FINAL – Kings 6, Blackhawks 2 – Kempe, Gavrikov, Hiller

The LA Kings kicked off a three-game homestand with a 6-2 victory, over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings opened the scoring midway through the opening period through forward Alex Laferriere, who buried for the second straight game against Chicago. Forward Pierre-Luc Dubois gained the offensive zone with possession, leading to a sequence at the net, with Laferriere burying the rebound from just outside the crease for the game’s first goal, his 11th of the season.

Chicago equalized heading into the first intermission, however, as it capitalized on a two-man advantage. Skating 5-on-3, the Blackhawks scored early, as a centering feed from forward Philipp Kurashev’s centering pass from a sharp angle kicked off the leg of forward Nick Foligno and in, the 16th goal of the season for the veteran forward.

After a back-and-forth start to the second period, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov pulled the visitors ahead with his fifth goal of the season. Stationed at the left point, Gavrikov sent a shot through traffic, with forward Blake Lizotte providing the screen in front, and the puck evading Chicago netminder Petr Mrazek for a 2-1 lead.

Forward Anze Kopitar extended the Kings’ advantage to three goals by scoring twice in the latter stages of the third period.

First, forward Adrian Kempe went hard into the corner, intercepted a pass in deep and fed Kopitar in the slot, where the captain wristed his shot inside the far post and in for a 3-1 advantage. Kopitar made it 4-1 in the final minute of the period, capitalizing on a power play, to extend the lead through two periods. Off a centering feed from Kempe, Kopitar worked the puck over the goal line and in from just outside the crease for his second goal of the game and his 22nd of the season.

In the early stages of the third period, the Kings added another goal to pull ahead 5-1. The second line got in on the action, as forward Trevor Moore fed a pass through the crease, to his linemate, Phillip Danault, at the back post, where Danault tapped it in for his 16th goal of the season.

Chicago pulled one back late, through defenseman Kevin Korchinski from the left point, before forward Trevor Lewis iced the scoring with just over three minutes to play. Dubois spun with the puck in the offensive zone and shot towards the net, with Lewis getting a deflection from just outside the crease for his eighth goal of the season, bringing the game to 6-2 final.

Hear from Gavrikov, Kempe and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Adrian Kempe

Juice talks about the win with the media🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/1ba0OgBmzr

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 20, 2024

Vladislav Gavrikov
On his goal tonight and how he saw that play unfold
I was just trying to get the puck to the front of the net, get a tip or something, but that was a good screen. Basically, if you hit the net, it’s always a good chance to score a goal.

On the Kings focusing on their play throughout the game tonight
It’s always about us. Same two points for us, we’re just looking at ourselves, how we’ve got to play and just get the two points every single night. That’s our goal.

On the team’s improved record at home since the All-Star break
Everything just a little bit, little details are important, to just start paying attention more on that. We didn’t change much, just like those details that we try to improve every single day.

On hitting 100 career NHL points
Well yeah, it’s not 1000, but it’s something to achieve for me. The most important point is the two points for us as a team. I’m just looking forward to getting another two next game.

Jim Hiller
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
The score ends up similar to the score in Chicago, but we played so much better in Chicago. Having problems passing, obviously early, getting much of anything done, but you know what, this time of the year, the most important thing is to get the two points. We can [analyze] this one all we want, but we don’t have time for that. We’ve got a good opponent coming in tomorrow night.

On having two of the big guns, Kopitar and Kempe, step up in a game like that
That was just it. We needed somebody and we were wondering who that was going to be. Nice to see the big guys, Kopi in particular with the two goals. One really nice goal off the forecheck, that’s a part of our gameplan, was to forecheck, we didn’t do a lot of it, but that one was it to a tee, so we really appreciated that. The power-play goal, throw it there, we’ve got people that are in and around the net and we get a little bounce on that one.

