FINAL – Kings 4, Golden Knights 1 – Kopitar, Spence, McLellan

The LA Kings skated to their seventh consecutive road victory to open the season as they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights by a 4-1 final at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday evening.

After a tightly contested and goal-less first period, the Kings surged ahead midway through the second with the game-opening goal. Forward Adrian Kempe was the recipient at the end of a dominant shift from his line, as he drove the net and converted on a Jordan Spence rebound for his fifth goal of the season and a 1-0 advantage. With the secondary helper, forward Anze Kopitar moved to within one point of Luc Robitaille for second in Kings franchise history.

The Kings made it 2-0 with just over four minutes remaining in the second period as they scored a power-play goal, their fourth straight game with a goal on the man advantage. Once again, Spence was the catalyst as he got another shot through from the point, with forward Trevor Moore getting the deflection to direct the puck past Vegas netminder Adin Hill. Moore’s goal was his team-leading seventh of the season, as the Kings took a two-goal advantage into the second intermission.

Less than three minutes into the third period, the Kings extended their lead to three goals, as forward Pierre-Luc Dubois buried the second power-play tally of the evening. Dubois went to the side of the net and put home a Kempe rebound that deflected off the endboards and directly to the stick of Dubois for his fourth goal of the season.

With just over five minutes remaining in the third period, the Golden Knights snapped Cam Talbot’s bid for a second consecutive shutout. Forward William Karlsson collected the puck in the slot and sniped his shot into the upper portion of the net for his seventh goal of the season.

Late in the game, Kopitar picked the empty net for his 400th career NHL goal. Kopitar became the fourth player in Kings history to net 400 goals with the franchise as he completed a multi-point night and sealed another win away from home.

Hear from Kopitar, Spence and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s victory.

Anze Kopitar

Jordan Spence
On tonight’s victory and what he felt the Kings did well
I think we played really well. Obviously Vegas is a top team and I think we came out to play in the first period and the second period, we kind of capitalized on the situation. In the third period, I think we played really well on the defensive zone, kind of just got the win, so we’re really happy with our game tonight.

On his shooting mentality tonight and an impressive evening
I think the past 10 games, I wasn’t really shooting that much and sometimes I’ve just got to trust my shot and good things happen. So, good things happened today and I’m just going to keep moving on from there.

On what he feels is clicking with his power-play unit right now
I think we’re just keeping it simple. I don’t think we have to make fancy plays, we’ve just got to keep shooting the puck. Obviously Arty has a great shot and Q in front of the net, so I think for us, we’ve just got to keep it simple. Get shots on net and good things will happen, really.

On seven straight road wins and what he feels is clicking right now
I think we have a lot of great players on our team, but I think it’s just our chemistry and just our will to win every game. I think the first five games, we weren’t our best and obviously after that, I think we really dialed it in and focused on the defensive side of the game. I think that really is showing a lot the past seven games, especially on the road. I don’t think we have to change anything right now, we’ve just got to keep it going.

Todd McLellan
On his impressions from tonight’s victory
It was the game we thought it would be. I thought early, it was a boxing match, everybody was just taking jobs and waiting for something to give. Fortunate to score first and I think that’s always an advantage against this team and then after that, we checked fairly well. When we broke down, we had excellent goaltending and all of that adds up to chance at success on the way to win.

On Anze Kopitar reaching 400 goals as an LA King and the good feeling of seeing him get it
Yeah, it was. He’s meant so much to this team and to LA but also to the NHL. He’s done so many good things for the league and entertained for so many years. For him to get to 400, it’s not often talked about when you mention Anze Kopitar, goalscoring, but 400 is an incredible amount. We’re really proud of him and we’re lucky to have him.

On a confident Jordan Spence and his shooting mentality tonight
You probably answered the question, willing to use his shot. I thought earlier in the year, he was deferring and we talked about it. When he loads his shot, that’s when other things open up and he used it a couple times tonight, hit the post early in the game. I thought it was his best of the season.

