FINAL – Kings 3, Devils 2 – Grundstrom, McLellan

The LA Kings got off on the right foot of their current, six-game roadtrip, as they skated to a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Sunday evening at Prudential Center.

The Kings got goals from Alex Iafallo, Viktor Arvidsson and Carl Grundstrom, and 22 saves from Cal Petersen, to start the trip off on a positive.

New Jersey opened the scoring less than three minutes in, as forward Jesper Bratt got in behind the defense, took a stretch pass from defenseman Damon Severson, and deked to his forehand for the goal in-tight. Bratt’s tally was his 12th goal of the season, putting the hosts ahead early.

The Kings pushed back to even the score at one midway through the opening period, through Iafallo. With the teams skating 4-on-4, Iafallo forced a turnover at his own blueline, led an odd-man rush the other way and fired off the post and in from the right-hand circle for his 12th goal of the season.

The Devils capitalized on the lone power-play in the first period that lasted longer than two seconds, as Bratt tallied his second goal of the evening to put New Jersey ahead heading into the first intermission. While set up in the offensive zone, forward Jack Hughes fed a pass through the slot to Bratt, who one-timed hit home from the top of the right-hand circle to make it 2-1.

The visitors got a big goal late in the second period to take the game into the second intermission tied at two. Off the rush, from a similar area on the ice as Iafallo’s goal earlier, forward Viktor Arvidsson snapped a shot past New Jersey netminder Jon Gillies to even the score. Arvidsson’s goal was his tenth of the season, making him the fifth King to hit double digits this season.

LA pulled ahead just past the halfway mark of the third period, as the third line capitalized on some good work along the wall. After Grundstrom entered the zone, the puck found its way to Dustin Brown, who worked it back to Grundstrom in the high slot. The Swede made no mistake on the wrist shot, as he slotted it home for his sixth goal of the season.

Hear from Grundstrom and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Carl Grundstrom

On coming out on the right side of a tight, one-goal game
Yeah, it was a tough game, we found a way to win it and that’s the most important thing, I think. That’s been the struggle over the last couple of games here, we played some good hockey but we couldn’t find a way to win. We did find that today, that was good.

On getting back into the lineup off of COVID Protocol
Yeah, obviously it was great. It was tough to be away for two weeks and I’m glad to be back again. The first couple of practices, it was hard. If you haven’t trained for two weeks, you’re going to feel it. [After that], it was quickly back to normal.

On the physicality in tonight’s game
Yeah, it was fun. They have a couple of really quick forwards, so we tried to be strong and hit them. I think we did a good job today, it’s huge to start with a win on a long road trip like this.

On his new line with Byfield and Brown
I think we’ve been feeling pretty good. Both Q and Brownie are real good players and I’m excited to play with them. It’s been a lot of fun.

Todd McLellan

On finding a way to get two points on the road
We came in with a little adversity and played exceptionally well. We got stung early, on something we expected to happen, so we had to fight through it tonight, it gave us a really good game. I thought, as the night went on, we got better and found a way to win a tight one.

On getting two goals off the rush tonight
For a team that doesn’t score easily, any way we can get them, we’ll take them. One off the forecheck, the winning one was a good effort, took the walls away, created a turnover which was nice. The other was a turnover in the neutral zone that we created. Coaches always get upset at players when they turn pucks over, but sometimes the other team does a good job of poking them away or getting in the way. I thought we did that tonight on Arvidsson’s goal in the second.

On Carl Grundstrom’s impact and presence in the lineup
He brings physicality, he’s a hard guy to play against, we saw the scrum he created in the first period. He plays in straight lines, he gets his nose over the puck all the time and brings that energy and physicality, and he can shoot a puck when he gets an opportunity. We saw that tonight.

On getting off to a positive start on a six-game roadtrip
Well, it’s a lot better than the alternative, of course, but getting the first one, especially with a back-to-back situation, going to the Rangers tomorrow, it doesn’t make the job any easier. At least you have one in the bank and more importantly, we have to look back at the three losses we came in with and in particular how we lost them and the mistakes we were making. We corrected a lot of them tonight, so that was a good first step on a long trip.

Notes –

– Forward Trevor Moore collected his 12th point in the month of January, leading all Kings skaters so far in 2022.
– Forward Viktor Arvidsson has now collected points in six of his last seven games, with a goal tonight in New Jersey.
– Forward Alex Iafallo extended his point streak to three games with his first-period goal. Iafallo now has six points (2-4-6) over his last six games played.
– Forward Carl Grundstrom collected his first game-winning goal of the season, the fifth of his NHL career.
– Goaltender Cal Petersen won for the fourth time in five starts, as he made 22 saves on 24 shots in tonight’s one-goal victory.

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow, in advance of the game against the Rangers. Puck drop tomorrow is slated for 7 PM at Madison Square Garden.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.