FINAL – Kings 5, Golden Knights 1 – Fiala, Copley, McLellan

The LA Kings picked up two big points on the road with a convincing 5-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday evening at T-Mobile Arena.

The Kings were led by a hat trick from forward Kevin Fiala, his first with the organization, while defenseman Matt Roy and forward Viktor Arvidsson also scored and forward Gabe Vilardi added three assists. Goaltender Pheonix Copley made 19 saves to secure his tenth victory of the season.

Despite a bit of a chaotic opening 20 minutes, the Kings found themselves on the right side of the scoreboard with the lone goal of the period. Fiala spun at the offensive blueline to create space and sent a shot through traffic and in for his 11th goal of the season and the 1-0 advantage. Fiala’s linemates – Vilardi and Blake Lizotte – tallied the assists on the play.

The Kings struck twice in the second period to open up a 3-0 lead at the second intermission.

First, with the hosts on a power play, Roy drove the net and buried a rebound for the two-goal advantage. The play was started by center Anze Kopitar’s pass off the wall in the neutral zone to spring Rasmus Kupari, who got his shot off the far pad of Vegas netminder Logan Thompson to create the rebound opportunity for Roy. Fiala made it 3-0 with his second goal of the evening, as he dragged and fired home from close range, with Vilardi and defenseman Sean Durzi tallying the helpers on the play.

The Kings extended their lead to four goals early in the third period through Arvidsson, who picked up an unconventional one to make it a 4-0 game. After he set up defenseman Sean Walker for a good look in the slot, Arvidsson gathered the puck, which kicked up off of his face shield and in for his 11th goal of the season.

Vegas got on the board late to snap Copley’s shutout bid with just over two minutes to play in the third period, as forward Jonathan Marchessault fired home from the left-hand circle, off Copley’s stick and in.

Fiala sealed the deal less than a minute later, however, as he buried into the empty net for his third goal of the evening.

Hear from Fiala, Copley and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Kevin Fiala

Pheonix Copley
On getting a win like that over the division-leading Golden Knights
First of all, it’s a great win. They’re a good team and it’s a game in our division, so those are big games for us. The guys played great all night, we’ve been playing really well defensively and cleaning up stuff, keeping things to the outside and we did that again tonight. It’s huge for us.

On getting the level of commitment he did from the group in front of him
At the end of the day, a win’s a win and that’s what need, so we’re happy with that. [The team was] blocking shots, the PK was good again tonight and we got it done.

On getting that type of win after a hard-fought loss against the Bruins
We played a good game against [Boston] and just sometimes it doesn’t work out and sometimes it doesn’t go in our favor. That was one of those games where we battled hard and unfortunately didn’t win, so to not let that get to us to come out tonight and get a big win that’s huge for us and it shows definitely shows maturity.

On the shorthanded goal changing the momentum of the game
Yeah, that’s big. Royzie works hard and seeing him get rewarded is awesome. They’re the ones who are supposed to score on the power play, so when the PK comes through like that, it’s obviously big.

Todd McLellan
On the win tonight over Vegas
Right from the beginning, I thought we were prepared to play the right way. This team, Vegas, presents a lot of different challenges and we were prepared. We played the way we wanted to and the game plan we wanted to and that was player 1 through 20. Everybody contributed, so a good team win.

On the play of Fiala tonight and the chemistry his line is building
They’re starting to connect. Just understanding where people might be and their tendencies at certain times, in certain situations. The chemistry starting to come so it’s a good sign. Kevin was snake bit for a while and he’s off that now. Hopefully things will start going in for him a little more regularly.

On seeing several areas show up in tonight’s game
We did those little things and at the end of the night, they all add up. Gabe’s blocked shot, Brendan Lemieux’s physicality and guys that often don’t get noticed on the scoresheet, but they also had big contributions tonight and then the guys that did score, Fiala and everybody else that was involved. Good night for us.

On seeing the frustration after losing the shutout bid late in the game
Shutouts are often a team thing. At that points, we’re playing for the goaltender, but the team really worked towards it tonight. We didn’t get it and whether it’s Phoenix, Cal or Quickie in net, we would all be pulling for them in that situation.

On his team’s play over the last three games, against three division leaders
We played Dallas, Boston and now Vegas in six nights and I thought we played well in all of them. Unfortunately, the Boston game got away on us a little bit, but it didn’t diminish the effort. We made a few mistakes and they capitalized. Tonight we were on the other side of that, we were able to take advantage of the other team’s mistakes.

Notes –
– Kevin Fiala recorded his second career hat trick and first as an LA King. His three-goal effort marked his team-leading 12th multi-point game of the season. He now has seven points (3-4-7) in his last five games.
– Fiala is the first Kings skater since the 2017-18 season to record five or more 3+ point games in a season (Anze Kopitar – 7).
– Fiala’s hat trick also boosted his team-leading season point total to 42 points (13-29-42) through 43 games. Per NHL PR, Fiala required the fewest games by a Kings player to register his first 40 career points with the franchise since Pavol Demitra (34 GP in 2005-06) and Craig Conroy (40 GP in 2005-06).
– Matt Roy notched his first career shorthanded goal and fifth goal of the season, establishing a new career-high.
– Viktor Arvidsson netted his 11th goal of the season.
– Anze Kopitar assisted on Matt Roy’s second-period goal for his 500th career road point, joining Marcel Dionne (262-345-607) as the only other skater in team history to reach the mark. Kopitar is one of six active skaters to reach the milestone.
– Gabriel Vilardi registered his second career three-point and three-assist game, while Blake Lizotte had two assists for a multi-point night.
– Phillip Danault tallied his 18th assist of the season. He now has six goals and 11 points (6-5-11) in his last 10 games.
– Pheonix Copley stopped 19-of-20 shots for his tenth victory of the season, improving his record to 10-1 on the year.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow morning at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo.