FINAL – Kings 4, Stars 0 – Quick, Danault, McLellan

Behind a 27-save shutout from Jonathan Quick, the LA Kings skated to a 4-0 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday evening at STAPLES Center.

Forwards Adrian Kempe and Arthur Kaliyev scored goals to put the Kings ahead by a pair, before forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Andreas Athanasiou iced the game late with empty-net markers. Quick earned his second shutout of the season, the 56th of his NHL career, between the pipes.

After a scoreless first period, the Kings wasted little time early in the second, as Kempe opened the scoring less than a minute into the middle stanza. After Phillip Danault forced a turnover in the neutral zone, a pair of quick passes sprung Kempe on a breakaway, while the Swedish forward buried for his team-leading 11th goal of the season. Forward Dustin Brown and Danault tallied the assists on the play.

After a tense third period, which included a crossbar hit by the Stars early in the frame, Kaliyev picked up a much-needed insurance goal late in the third period, to double the Kings’ advantage. Rasmus Kupari settled a floating puck and fed Kaliyev in the slot, where the big winger fired it home, almost one-timed, for his fifth goal of the season.

The Kings closed out the game with a pair of empty-net goals for the 4-0 victory. Arvidsson and Athanasiou were the goalscorers.

Hear from Quick, Danault and Head Coach Todd McLellan following the game.

Jonathan Quick

Quicky on number 56#GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/yzyb0ZruTR

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) December 10, 2021

Phillip Danault

On a complete team effort tonight against Dallas
I think we played solid, right from the get-go, the first faceoff, and we get going right off. Everyone was involved, forwards, d-men, Quickie was kicking really good for us, made some big saves, some key saves and gave us a chance. I think we were pretty solid for 60 minutes.

On what he saw from his perspective leading up to the first goal
The first play was to cut [the Dallas] play off, and then I saw Brownie while I was cutting that play, and it was a great pass to Juice and a good finish again. Kemps has been really huge for us.

On what he saw from his perspective leading up to the first goal
I thought we didn’t give up much and when we did, Quickie was solid. Our PK was good too, we had some good chances on the power play as well. I would say that was a pretty solid effort for 60 minutes from our team.

On the balance in the third period between attacking and defending
I think, in a 1-0 game, we just stay aggressive. Not defending too much, I thought we stayed on the puck and created those chances. I think the fact that we wanted to get the next goal helped us a lot, we didn’t stay on our heels and Quick made a big save a 1-0 to give us a chance and then a big goal by Arty to give us the lead.

Todd McLellan

On tonight’s overall performance, and if he felt the Kings had their “A” game
It was. I was asked this morning or yesterday, what do you want to see at the start of a game when a team’s playing back-to-back, and that’s what we wanted to see. On our toes, aggressive, have the puck a lot. Special teams, power play didn’t lose us any momentum, maybe gained us a little, penalty kill was good and goaltending was outstanding. That was an “A” game.

On seeing that shooting mentality from Arthur Kailyev in situations like his goal
Prior to that, I reminded him on the bench that no one is going to get mad at him for shooting the puck. I can promise him that, because I thought there were opportunities during the game, on the power play, there was a play in the slot where he was looking to dish it off. He’s been blessed with an unreal shot and he needs to use it every chance he gets. To your point, it was on and off the tape quick.

On the play in the third period, defending well but not sitting back
Goaltending, first of all. We made mistakes, we’re not going to be perfect, and Quickie was the stabilizer, he calmed things down. I always talk about his game management, the ability to get a whistle when we need it, play a puck when we need it, I thought he did that. I didn’t think we got extended at all on any type of shifts, handed off a fairly good one most of the time. When we got a little standoffish, we got back to it quickly, they just had to be reminded and they got back to it. A lot of positives tonight. We lost 4-0 and came back and won 4-0. That’s a good response.

On if there’s a more satisfying feeling specifically in getting a shutout
Yes, the simple answer is yes, but sometimes you give up one or two and play really, really good, and you get outstanding goaltending, they get a bounce, it goes off a post and you still feel good about those nights. The zero on the board, and the fact that Quickie gets the shutout, was rewarding for the whole group, especially for him.

Notes –

– Goaltender Jonathan Quick posted his second shutout of the season and the 56th shutout of his NHL career, ranking second amongst active goalies in career shutouts.
– Adrian Kempe scored his team-leading 11th goal of the season tonight, giving him three goals from his last three games played.
– Dustin Brown moved into sole possession of eighth all-time amongst American-born players, as he skated in his 1,257th career NHL game this evening. Brown tallied an assist on the game-winning goal in the victory.
– Phillip Danault tallied his ninth assist of the season, was a game-high plus-3 and won 13-of-19 faceoffs (68%).
– With his empty-net goal tonight, forward Viktor Arvidsson tallied his eighth point (3-5-8) over his last seven games played. Arvidsson has collected at least one point in six of those seven games.
– In his first game back from COVID Protocol, forward Andreas Athanasiou collected an empty-net goal, his third goal of the season.

The Kings are scheduled to return to the ice for practice tomorrow morning at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.