FINAL – Kings 5, Ducks 3 – Kempe, Moore, Anderson, McLellan + LAK vs. EDM in Round 1

The LA Kings completed the regular season with a 5-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday evening at Honda Center.

The Kings were led by a hat trick from forward Adrian Kempe, while forwards Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore also scored in the victory. Forward Viktor Arvidsson had three assists in the win, while goaltender Joonas Korpisalo capped off the regular season with 21 saves in the victory.

The Ducks opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game via forward Troy Terry. Anaheim blueliner Cam Fowler gained the offensive blueline off the rush and sent a saucer pass through the slot to Terry, who beat Korpisalo with his wrist shot from the right-hand circle to put the hosts ahead 1-0.

Late in the opening period, the Kings pushed back to knot the score at one heading into the first intermission. A double-deflection off a Matt Roy point shot saw the puck drop to Kopitar in front, who buried it past Anaheim goaltender John Gibson for his 28th goal of the season. Kopitar’s point was his 73rd point of the season, giving him sole possession of the team lead in scoring for the 15th time in 16 seasons.

The Kings scored twice in less than a minute during the second period to open up a 3-1 lead through 40 minutes.

First, with the visitors on the man advantage, Kempe shot a one-timer past Gibson’s left-pad, inside the near post, for a 2-1 advantage, with the goal confirmed upon video review. The Kings made it 3-1 through Moore, who picked up his tenth goal of the season 49 seconds after Kempe’s first goal. After forcing a turnover, Moore and Arvidsson went 2-on-0 into the attacking zone, with the former finishing the latter’s feed for the two-goal lead.

Anaheim pulled back to within a goal less than 90 seconds into the third period through forward Max Jones. Jones drove the net, got the inside position as he got to the crease and deflected a shot from defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk past Korpisalo for his ninth goal of the season and a 3-2 scoreline.

Kempe restored the two-goal lead with another power-play goal, his second of the evening, and his 40th goal in total on the season. With the Kings skating on a 5-on-3 advantage, Kempe set up to the left of Gibson and hammered a one-timer into the back of the net to become the first King since Luc Robitaille in the 1993-94 season to reach 40 goals in a single season.

Once again, however, the Ducks hung around with a tic-tac-toe passing play to make it a 4-3 game. Off an ill-timed bounce in the defensive zone, forward Trevor Zegras got on the end of an Adam Henrique feed to pull the hosts back to within a goal with just over five minutes remaining in regulation.

Kempe completed the hat trick with the empty-net goal inside two minutes to play, as he pushed the score to a final of 5-3.

Hear from Kempe, Moore, defenseman Mikey Anderson and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

Adrian Kempe

Juice sounds off after his 4th career hat trick closes out the regular season 🔊🧃#GoKingsGo | @LAKings pic.twitter.com/36h9mqRN8D

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 14, 2023

Trevor Moore
On what he liked from his line this evening
Yeah, I thought we were reading off each other well, just good support all night. I thought we were good on the forecheck for sure.

On the team’s focus level coming into tonight, despite Game 1 on the horizon
I thought the focus level was pretty good. I mean, you know it was their last game of the year, they were coming out wanting to play well, and I think their team did, but I thought we did a good job.

On seeing a passionate atmosphere from both sides tonight
I think it’s huge for Southern California and I think that you saw that rivalry out there. I grew up watching the rivalry, it’s good for hockey in California, people like it. It’s great, I think that California has grown a lot and it’s going to continue to grow.

Mikey Anderson
On finishing the season with two wins, coming off the stretch of games that preceeded
Yeah, it’s super important and it’s nice to have the feeling of positive morale, positive momentum, finding ways to win games, scoring some goals, obviously that’s a big part of winning games. More importantly, how we’ve played defensively the last couple of games, it’s nice to take into the playoffs now. We had a couple of physical games too, which is nice and that’s going to ramp up as well. Super nice to win a few and have some some intense games to finish.

On attempting to replicate playoff intensity in these final games
I think you try and bring it every night, but obviously once you get out there for Game 1 it’s going to ramp up. Both teams are going to feel it, I think it’s a little bit of a feeling out right away but everyone’s going to try and push to have some energy off to start. So, no matter what happens, I feel like it’s going to be a fast start and feel like it’s kind of game one of the regular season, when you come in from summer, everything happens pretty fast.

On Anze Kopitar’s continued high level of excellent play
I mean, we’re probably biased here, but I think he’s one of the most underrated if not the most underrated guy, especially defensively. He’s so smart. I was talking the other day about even him, just being in certain spots, you can give him a puck just to relieve a little pressure and he gets it right back. He’s got such a good stick, he handles pucks better than anyone I’ve seen, but just overal, his mindset every day, he helps us when things aren’t really easy.

