FINAL – Kings 5, Blues 1 – Grundstrom, McLellan

The LA Kings skated to a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues to begin a three-game road trip against Central Division opposition.

Forward Kevin Fiala had three assists in the victory, while forward Carl Grundstrom scored twice and forward Gabe Vilardi had a multi-point night to mark his 100th career NHL game.

The Kings picked up the lone goal of the first period to take a 1-0 lead into the intermission. With a delayed penalty giving creating a 6-on-5 advantage, Fiala fed Vilardi at the back post, where he tapped in his eighth goal of the season, moving him into a tie for second place in the NHL in goals this season with Carolina’s Evgeny Svechnikov.

With a four-goal second period, the Kings surged out to a 5-0 lead with four goals in a span of 6:15.

First, the third line combined on an excellent tic-tac-toe goal off the rush, with Fiala feeding Kupari, who hit Grundstrom at the back post for a tap-in goal, Fiala’s second point of the evening and Kupari’s first of the season. The Kings made it 3-0 on another tap-in play, this off a give-and-go between Vilardi and Anze Kopitar, with the former setting up the captain for his second goal of the season.

The offensive outburst continued, as the Kings scored just after the completion of a power play. Forward Trevor Moore poked the puck to an uncovered Arthur Kaliyev in the slot, where he buried his third goal of the season from close range. Grundstrom made it 5-0 with his second goal of the evening, as he fired home from a sharp angle off the rush, with Fiala collecting his third assist of the game with the primary helper.

St. Louis capped off an active period with its first goal of the evening to bring the score to 5-1 at the break. Forward Alexey Toropchenko collected his first goal of the season to snap the shutout just past the halfway mark of the second period.

Neither team found the back of the net in the third period, as Jonathan Quick stopped all 12 shots he faced, as a part of 27 saves on the evening.

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

Carl Grundstrom
On what he felt went well for him and his line offensively tonight
I think we played pretty well against Toronto and we had a couple of chances, so tonight we just tried to build on that. It was nice to get two goals tonight.

On clicking early with Fiala and Kupari
I think we all want to play fast, make plays and go to the net. I think it’s been a well-balanced line so far.

On playing with Kevin Fiala and what makes him an effective player
Honestly he just has a really high skill level, he has great hands and great vision. I just try to stay open when he has the puck.

On things starting to come together on a team-wide level
Yeah, absolutely. We’ve just got to play our game, play tighter defensively and that’s what’s happened over these last couple of games. If we can keep doing that, we will be fine.

Todd McLellan
On establishing consistency night-over-night
It has for a couple of nights now – We’ll get some rest and we’ll see what happens in Dallas, but for the moment, yes. I knew we were going to have our hands full, they were obviously not very happy with our game just as we weren’t a few games ago. I liked the way we started, I liked the way we stuck with things, I think we checked our way to some goals, which was really important. Down the stretch, the penalty kill came up big, I thought Quickie had a real good night. Overall, a pretty good team effort.

On the Fiala – Kupari – Grundstrom line helping to establish team balance
It makes it a lot tougher for the other team to pick and choose who they’re going to focus on. Kevin seems to be able to at a high level regardless of where he is. It allows Gabe to play with some first-line players for a little bit. It just feels better right now, it looks better, fewer chances against for the most part. Overall, all four lines contributed.

On the abundance of back-door tap-in goals in the win tonight
ou’ve got to take what you’re given. I think, early in the year, we were forcing some stuff and still getting rewarded. Tonight, we took what was there. Grunny didn’t have anything on his goal, he came down, fired it and it was in the net. Kup found something when he set up a goal off the backside and it’s in the net. You have to read quickly and take what’s there and our team did a better job of that tonight than we have been.

On what Carl Grundstrom has done to establish himself as a player who is hard to take out
Well, we don’t want to take anybody out of the lineup, if we could dress 23 at night or 30 a night we would, but it’s just the way it works early in the season. Some guys come out just so other guys can go in. As the year goes on, there are going to be injuries, there’s going to be some upward play by people, some others that maybe don’t play quite as well and those decisions have to be made. Grunny has proven himself to be a pretty effective player, he’s done a tremendous job in adapting to penalty killing this year, something he’s added to his game. We’re fortunate to have him.

On his 100th win as a member of the Kings tonight
Yeah, I wasn’t even aware of it. You know, the next 100 are going be a lot tougher than the first 100. I’m only worried about 101 which is tomorrow in Dallas and we’ll have our hands full there.

Notes –
– Skating in his 100th career NHL game, Gabe Vilardi scored his team-leading eighth goal of the season and extended his goal streak to a career-long four games. Vilardi’s eight goals rank tied for second among NHL skaters and he sits one behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (9) for the lead league.
– Vilardi’s two-point effort marked his fifth multi-point game of the season, the second-most in the league behind Boston’s David Pastrnak (6). Vilardi’s 13 points in the month of October (8-5-13) are tied for sixth-most in the league, tied for the most by any player 23 years old or younger with Carolina’s Martin Necas.
– Kevin Fiala tallied his second three-point game of the season and the ninth of his career. Tonight also marked Fiala’s third career three-assist game. Only two Kings skaters have reached the 10-assist mark in fewer games over the last 15 years (Anze Kopitar, 8 GP in 2020-21; Drew Doughty, 10 GP in 2021-22).
– Carl Grundstrom registered his second career two-goal game and his first multi-point night of the season.
– Rasmus Kupari tallied his first point of the season with his primary assist on Grundstrom’s first goal of the night.
– Jonathan Quick stopped 27-of-28 shots for his third win of the season and the 14th of his career against St. Louis, the most by any active goaltender.
– The Kings scored four goals in the second period, the first time they have done so since Dec. 4, 2016 vs. Montreal.
– Todd McLellan secured his 100th win as head coach of the LA Kings. In doing so, McLellan becomes the eighth head coach in franchise history to reach 100 wins and the fifth-fastest head coach to do so (219 games).

The Kings are not scheduled to skate tomorrow morning in Dallas, considering the back-to-back, and will hit the ice this evening for a 7 PM local, 5 PM Pacific puck drop versus the Stars.