FINAL – Kings 3, Canucks 2 – Kopitar, Lizotte, Hiller

The LA Kings kicked off a four-game roadtrip with a hard-fought, physical, 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday evening at Rogers Arena.

The Kings opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the game, with forward Pierre-Luc Dubois making the play happen. Dubois worked his way through a check along the right-wing boards, drew a pair of Vancouver defensemen to him and fed the open man trailing the play late, forward Kevin Fiala, who buried from the slot for his 23rd goal of the season and the early 1-0 lead.

Later in the opening frame, the Canucks equalized through forward Sam Lafferty, sending the game into the first intermission tied at one. After the Kings were unable to get a defensive-zone clear along the right-wing boards, Lafferty won a battle, drove to the net through a maze of sticks and finished on the forehand for his 12th goal of the season and a 1-1 scoreline after 20 minutes.

Late in the second period, the Kings turned a 1-1 game into a 3-1 game with a pair of goals less than two minutes apart, taking a two-goal lead into the second intermission.

First, with the Kings skating 6-on-5 on a delayed penalty drawn by forward Trevor Lewis, his linemate Blake Lizotte got the puck across the goalline to put the visitors back on top. After taking a pass through the slot from defenseman Jordan Spence, Lizotte’s shot towards the net deflected off a Vancouver skate and in, with Lewis impacting the play in front, as the Kings went up 2-1.

Just shy of two minutes later, forward Anze Kopitar put the visitors ahead 3-1 heading into the second intermission. Kopitar’s shot was initially turned aside by goaltender Casey DeSmith, but hard work from his linemates, Adrian Kempe and Quinton Byfield, worked the puck free at the back post and Kopitar stayed with the play to score his 24th goal of the season for a 3-1 advantage.

Inside three minutes to play, the hosts pulled to within a single goal, as Brock Boeser found the back of the net off a challenging bounce for the Kings. Boeser put the puck towards the net and it kicked off the skate of Kopitar and deflected past Kings netminder Cam Talbot and in, as the hosts pulled to the final score of 3-2.

Hear from Kopitar, Lizotte and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s win.

Anze Kopitar

Kopi speaks with the media after the win🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/0Ps5ZWZuup

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) March 26, 2024

Blake Lizotte
On a gritty and gutsy win from the team
I think our last two games, Tampa was a little closer to playoffs and then tonight I think was even a half-step forward in terms of intensity and I love how our group responded to that intensity. I think that we’re trending in the right direction for this time of year.

On the importance of net play tonight with how the Kings worked at both ends
I think we have some guys who have been in this league a long time and they know what it’s like to play this time year and deep into the playoffs. That’s where games are won, not lot of space out there, there’s not a lot of free roaming plays, so I think where you win and lose games is in the crease and around the net. You don’t always get the bounces, tonight my goal had 9, 10 12 bounces, whatever it was, before it went in. Vancouver’s a good team, but I think for sure we were we were good in front of our own.

On the play of his linemate, Trevor Lewis, in tonight’s win
I think Lewis, if there was a statistic of unrecognized points for a team, he would be at the top of the NHL, he does so many things that help us to win every night.

On if it almost feels like “three seasons” with how things have gone for the Kings this year
It’s a good point, yeah, it actually it does. It almost feels like a rebirth. You kind of start from zero and I think that was obviously good for our team, we needed that, and management saw that, and I think Jimmy and Smitty have come in and done a great job of instilling how we want to play differently than before. I think it’s kind of paying dividends now, we’re starting fully grasp how they want us to play, from guy number 1 all the way up to 23. I think when we’re playing the way we want to play, we’re a tough team to beat.

Jim Hiller
On his takeaways from tonight’s victory
I thought the first period we were just okay, we started good and then they took it over. Second period, I thought we got better and third period I thought was our best period. Until they got the goal on the empty net, I thought we handled it pretty well, we played a really strong period, didn’t give them much at all. It got a little hairy there at the end, there’s no question, but a couple saves by Talbs and guys blocked some shots, got it done. It’s a good team, so we’re proud to beat them.

