FINAL – Kings 3, Kraken 2 – Danault, Fiala, McLellan

The LA Kings snapped a three-game losing streak, as they skated to a 3-2 shootout victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday evening at Climate Pledge Arena.

Against the flow of play, Seattle opened the scoring on a broken play early in the first period. Defenseman Adam Larsson skated the puck out of the corner and lost possession as he drove towards the slot, but the puck trickled through traffic, through the legs of Kings netminder Cam Talbot, and into the net for Larsson’s second goal of the season.

Later in the opening period, the Kings scored a well-deserved equalizer through forward Trevor Moore, sending the game into the first intermission tied at one. Twice, the Kings won the puck back in the offensive zone, with forward Phillip Danault eventually using a quick, touch pass to Moore, who deked to the backhand and cooly slotted his shot past Seattle goaltender Joey Daccord for his team-leading 14th tally of the season.

The Kings pulled ahead for the first time in the game with a power-play goal late in the second period, taking a 2-1 lead into the second intermission. Skating on the man advantage, forward Adrian Kempe made a nice move at the blueline to evade a pair of penalty killers and feed forward Quinton Byfield down low. Byfield took it aggressively to the net and hit forward Anze Kopitar, driving to the back post, for the finish, Kopitar’s 12th goal of the season.

With less than three minutes remaining in regulation, Seattle forward Oliver Bjorkstrand forced overtime with a power-play goal. Skating on the man advantage, the Kraken worked the puck to Bjorkstrand at the top of the right-hand circle, where the Danish winger fired through traffic, past Talbot and in, for his tenth goal of the season and a 2-2 scoreline.

After overtime came and went, which included a Kings power play that was unsuccessful, the game advanced into a shootout. Adrian Kempe scored in Round 3, to extend it, while Arthur Kaliyev and Trevor Lewis each scored to extend the shootout in sudden-death situations. Eventually, in Round 9, forward Carl Grundstrom buried the game-winning goal, giving the Kings the two points.

Hear from Danault, forward Kevin Fiala and Head Coach Todd McLellan after tonight’s win.

Phillip Danault

Kevin Fiala
On Trevor Moore’s goal and how he saw it develop from his perspective
Yeah, it was high pass, I kind of took it out of the air and I just tried to get it behind me, because I saw it was an odd-man rush kind of. Phil, it was a great play by him and it was a great finish by Moore.

On the response effort from the team, coming off three consecutive losses
Just go back to basics. The practice was just be better defensively – as a line, every line, as a team, being more responsible for defense and we did that today. We just gave up two goals, obviously the second one in the end, but I think overall it was a good game for us.

On his line finding a good balance between direct play and using their creativity
Especially today, I think we did a great job being balanced, like you said. We did everything. I think we didn’t have a scoring chance against almost, I thought we had a great evening.

On Trevor Moore’s goalscoring and his ability to make plays in tight spaces
Very good. Like you can see, today again, he had a couple of chances and his goal was quick hands. He can shoot it and today he deked, he’s going for goals.

Todd McLellan
On his evaluation of tonight’s response performance to snap a three-game skid
I thought that the group as a whole decided that they wanted to play our way, instead of being loose. Game management skills went way up, we played as units of five, we had a pretty good idea of when to strike and when not to and all those things went our way. Unfortunately we gave up the power play late in the game, give them credit they scored a nice goal, but I thought tonight we deserved to win. We played a good, solid game and if we wouldn’t have won, it would have stung a little bit but we’d move on. Fortunately, we found a way to do it.

On if he felt the first period was a tone-setting period for the group
It was, yes. We used some of the things that we worked on in practice and they applied them in the game, but more importantly, they took ownership of the game, of certain situations. Whether it was line changes, shift length, certain assignments, they took ownership of them and re-established our way of doing things. It doesn’t always guarantee a win but it certainly gives you a chance at one.

On the performance of the Fiala/Danault/Moore line tonight
Absolutely. I talked to the three of them the other day and they have been our most offensive line over the last 10 days or two weeks, but the ledger hasn’t been balancing out. They’ve been giving up a few too many. I thought tonight, they really made a commitment to play on the South side of the puck, not always on the North side, and as a result they were pretty good offensively as well.

On the shootout and a coach’s mindset during that
We’re on the bench thinking, okay, who are using next. We’re looking at the goaltender, we’re using people that are upstairs, and you never really plan for eight, you’re hoping that it’s done in your favor by three or four. The Lewie decision, that was Kopi. Kopi turned back and said Trevor Lewis has a pretty good move, so okay, let’s use him and he did his thing. Then, I thought a deke and then a shot would be good and Grunny’s known for his shot, so we mixed it up there.

On the group winning a low-scoring, 3-2 hockey game
I’m confident our group can play in those games and win those games. We’re built for that type of night, we just haven’t had to play in many of them this year. Whether it’s got away on us a few times or we’ve been well in front, these types of nights are probably going to be more common than the 4-1 wins or 5-1 losses. I think our group is comfortable and I’m confident that they can play in them.

Notes –
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season and ninth on the road, the most in the league behind only Sidney Crosby (14), Travis Konecny (11), Brayden Point (11) and Connor Bedard (10). Moore now has 17 points (9-8=17) in 14 road games played this season.
– Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) registered his 12th goal of the campaign, bringing his season point total to 27 (12-15=27). Kopitar’s goal marked his 197th career road goal, moving one shy of tying Dave Taylor (198) for the third-most in franchise history.
– Kopitar’s tally was also his 11th power-play goal (PPG) in the 2023 calendar year, tying Arthur Kaliyev (11 in 2022) and Jeff Carter (11 in 2013 & 2018) for the most PPG’s in a calendar year over the past decade.
– With the PPG, Kopitar has scored power-play goals in back-to-back games for the first time this season, and for the eighth time in his career, tying him with Bernie Nicholls (8) and Rob Blake (8) for the second-most PPG streaks of two or more games in franchise history. Only Luc Robitaille (32) has recorded more PPG streaks of two or more games as a member of the Kings.
– Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) recorded his 21st assist of the season, extending his assist and point streak against Seattle to three games (1-6=7) dating back to Nov. 29, 2022. Fiala has 12 points (1-11=12) in eight career games against the Kraken in his career.
– Phillip Danault (0-1=1) tallied his 11th assist of the season, extending his road point streak into a third game (1-2=3).
– Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) notched his 15th assist and 23rd (8-15=23) point of the season, establishing a new single-season career high in points (3-19=22 in 2022-23).
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) picked up his 18th assist of the season.
– Carl Grundstrom scored the game-deciding goal in the shootout, the first of his career.
– Cam Talbot turned aside 17 of 19 shots and six shootout attempts to earn his 13th victory of the season and improve his record to 13-5-2.

The LA Kings will travel back to Los Angeles tonight and will have a scheduled team off day tomorrow. The Kings will return to the ice for practice on Monday, December 18.

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