Todd McLellan
On what he took away from tonight’s game
The game’s over, the year is done, it’s time to move on. I thought tonight’s game started a little bit empty, not really knowing how it was going to go or what we were going to do with the 60 minutes but as the game wore on, it became competitive. I thought it was good for us, again, to play in that environment rather than the alternative. It’s behind us now and time to move on.

On tonight’s performance from Danault’s line
I thought they looked as good as they’ve looked in a long time. They had some pace to their game, their tenacity of pursuit was at an elite level and they were responsible defensively. A lot of really good signs for the three of them.

On Adrian Kempe reaching the 40-goal mark on the season
I’m really proud of him, I’m happy for him, the team’s happy for him, it’s a good rallying point. The fact that he’s been able to elevate his play, almost on a weekly basis, he just keeps getting better, is a real good sign for him as an individual and us as an organization for a long time. He’s less streaky than he was in the past, scores big goals and scores them from all over the place and while he’s doing that, he’s physical and defending well. A hell of a year and a hell of a player.

On Kopitar’s continued excellence and taking it for granted at times
Yeah, I think fans, media, sometimes coaches and teammates take him for granted and it’s the wrong thing to do, because he does so many things for the group as a whole. We see him do the things on the ice, it’s off the ice as well, the leadership skills that he provides for not only the young players, but the veteran players. Between him and Drew we’re fortunate to have both of them and that that level of experience.

On the relief of getting through tonight’s game unscathed
The relief comes in the fact that we’re as healthy as we were coming into the game. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t concerned about that. A game that really doesn’t mean anything to either the two teams playing. You hate to see somebody block a shot and go down or take a hit, but that’s where the relief comes from. I don’t think we can take a deep breath and relax, that would be a mistake for our group. We don’t have enough time to do that anyhow, so just continue on.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-1-2) registered his 22nd multi-point effort of the season for his sixth point over his last five games (2-4-6). Kopitar’s pair of points marked his 84th and 85th career points (30-55-85) against the Ducks, surpassing Mike Modano (28-55-83) for the most points vs. Anaheim in league history.
– Kopitar completes the 2022-23 season as the Kings leading scorer with 74 points (28-46-74), marking the fifth consecutive season leading the club in scoring and 15th time overall, the most in team history. He joins Gordie Howe (17 times) as the only two players in NHL history to lead the same franchise in points at least 15 times.
– Adrian Kempe (3-1-4) extended his point streak against Anaheim into an eighth game (8-6-14) with his second four-point game and second hat trick of the season. In doing so, Kempe becomes one of six skaters in franchise history to establish a point streak of at least eight games vs. the Ducks: Kopitar (11GP, 9 GP), Lubomir Visnovsky (10GP), Mike Richards (9GP), Mike Cammalleri (9GP) and Luc Robitaille (8GP).
– Kempe’s hat trick marked his 39th, 40th and 41st tallies of the season to become the first Kings skater to score 40 or more goals in a season since Luc Robitaille during the 1993-94 campaign (44). He is the ninth different Kings skater to record a 40-goal season in team history.
– Trevor Moore notched his tenth goal of the campaign, becoming the 11th different Kings forward to tally at least 10 goals this season. The last time the Kings had as many forwards with 10 or more goals in a single season was in 1989-90: Todd Elik (10), Wayne Gretzky (40), Steve Kasper (17), Mike Krushelnyski (16), Bob Kudelski (23), Jay Miller (10), Bernie Nicholls (27), Luc Robitaille (52), Tomas Sandström (13), Dave Taylor (15) and John Tonelli (31).
– Viktor Arvidsson (0-3-3) recorded his second three-assist contest and 15th multi-point effort of the season.
– Drew Doughty (0-2-2) and Matt Roy (0-2-2) each recorded multi-assist games.
– Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves in the victory to improve his Kings record to 7-3-1 and 17-14-4 on the year.
– With the win, the Kings earned their first regular-season series sweep (3-0-0) of the Anaheim Ducks in team history.
– The Kings finish the 2022-23 regular-season with a record of 47-25-10, securing the second-most wins in a single season in franchise history behind only the 2015-16 season (48 wins).

The Kings will not practice tomorrow. The team will return to the ice on Saturday at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

Additionally, the schedule for Games 1 and 2 of Round 1 was announced earlier tonight, as the Kings visit Edmonton. The full series schedule will follow tomorrow. Game 1 will be om Monday, 4/17 while Game 2 will follow on Wednesday, 4/19.

The Kings and Oilers will begin their series on Monday in Edmonton. Game 2 will be on Wednesday.

Full schedule will follow tomorrow.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) April 14, 2023