Kopitar’s tying goal

The big talker at practice today was Anze Kopitar’s game-tying goal with 14 seconds remaining in the third period. Kopitar threw the puck to the front of the net, from the corner, and it deflected off Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas and past Marty Turco, who apparently was checking out some of the Lakers’ retired jerseys. I jokingly asked Terry Murray is that’s how he had drawn the play up.

MURRAY: “It’s not a bad idea to get the puck to the net, you know? Good things can happen from that. That was one of those examples, I think. You just keep pushing. The power play gave us that attitude of shooting the puck. I don’t know how many we had in that third period, but you get that shooting mentality and the next thing you know, you’re back at full strength and you just keep following through and hoping that some good stuff can happen. An exciting finish.”

I talked to Kopitar about the goal, and asked him if he had any idea where Turco was, or who was in front of the net, when he threw the puck in front.

KOPITAR: “No. I knew my position on the ice, and at that point I didn’t even know how much time was left, so at that point, everybody was just trying to get it on net somehow. I turned around and I was pretty fortunate that it bounced in. … (Getting the puck to the net), at least that’s the game plan. Everybody was hanging out around the net and we were trying to get the puck there, so I was hoping somebody was there and it turned out all right.”

Question: That seemed to be about as happy as you guys have been after a victory this season…

KOPITAR: “Every game for us right now is a Game 7. We cannot give away points. Coming back from three down, it’s pretty special for sure. We’ve done it in the past, so we just said, in the locker room, that we had to throw everything at them and see what happens. I think we’re going good. We were a little lucky, but that’s part of success too.”

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