FINAL – Kings 5, Canadiens 2 – Iafallo, Kupari, McLellan

The LA Kings skated to a 5-2 victory on home ice on Saturday afternoon, snapping a six-game losing skid and evening up their record on the current homestand at 1-1-0.

Forward Alex Iafallo led the way with a three-point game (2-1-1), while forwards Rasmus Kupari (1-1-2), Anze Kopitar (0-2-2) and defenseman Matt Roy (0-2-2) each had multi-point days. Cal Petersen made 26 saves to earn his second victory of the season.

The Canadiens struck first, off an odd-man rush, with the only goal of the first period. Christian Dvorak fed forward Josh Andersson across the slot, and the latter beat Petersen on the stick side for his second goal of the season to open the scoring.

The Kings bounced back in the second period, however, with a pair of goals to take a one-goal lead into the third period. First, Viktor Arvidsson beat Montreal netminder Jake Allen clean with a wrist shot, capitalizing on his time and space form the slot and converting inside the far post. Forward Arthur Kaliyev put the hosts on top with a power-play goal, using his shot from the left-hand circle to get his first goal of the season, and the first PPG of his short NHL career.

LA tacked on three more goals in the third period, to open up a larger advantage and put the game away. First, the second power-play unit cashed in, as Kupari scored on what he called “the shot of his life” after the game. More from Kupari below, as the Kings got a PPG from both units in the game.

Iafallo followed up with a pair of goals to add insurance and close out the Canadiens. First, he crashed the net, collected a Matt Roy rebound and deked around Allen for his second goal of the season. The Western New York native then buried his second of the contest, this on the man advantage, to make it five for the Kings including three power-play goals.

A late Montreal tally from defenseman Ben Chiarot brought us to our final of 5-2.

Hear from Iafallo, Kupari and Head Coach Todd McLellan from after the game.

Alex Iafallo

Rasmus Kupari

On which goal he was happier with, the shot tonight or the move on Thursday
It’s tough to say, I’m always happy to score. That was probably the shot of my life so far. I’m happy for that, but I can’t say which one was better, both of them felt really good.

On what he saw when firing his shot on that goal
I had it in my mind that I wanted to go short side and [it was a] great screen by Brownie. It made it even harder for the goalie to see the shot. I’m happy for the shot.

On getting power-play time tonight, and contributing with two points
Yeah, it was an honor from the coaching staff, to get that role, on the second power-play unit. I was familiar with it, I played that role last year with the Reign for most of the year, so I pretty much knew what to do. Obviously it’s a little bit of a different game here, but the roles are the same. It worked today and just keep it going and work on it a bit.

On the team’s confidence coming off of tonight’s win
It’s huge, we’ve been in these kinds of situations a few times, after two periods having a 2-1 lead and we’ve given up that. It was huge for our confidence. Every guy did a really good job today, let’s keep it going and take all of the positives from today’s victory.

Todd McLellan

On if tonight’s game was the closest yet to the Opening Night performance
Dallas, Dallas was a pretty good night for us too, we did a lot of good things in that game too. We played good segments of games, or in games and lost, but this was a more complete 60 minutes. The answer is definitely yes, but there are pieces of other games that we showed that composure, pace and execution.

On the biggest difference in closing out tonight’s game, versus Thursday’s loss
Power play. It gave us a cushion, it gave us some comfort, it gave us confidence. We’ve been waiting for that to happen. When you score like that on your power play, other parts of your game come along with it. You get confident and I think that may have been the different in the game tonight. Different style of game too, they played different than Winnipeg does.

On getting goals from both power-play units tonight
Important. They’re obviously shuffled, there’s players from A-Unit, B-Unit, C-Unit if you want to call it that, in different situations. I couldn’t tell you who our top power-play unit is right now. They’ll sort that out as we go.

On players giving energy to their teammates, specifically Kupari and Kaliyev
There’s different ways you can affect a game. You have to hand something off to a teammate and if you’re sucking the life out, and you’re that type of person with your body language, you’re taking somebody with you, whether you intend to or not. Ras has an excitement for the game, he’s ready to go again, he wants to go again. Arty has a bit of that, give me the puck and let me go. We’re okay with their mistakes, they’re going to make them, but they’re exciting mistakes, they’re full of excitement. I think, when you wake up in the morning, you’re either going to give energy off, or you’re going to suck the life out of somebody, you get to choose. Right now, those two are giving off energy.

On what a win like tonight’s does to the team’s identity and belief system
It provides a little bit of belief, there’s the ability to enjoy the night. It’s not fun losing. No matter the type of game, or the effort you put in, you can’t leave the building feeling good about yourself when you lose. Even if you played your A-Game and lost on a bad bounce, you still leave with a bad taste in your mouth. A win fixes that. You could feel some stress goes out, leave the bench a bit. Guys were enjoying the moment, haven’t felt that since opening night, everything’s been so close or we’ve been behind since then. There is some relief, but that relief only lasts for the next hour or two and then we’ve got to play at one again tomorrow. Let’s try to replicate what we had.

Notes –
– The Kings went 3-for-5 on the power play, the first time they have scored at least three power play goals in a game since Feb. 11, 2021 vs. SJS.
– The Kings are tied for third in the NHL with seven, 5-on-4 power-play goals, one behind the league leaders (EDM and CHI).
– Alex Iafallo (2-1-3) tied his career-high with three points (second time, 3-0-3 on January 30, 2020 @ ARI). Iafallo has points in each of the last two games (2-2-4)
– Anze Kopitar collected two points (0-2-2) on the evening, and is now at a team-leading 11 points on the season (6-5-11). Kopitar has nine points from four games played this season on home ice, tied for the fourth most in the NHL.
– Defenseman Matt Roy (0-2-2) and forward Rasmus Kupari (1-1-2) each had two points in today’s win. Roy also led all Kings in time on ice (21:31).
– Arthur Kaliyev (1-0-1) scored his first goal of the season, the second of his career, and tallied his first career power-play goal.
– In his season debut, defenseman Kale Clague collected his first assist and point of the season.

The Kings are scheduled to take on the Buffalo Sabres tomorrow afternoon at 1 PM at STAPLES Center.

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