FINAL – Kings 3, Islanders 0 – Rittich, Anderson, Hiller

The LA Kings concluded a five-game homestand with a record of 3-1-1 after a 3-0 victory over the New York Islanders on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

After a first period that saw neither team get on the board, the Kings broke the deadlock midway through the second period. Defenseman Jordan Spence pushed the puck up the ice to forward Adrian Kempe, who skated his way into the right-hand circle and fired a shot past New York netminder Ilya Sorokin on the glove side for the game-opening goal, his 20th tally of the season.

Just over six minutes into the third period, the Kings doubled their advantage through forward Phillip Danault. After a strong shift in the offensive zone, forward Trevor Moore rounded the net and fed a centering pass to Danault, stationed at the top of the blue paint, where he put it past Sorokin for his 15th goal of the season. Moore and defenseman Drew Doughty tallied the assists on the play as the hosts pulled ahead 2-0.

Inside three minutes to play, the Kings iced the game as Moore completed his multi-point night. In the Kings’ defensive zone, Moore intercepted a pass at the blueline, went the length of the ice and picked the empty net from the left-hand circle for his team-leading 25th goal of the season.

Hear from goaltender David Rittich, defenseman Mikey Anderson and goaltender David Rittich following tonight’s win over New York.

David Rittich

Rittich talks about his shutout win🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/SmxDj72Sxy

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 12, 2024

Mikey Anderson
On getting back in the lineup after missing eight games due to injury
Felt really good. Obviously it’s a lot more fun being down here than upstairs, so it’s nice to be back, nice to be a part of a good effort from the group and happy with the result today.

On what he felt was the difference to get a shutout win over the Islanders
I thought it started a lot with our forwards, they were fast, heavy on the forecheck, made it hard for their D. I thought we on the backend did a good job of trying to play quick, get pucks to them and let them do their thing. Overall, it felt like it was good all the way around and then we had Ritter back there when we needed him.

On if his physicality tonight was him trying to get himself into the game, or what presented itself
A little bit of both, but obviously we haven’t had any time to practice, so for me, that’s the first time I’ve been around five guys on the ice at a time. I’ve been skating a lot just by myself with one other guy, so I wanted to try and get engaged right away. A little physicality always can help that.

On how the team played in the third period to close out the gamae
We don’t want to change anything. I think we came out, we were a little slow,we weren’t as clean on breakouts, which gave them a few opportunities, but I thought it cleaned up as it went along. We’re trying to just play the same way, try and get the next goal, which we were able to do, and it helps make the job a little bit easier.

On the hardest thing to get back when working his way back from an injury
Maybe a little bit of the timing. Obviously, you’re not in all the practices, so it’s hard to work on gaps or changing up and down with speed, so takes a little bit to get into it. We had a good job with our training staff, all the strength and conditioning guys, to try and make sure we are as ready as we can be for coming back.

Jim Hiller
On a 5-for-5 performance on the penalty kill
What I heard there was too many penalties, that’s two games in a row, right? It taxes guys. They did an outstanding job and I thought actually our penalty kill got better as the game wore on. I thought, in the crunch time at the end, we were outstanding. We shared the puck, we won big faceoffs, but it’s too many. That’s the problem with it. The guys are doing a terrific job, and it really grinds you down. You take that many, those are obviously the guys who played big minutes 5-on-5, everything else and that was part of why we didn’t have a lot of gas or late for our push in the third.

On Adrian Kempe’s performance tonight and his game-winning goal
I thought that was his best game since I can remember. I thought he was extremely physical, he was fast, he just played a 200-foot game. You know you hear about that a lot, a 200-foot game, he was physical, he was a leader and that was all before he scored. Then, to see him score that goal, we’ve seen that goal many times, him down the wing and just snap it. All in all, just a really, really strong game.

On what he felt might have been different tonight versus Saturday against Dallas
You can usually get a pretty good read on the bench. We scored right away against Dallas, but three or four minutes into the game, we were up 1-0, but it didn’t feel like it. They had the legs, we didn’t. The Islanders played well, but I thought that we had legs, we forechecked, we finished checks, we were tracking back, we weren’t giving them a lot of space. So, I felt pretty good right away that our guys were here to play.

