The LA Kings reeled off three straight wins with a 6-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night at the Honda Center.
Forward Kevin Fiala led the way with a three-point night (1-2-3), while an additional five Kings had multi-point games. Forward Viktor Arvidsson scored twice, while Blake Lizotte and Anze Kopitar each had a goal and an assist. Defenseman Drew Doughty and forward Alex Iafallo each added two assists in the win.
The visitors scored the only goal of the first half, taking a 1-0 lead at the first half. Parked in front of the net, Lizotte took a stick on an Iafallo shot and redirected the puck past Anaheim goalkeeper John Gibson. Lizotte’s goal was his eighth of the season, and Fiala also had an assist on the play.
Anaheim tied it just six minutes into the second period, through defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. With forward Brett Leason providing the screen in front of Kings goalkeeper Pheonix Copley, Shattenkirk sent a shot from the right that missed everyone and hit the far post for his second goal of the season.
The Kings scored twice in the back half of the center verse to open up a two-goal lead.
First, the second line combined for a goal in transition, when Trevor Moore sent a slot pass to Arvidsson for the only period, which deflected off an Anaheim stick and went in for a 2-1 lead. The Kings made it 3-1 through forward Adrian Kempe, who took the low corner in the man’s advantage for his eighth goal in four games and his 11th against Anaheim in the past three seasons, the most in the NHL.
Late in the second period, Copley received a game penalty for hitting with the blocker, bringing his night to a close with 16-of-17 saves. Goaltender Jonathan Quick entered the game late in the second half in relief.
The Ducks came within a goal early in the third period, scoring once with a five-minute lead to bring the score to 3–2. Parked in the right circle, Anaheim forward Mason McTavish fired a stopwatch past Quick for his 12th goal of the season.
However, LA scored again on the power play to take a 4-2 lead after killing the rest of the five-minute major. On the heels of a head-to-head win, Doughty and Fiala combined on a pair of quick passes, with Fiala feeding Kopitar for the only time in the high slot, which buried Gibson for his 17th goal of the season.
Once again, however, the hosts came within a goal as forward Frank Vatrano scored his 14th goal of the season to pull the Ducks within 4-3. After Quick made a couple of saves at the top of his box, Vatrano picked up the second rebound and slotted it into the net for the goal.
The Kings iced the game with a third power play goal, as well as an empty net goal, to win the game 6–3 in the final. First, Arvidsson scored his second goal of the game when he came from the bottom of the left-hand circle and fired into the top blocker on Gibson for his 16th goal of the season. Fiala then finished the game with an empty net goal, as Iafallo selflessly let the shot slip through to feed Fiala for the goal just inside the offensive blue line. Fiala picked up a three-point night with the tally.
Hear from Lizotte, Arvidsson, Doughty and head coach Todd McLellan after tonight’s game.
Blake Lizette
Viktor Arvidson
On winning on the road, extending the winning streak to three games
I think we started off well. The first half was good, with good intensity and we spent a lot of time in his zone. In the second we pulled away a bit and then starting the third with a five-minute kill can throw you off the pace, but I think we managed to pull it off and get the win.
On his power-play goal late in the third period to seal the game
The first time, [earlier in the game] I tried to pass it and Gibson put his blocker there and blocked the pass, so I figured I’d do the same thing again. So, I took it to the net and tried to go short and got it in.
On having two power plays that are scoring right now
Oh, it’s always good, it’s competitive, I think we have competitive players in both units. So obviously everything is going well and everyone is scoring.
Drew Doughty
On the win and overall performance
It is a great victory. We didn’t like our overall performance, the second period was a bit sloppy we thought. When you’re beating such a tough team in the first period, the tendency is to run out of gas a bit and that’s something we need to fix. We have to be able to play a full 60 minutes.
On the improvements of the power game and its specific unit
The power play is much better this year, we have a much better plan. We obviously add Kevin, who is basically a power play specialist. I’m very happy with the power play performance, really happy.
On the support of Kings fans tonight on the road
Yeah, it felt more like a home game than away to be honest. When we scored, it looked like three-quarters of the barn was upright. Big support from our fans tonight. It felt really good.