On if a greasy goal like Kopitar’s second can spark a struggling PP unit
I hope so. You take them how you get them, and sometimes they’re really nice, but what we did have was really good numbers at the net. Q was right there, Kopi was right there, the puck was delivered, you don’t know where it’s going to end up but if it hits a stick, it’s a goal, it goes off a foot or a leg, whatever we were in good spots. We were on the backside of the net, where the goalie wasn’t, and the puck was delivered to that area. We will take that kind of attempt every time.

On another strong night from Cam Talbot between the pipes
It was not an easy game for him. There was a lot of pucks deflected that he saw through traffic, he made a lot of saves that were through some deflections. I just thought he looked really good, I just didn’t think he looked like he was scrambling. We might have been scrambling in front of him at times, but I thought he looked pretty composed the whole way. Not a lot of rebounds, not a lot of second chances.

On getting a goal from the backend, from a source other than Drew Doughty
We’ll take what we can get for sure. What’s most important is that we outscore the other team. If they’re playing good defense and allowing our forwards to break out and outscore the other team, we’ll take it the end of the night, we’re concerned with outscoring the other team. Do we like him when they score, could we use more, of course, but ultimately, they do their job, forwards do their job, goalie does his job and we have more than the other team, we’re happy.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (2-1=3) recorded his 75th career three-point game, tying him with Bernie Nicholls for the fifth-most such outings in franchise history. With his trio of points, Kopitar now sits at 1,199 career points (415-784=1,199), passing Patrick Marleau for the 52nd spot on the all-time points list for the NHL. Kopitar has five points in his last two games against the Blackhawks (4-1=5) and is now tied with James Neal (15) for most goals against the Blackhawks among skaters from the 2005 NHL Draft Class.
– Tonight also marked the captain’s 159th multi-point effort at home, breaking a tie with Dave Taylor (158) for third-most in Kings history.
– Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his 11th goal of the season. Laferriere has now tallied a goal in both of his career games against the Blackhawks (2-1=3).
– Phillip Danault (1-0=1) scored the fifth goal of the game for his 16th of the season. This goal ties him for ninth with the Golden Knights’ Anthony Mantha (5-6=11) for points against the Blackhawks by an active Quebec-born player (7-4=11).
Pierre-Luc Dubois (1-1=2) scored his 16th goal of the season and picked up his 17th assist of the season. Dubois has now tallied points in back-to-back games against the Blackhawks (1-2=3) and has five points (3-2=5) over his last five games against Chicago, dating back to Nov. 27, 2022 (with WPG).
– Vladislav Gavrikov (1-1=2) scored his fifth goal of the season and tallied his 14th assist for the 100th and 101st career NHL points (23-78=101). In doing so, Gavrikov became the 10th defenseman selected in the 2015 NHL Draft to record 100 career points. Gavrikov joins Matt Roy (22-80=102) as the second Kings blueliner to tally their 100th career point this season.
– Adrian Kempe (0-3-3) tallied his first career three-assist performance as part of his 16th multi-point effort on the campaign. Kempe becomes the fourth Swedish-born skater to record a three-assist game, joining Mattias Norstrom (1x), Christian Folin (1x) and Viktor Arvidsson (2x).
– Trevor Lewis (1-0=1) scored his eighth goal of the season tonight.
– Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) notched a pair of helpers to increase his team-leading assist total to 38.
– Blake Lizotte (0-1=1) collected his sixth assist of the season for the 67th of his career. Lizotte now sits one assist shy of tying Bryan Erickson (68A) for the third-most assists by a Minnesota-born skater in franchise history.
– Trevor Moore (0-1=1) tallied his 21st assist of the season, extending his home point streak against the Blackhawks to a fourth game (2-2=4) dating back to March 24, 2022. Moore becomes the first Kings skater since Anze Kopitar (4GP, 0-6=6; April 8, 2017 – March 30, 2019) to record a four-game home point streak against Chicago.
– Cam Talbot stopped 22 of 24 shots faced in the victory, improving his record to 21-16-6 on the campaign.

The Kings are not scheduled to skate tomorrow morning, considering the back-to-back. The team will return to the ice tomorrow evening against the Minnesota Wild at 7 PM at Crypto.com Arena.

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