2019s tough, the way it ended, both games. We\u2019re right in there, playing well, we\u2019re fighting, we\u2019re fighting hard. Just got to stick with it and turn this around.<\/p>\n
On the belief of the group heading into Game 3 on home ice
I mean, at the end of the day, we\u2019ve got to look on how we\u2019re playing. We believe in our plan and I mean, we\u2019re right there with one of the best teams in the league. You\u2019ve just got to stick with it and hopefully find a way here.<\/p>\n
On the delay in the second period and if that impacted him at all
No, I didn\u2019t think it changed anything in the game. We still played our game, they played theirs. It was a 0-0 game going into the third so I wouldn\u2019t say that was a big difference.<\/p>\n
On his mentality throughout his first two career playoff games
Yeah. I mean, it\u2019s the same game. It is. Obviously, everybody\u2019s trying a little bit harder, but it\u2019s still the same game that you\u2019re playing. It\u2019s one puck, there\u2019s five players on the ice and two goalies, one goalie on each team. It\u2019s the same way. We\u2019ve just got to do what we do and focus on that.<\/p>\n
D.J. Smith
On the disappointment in going down 0-2, despite two strong road efforts
We\u2019ve played two good games, tonight better than the first. We had every opportunity. We got a lead with three and whatever to go and you\u2019ve got to be able to close it out.<\/p>\n
On the physicality tonight and the play of his fourth line
To a man, we\u2019re playing hard. We hoped to be split here, but regardless, we\u2019re going to have to win at home. The fourth line was really good today. They\u2019re physical, they stayed within the rules, they had scoring chances. We\u2019re going to need them. For us to win this series, we\u2019ve got to play everybody and I thought they were good tonight.<\/p>\n
On the team\u2019s play and how they can turn that into results at home
We did play really well and we\u2019ll get last change and we can get our matchups a little bit better and we\u2019re going to have to roll four lines over and be physical again. We\u2019ve got to find a way to win a game. Clearly, good isn\u2019t enough. We\u2019ve got to win a game and keep taking a piece of them keep playing physical, but within the rules, and give ourselves a chance to keep lengthening the series.<\/p>\n
On the team\u2019s offensive chances tonight and needing to score more goals
We had some good looks. We had some guys that were in alone, I thought we really had the momentum in overtime, we were outchanging them at that point. Then, maybe a bad bounce, or a turnover, whatever, it ends up in your net. To a man, this team is playing hard and we got to find a way to win, though. Yeah, they\u2019re a good team, but we\u2019ve just got to do what we do. I expect us to we play two good games here and I expect that we\u2019ll be better at home. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Notes \u2013
\u2013 Forward Artemi Panarin (1-0=1) scored a power play goal for the second consecutive game this series, following his tally in Sunday\u2019s Game #1. In doing so, Panarin became just the fifth player in Kings history to score on the man-advantage in each of the first two games to begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He joins Dave Taylor (1988), Chris Kontos (1989), Fredrik Modin (2010), and teammate Andrei Kuzmenko (2025) on that list and has the opportunity to become the first player in LA Kings history to record a postseason-opening streak of three games in length should he convert on the power play again in Game #3 on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.
\u2013 Panarin also becomes the eighth player in Kings history to score a goal of any kind in each of his first two career playoff games with the team; per NHL PR, Kuzmenko (2 GP in 2025), Troy Stecher (2 GP in 2022) and Modin (2 GP in 2010) are the only others to do so in the past 25 years.
\u2013 Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) recorded his first assist of the postseason. The former Denver Pioneer (2013-14 \u2013 2015- 16) has recorded 15 points (7-8=15) in 33 career Playoff games played.
\u2013 Forward Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) notched his first assist of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a secondary helper on Panarin\u2019s power play strike. Byfield now has 13 points (4-9=13) in 21 career postseason appearances.<\/p>\n
The Kings will not practice tomorrow, as the team returns home to Los Angeles. The Kings will return to the ice on Thursday, April 23 at 10:30 AM for morning skate at Crypto.com Arena, in advance of that evening\u2019s Game 3. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Kings dropped their second consecutive game by a single goal, as they fell in overtime in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5],"class_list":{"0":"post-557841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116447784686702320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}