FINAL – Kings 2, Wild 1 – Lemieux, Iafallo, McLellan

The LA Kings took four of a possible four points from a short, two-game homestand with a 2-1 victory over the red-hot Minnesota Wild.

The Kings got goals from Phillip Danault and Brendan Lemieux, as they snapped Minnesota’s eight-game winning streak. Jonathan Quick won his third straight start, as he made 30 saves on 31 shots.

Minnesota opened the scoring midway through the second period with a power-play goal from Marcus Foligno. Off a won faceoff in the offensive zone, defenseman Matt Dumba sent a shot on net, that was redirected on the way by Foligno and past Jonathan Quick for the game’s first goal.

The Kings surged back, however, to tie the game with just over five minutes to play in the middle stanza. Drew Doughty showed patience from the right point and his shot was deflected to the stick of Phillip Danault in front. Danault’s first effort was kicked aside by Minnesota netminder Kaapo Kahkonen, but Danault followed the play and buried the rebound for his fourth goal of the season to level the score.

Just shy of halfway through the third period, the Kings took their first lead of the evening. After another strong, energy shift from the team’s fourth line, Lemieux grabbed a rebound in front and slotted home past Kahkonen for his fifth goal of the season. Lemieux’s goal came in his first game back from suspension, with his new linemates – Carl Grundstrom and Trevor Moore – each tallying an assist.

Following the game, Todd McLellan confirmed that Alex Edler, who left the game during the first period with a lower-body injury, will be out “long-term”.

Hear from Lemieux, Alex Iafallo and McLellan from after the win.

Post-Game Quotes

Brendan Lemieux

Lemieux on the big 2 points#GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/dShwtThss7

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) December 12, 2021

Alex Iafallo

On tonight’s win against Minnesota
It’s a huge win for us, especially getting those points against a team like that. You could just tell everybody was flying tonight, a lot of positive things. We’ve got to keep that going into this road trip.

On rolling over good shifts between lines
Yeah, we felt the momentum every period. Every line was handing off good shifts and that helps offensively and moving the puck forward through the neutral zone. Forcing turnovers, that helps our offense and it created momentum for us.

On the power play generating momentum without scoring
For sure. The power play, it kind of puts them on their heels. I know you don’t score goals sometimes, but if you’re creating chances, that makes them tired and the shift after the power play you have to have a good one too. It got some momentum for us.

On other stepping up after Alex Edler’s injury
It sucks having him down. At the same time, I think all the boys chipped in. Losing a player like that, Eddy’s been awesome for us the whole year. When that happens, we’ve got to stay solid defensively, with five D, and I think everybody did their job tonight.

On if it was a bit poetic for Brendan Lemieux to score the game-winning goal
For sure. After he’s been out for that long, it’s a massive goal for us. That’s what we needed in the third period, a goal like that to push us forward and kill it off at the end.

Todd McLellan

On being on the right side of the one-goal win tonight
We walk the line, I guess every night. It’s that tight for us. Tonight it went our way. We got a real timely save or two from Quickie, I thought he was outstanding again when he needed to be. We found the second goal, played a pretty good grind-game with a really good grinding team, so that was good to see. To get rewarded with the win was even bigger for our team. Good things heading into a tough road trip.

On passing along shifts between lines at times tonight
I thought it happened more in the second period. We’ve talked a lot about the power play and if it’s not scoring, what can it do for you. I thought it created momentum and that’s where we handed off a shift and got rolling around. We didn’t necessarily do that in the first period, those power plays came real quick and they did a good job of killing them, and we were frustrated. In the second, we didn’t score, but we felt good about ourselves after that, and it just built. That helped us a lot, we handed off a good shift there, and it started happening more often.

On the play of the other defensemen stepping in on the PK, with Edler out and Doughty in the box
Very good. That’s a big, strong, talented, organized, confident team. Eddy has arguably been our best defenseman, when Drew was out, and you lose him a minute into the game, and Drew’s still finding his game and in the penalty box, it’s not an easy task for four relatively young defensemen. They did a tremendous job and including the goaltender.

On getting two wins at home to build momentum heading onto a difficult upcoming roadtrip
For us, any type of momentum is really good. We played probably two of the hottest teams in the league right now and had the best winning streaks. Our homestand prior to this was not a success, obviously, when it comes to wins and losses, although we weren’t playing poorly. So, to head out on the road it gives us a little bit of confidence, it doesn’t allow us to relax though. That’s the big thing, and I think we’re a veteran enough team to understand what’s ahead of us. We’ll get out there a day early, get a practice in and we’ll see what happens.

On Kopitar and Danault helping to fill defensive roles without a defenseman for most of the night
We got what we expected from [Danault] tonight and even Kopi. It may not be going in a lot for Kopi right now, but the value that he brings, and Phil hasn’t scored in awhile, he got the goal, but it’s the other stuff that they do that we really value and their teammates value. Those two did a really good job. The penalty kill actually did a really good job. We got scored on, it went off I think the guy’s helmet and in, but I include the 6-on-5 as a penalty kill and I thought we handled that situation fairly well. Team win.

Notes –

– Forward Brendan Lemieux scored his fifth goal of the season, all of which have come during his last nine games. Lemieux’s goal tonight came in his first game back in the lineup, following a five-game suspension.
– Forward Phillip Danault scored his fourth goal of the season and has now tallied a point in back-to-back games.
– Goaltender Jonathan Quick won his third consecutive start, as he made 30 saves on 31 shots to earn his seventh victory of the season.
– Drew Doughty led all skaters with 28:03 of ice time and tallied his tenth assist of the season. Doughty had 12 points (2-10-12) from 10 games played.

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Tampa Bay tomorrow morning and will not hold a practice. The team is slated to return to the ice on Monday in Florida.