On the approach coming into a game against a team on a long winning streak
We make them aware of it, you always want to know where your opponent’s at and they’re playing really well, but coming out of that Dallas game, and I’ve talked about this a lot, we really focus on our team. Not that we didn’t mention the Islanders and the fact that they were on the streak, but it was really about us getting back and answering the question, “how desperate can we be for one another?” Somebody asked that earlier, I thought we answered that to ourselves.

On Mikey Anderson’s game in his return to the lineup
Yeah there’s no question. I counted just on the bench – we’ll see it on the video – but I had a count of four times where he had just a really good stick to break up what would have been really dangerous plays. So, amongst everything else, I know he had a couple of hits, he was physical on Barzal, but I just have a vision of four times where just a quick stickcheck to break up a pass across, that’s what he does so well. He goes unheralded sometimes because it’s not the offensive things as much the defensive things that he does.

On David Rittich coming in after six games out and putting up a shutout
Yeah, that’s right. Talbs had played so well, so we kept going with Talbs, and David was patient. David had played well prior, but Talbs was going good, so we were riding him, but it was David’s time. You always worry when a guy’s been out that long, how’s he going to get back into the game, well man, he answered that for us tonight, didn’t he? That’s a great performance, when you see a goalie come in after being out that long and being able to play a game like that.

Notes –
– Trevor Moore (1-1=2) scored his 25th goal of the season and picked up his 20th helper, reaching the 20-assist mark for the second time in his career (31A, 2021-22). With the goal, Moore becomes the 13th different undrafted skater in franchise history to record a 25-goal season, and the first to do so since Wayne Gretzky (38-92-130) in 1993-94.
– Moore’s pair of points marked his 10th multi-point effort this season, becoming the fifth Kings skater to record 10-or-more multi-point games this season.
– Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his 20th goal of the season, becoming the third Kings skater this season to hit the 20-goal plateau, joining Kevin Fiala (21) and Trevor Moore (25). This season marks Kempe’s third straight campaign scoring at least 20 goals, the most such-seasons by any Swedish-born player in Kings franchise history. With the goal, Kempe (2GP, 2-0=2) also joins Juha Widing (5GP 2-2=4, 1973-74) as only the second Swedish-born Kings skater to score two goals against the Islanders within a single season.
– The goal was the 151st of Kempe’s career, breaking a tie with Borje Salming (150) for sole possession of 48th-most by a Swedish-skater in league history.
– Phillip Danault (1-0=1) scored his 15th goal the campaign, his third straight 15-goal season with the Kings.
– Drew Doughty (0-1=1) notched his 27th assist of the season, extending his assist streak to a third game (3-0=3). Doughty has recorded an assist streak of three of more games for the 40th time in his career, the most by a defenseman in franchise history.
– The assist marked the 660th (155-505=660) point of Doughty’s career, surpassing Butch Goring (275-384=659) for sole possession of eighth place on the Kings all-time scoring list. Doughty also tied John Carlson (146-514=660) for the 36th-most points by a defenseman in league history.
– Jordan Spence (0-1=1) tallied his 17th assist of the season for his ninth primary assist of the campaign. Only Detroit’s Moritz Seider (15) has more primary assists this season among defenseman selected in the 2019 NHL Draft than Spence’s nine.
– Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) picked up his 10th assist of the season, becoming the first Kings skater since Sean Durzi (24) in 2021-22, and first Kings forward since Nikolai Prokhorkin (10) in 2019-20 to record 10 or more assists in their debut season. Laferriere recorded a career-best six hits in tonight’s game, surpassing his previous single-game high of four (2x, Last: Feb. 29, 2024, at VAN).
– Mikey Anderson skated in his 250th career regular season game tonight, becoming the sixth defenseman selected in the 2017 NHL Draft to reach the milestone, and the first American-born blueliner to do so. Anderson is the eighth American-born defenseman in franchise history to skate in 250 career games as a member of the Kings.
– David Rittich turned aside all 26 shots faced for his sixth career shutout and second this season, improving his record to 10-4-3 on the campaign. The Kings shut-out the Islanders, which entered play on a six-game winning streak. It marked the first time the Kings blanked a team entering a contest with six-plus wins since they shutout Pittsburgh on Dec. 16, 2016 (7 GP).

The LA Kings are scheduled to travel to St. Louis tomorrow afternoon. The team will return to the ice for morning skate in Missouri on Wednesday morning.

Proudly presented by Destination Vancouver.
The Real Pacific Northwest. Go Norther.