Todd McLellan
On achieving three straight wins coming off All-Star Break
I thought it was a hard game to play, a hard game to win. It was competitive, we had to be patient, penalties, special teams situations, losing a starting goalkeeper, a lot of variables went into the night, but I was happy with special teams and obviously finding a way to close out the night was important. for us
On balancing emotions between fighting for your goalie and calming down for victory
At this time of year, victory is the most important thing, but we want to take care of our teammates. I’m sure the Ducks team wants to do that too, but now it’s all about winning. I thought we controlled our emotions pretty well in that situation. We had a chance to regroup, it gave Quickie a chance to set his head up for the third period. The penalty kick did a good job, I know we scored once, but they did a very good job in that situation.
About the fire that Pheonix Copley showed at the end of the second half
It’s competitive. It was one of the first things we found out about him when training camp started, every team has their test regiment that they go through and they weren’t going to deny it. He ran the goalies union, so to speak, and you could see right away that he’s really competitive. In practice, he’s competitive, even in drills or situations that don’t necessarily mean a lot to the goalkeeper, he’s there all the time and wants to make the save. He just a competitive individual.
On Jonathan Quick coming in and doing the work to get the win
There’s probably no one else we’d rather have in that situation, a guy who’s played as many games as he has, has played in this building many, many times on big nights. He came unexpectedly and did a very, very good job. I think he was the winning goalkeeper tonight, which is great, we needed it for him, I needed it for him. The coaches congratulate both goalkeepers, usually that doesn’t happen.
On the return of Gabe Vilardi and playing him on the fourth line
I think it says a lot about the organization and how they’ve built it over the years. We have a lot of competition in front of us right now, we’ve mentioned it to players time and time again. Gabe and Arthur, one has 17 and the other has 10 goals and if you want to call that our fourth line, that’s where they’re playing, but they both play a big, key role on the power play and that power play scored three this evening. , so they got the job there. They’re both coming back from injury so they need to find their game a bit, Trevor Moore as well, but at the end of the day, depth is what should help us down the stretch.
Grades –
– Adrian Kempe extended his scoring streak to the fourth game (8-1-9), matching his career high (4 games: November 3-9, 2021, 4-0-4). Kempe has 28 goals as the team leader this season and has scored nine goals (9-1-10) in his last six games. The goal also continues Kempe’s point streak against the Anaheim Ducks, which is now seven games (5-5-10) as of May 1, 2021.
– The last Kings player to record eight goals in a four-game span was Luc Robitaille in 1992-93. Bernie Nicholls’ nine goals between November 17 and 23, 1988 represent the highest total by a Kings player in four games played.
– Kevin Fiala (1-2-3) recorded his 17th multi-point game this season, his seventh outing with three or more points, to increase his team-leading point total to 57 (18-39-57). He now has 11 points (3-8-11) in his last eight games.
– Blake Lizotte (1-1-2) recorded his 25th and 26th points (8-18-26) of the year to set a new single-season career high for points (26) and assists (18) in a season.
– Anze Kopitar (1-1-2) got his 14th multipoint and has eight points (2-6-8) in his last four games. Kopitar’s two-point night gives him 83 career points (29-54-83) against the Ducks to tie Mike Modano (28-55-83) for the most career points against Anaheim in history of the league.
– Drew Doughty (0-2-2) notched a pair of assists for his 41st career point (8-33-41) against Anaheim, edging out Rob Blake (14-26-40) for sole possession of the fourth most all-time against the Ducks in NHL history.
– Viktor Arvidsson (2-0-2) scored his second multi-goal game of the season for five points (3-2-5) in his last two games.
– Jonathan Quick made seven saves in relief to secure his ninth win of the season, his first win since Dec. 1.
— The Kings’ win earned their fifth straight win against the Ducks (5-0-0) since Feb. 25, 2022. According to NHL PR, the Kings’ current five-game streak matches their most regular-season win. long. streak against Anaheim (5-0-0, January 8, 2009 – February 4, 2010).
Currently, the Kings are scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow at 10:30 am at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.