On Spence and his power-play unit scoring in four consecutive games
Sometimes it’s simplicity. The goal wasn’t pretty, but it was manufactured by creating a shooting lane and taking it. We can set structure up and we can set movement and maybe a strike point, but if it’s not there, you’ve just got to rely on your instincts. I thought that’s what happened in that situation.

On another strong night in goal from Cam Talbot
I thought he was excellent, really good. He had to clean up some messes when we made mistakes. Calm, understands the momentum of a game, got us good whistles. Just a very stabilizing factor in the goal right now.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-1=2) scored his 400th career goal, becoming the fourth player in Kings history to score 400 goals for the club, joining Luc Robitaille (557), Marcel Dionne (550) and Dave Taylor (431).
– Kopitar also joined Alex Ovechkin (824 w/ WSH), Sidney Crosby (556 w/ PIT), Steven Stamkos (519 w/ TBL) and Evgeni Malkin (478 w/ PIT) as the fifth player under contract with a team to score at least 400 goals with the franchise that drafted them. Of note, Patrick Kane scored 446 goals with Chicago.
– With his pair of points, Kopitar (400-754=1,154) sits tied with Luc Robitaille (557-597=1,154) for the second-most points in franchise history. His 754 helpers are three shy of tying Marcel Dionne’s franchise record (757).
– Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) scored a goal as part of his team-leading fifth multi-point game of the season. With his pair of points, Kempe extends his point streak to a career-best seven games (4-7=11). It is the second time in Kempe’s career he has recorded a point streak of seven games, doing so for the first-time last season (8-4=12; Jan. 31-Feb. 23, 2023).
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) notched his team-leading seventh goal of the season, extending his point streak to a career-best four games (2-3=5). It is the third time in Moore’s career he has recorded a point streak of four games in length.
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (1-0=1) tallied his fourth goal of the season. Dubois has points in three straight games against the Golden Knights (1-2=3), dating back to Dec. 13, 2022 (w/ WPG).
– Jordan Spence (0-2=2) recorded a pair of assists for his first multi-point game of the year and second of his career (0-2=2, April 13, 2022 at COL).
– Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) registered his team-leading 12th assist of the season. Fiala is the fifth different Kings player in the past 30 years with 12-plus assists through his first dozen games to start a season: Anze Kopitar (12 in 2020-21), Ľubomír Visnovsky (12 in 2005-06), Ziggy Palffy (14 in 2003-04) and Wayne Gretzky (14 in 1995-96 & 19 in 1993-94).
– Fiala also skated in his 500th career NHL game tonight, becoming the fifth Swiss-born skater in league history to do so, trailing Mark Hardy (915), Roman Josi (837), Nino Niederreiter (820) and Mark Streit (786).
– Quinton Byfield (0-1=1), Phillip Danault (0-1=1) and Arthur Kaliyev (0-1=1) all netted helpers. Byfield recorded his fourth assist in last two games and extended his assist streak into a fourth game (0-7=7).
– Matt Roy skated in his 300th NHL game tonight. In doing so, Roy becomes the second skater drafted in the seventh round to play at least 300 games for the LA Kings, joining forward Ian Laperriere (595).
– Cam Talbot stopped 37 of 38 shots to secure his seventh victory of the season and improve his record to 7-2-1 on the year. Talbot is the sixth goaltender in Kings history with seven or more wins through his first 10 career appearances with the franchise, joining Pheonix Copley (9 in 2022-23), Daniel Berthiaume (9 in 1990-91), Martin Jones (8 in 2013-14), Jason LaBarbera (8 in 2005-06), and Robb Stauber (7 from 1989-90 – 1992-93).
– The Kings won their seventh road game of the year, improving their road record to 7-0-0. They are the eighth different team in league history to win each of their first seven road games to start a season and the first to do so since the Pittsburgh Penguins (Oct. 3 – Nov. 3, 2009) and New Jersey Devils (Oct. 8 – Oct. 31, 2009).

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow and will return to the ice tomorrow evening against the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:30 PM at Crypto.com Arena.

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