On winning a physical game tonight on the road
I thought it was physical, I don’t know if it showed that up that way for you guys, but it was a very physical game, they’ve got a big [group of defensemen]. They pinch the walls, really physical on our wingers coming down the walls, so we had to not necessarily stand up to them, but stand in there and take some of that punishment to try and get the pucks out. We did that, so it’s a gutsy effort as far as that’s concerned from a physical perspective.

On if tonight had a playoff feel to it
It did, we talked about after the Tampa game, it felt a lot like that, this felt up a level from that game but the same style. There just wasn’t a lot of room, wasn’t a lot of chances. Great to see Lewie and Liz out there, scoring what was a really big goal for us there at the end of the second.

On if he felt the Canucks’ bigger names getting “frustrated” in tonight’s game
I don’t think they were frustrated, I think they understood, like we understood about them, they’re a strong defensive team too, so it’s hard to get chances, it really is. I think that’s the challenge for the players, is you go out there and you just keep playing and playing and players like to score, they like to make good passes, all this kind of stuff and there’s just not a lot of room to do that. I think both teams understood that. It was just a battle, plain and simple, it was a battle. Both teams went out of hard and we got on the right side of it.

On the importance of winning battles all over the ice tonight, including Kempe and Byfield on Kopitar’s goal
Yeah, I mean, that ended up in the back of the net, so that’s an important moment for sure, but there was battles all over the ice. If you don’t get the puck out on the wall, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. You get it out on the wall and that’s the same battle for me as you battling for the puck in the crease for a puck. They’re just, these battles, are all over the ice and you have to win them. Sometimes we win them and good things happen, but you don’t want bad things to happen by losing the battles.

Notes –
– Anže Kopitar (1-1=2) tallied a goal and assist to take sole possession of the team lead in scoring with 64 points on the season. The captain’s performance extends his multi-point streak to four games, tying the longest such run of his career (4GP in 2019-20, 2017-18 and 2007-08). The last Kings player to post a longer multi-point streak was Alex Frolov (5GP) in 2006-07.
– Tonight was Kopitar’s 16th multi-point effort of the season and the 299th of his career, sitting one multi-point game away from becoming the third skater in franchise history to record 300 such performances, joining Luc Robitaille (321) and Marcel Dionne (392). Kopitar has now recorded 1,205 points (417-788=1,205) in his career, tying Vincent Damphousse (432-773=1,205) to officially enter the top 50 in scoring in league history.
– Kopitar (36 years, 214 days) became the third-oldest active player to post a multi-point streak of at least four games behind Alex Ovechkin (4 GP in 2023-24 at 38 years, 189 days) and Joe Pavelski (4 GP in 2021-22 at 37 years, 144 days).
With his assist, Kopitar reached the 40-assist mark for a franchise-record 14th time in his career and is tied with Sidney Crosby for the most such seasons among active skaters.
– Blake Lizotte (1-0=1) scored his sixth goal of the season. Lizotte has picked up four points (3-1=4) over his last four road games against Vancouver, dating back to Nov. 18, 2022.
– Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his 24th goal of the season and sixth game-opening goal of the campaign. Only Adrian Kempe (7) has more game-opening goals among Kings skaters. Fiala becomes the third Swiss-born skater in league history to record multiple 24-goal seasons, joining Timo Meier (3x) and Nino Niederreiter (4x)
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (0-1=1) registered his 20th assist of the campaign, eclipsing the 20-assist mark for the sixth time in his career, becoming the ninth player from the 2016 NHL Draft to record six 20-assist seasons. The helper was Dubois’ seventh point (1-6=7) in his last six games, dating back to March 15, 2024.
– Viktor Arvidsson (0-1=1) notched his fourth assist of the season for his third point (1-2=3) over his last three games. Arvidsson’s assist marked his 113th point (47-66=114) as a member of the Kings in his 150th career game for the franchise, the most points by a Swedish skater in their first 150 games with the Kings since Tomas Sandstrom (77-87=164), who was acquired by the Kings during the 1989-90 campaign.
– Jordan Spence (0-1=1) recorded his 19th assist of the season, for his 30th career point (4-26=30). Spence becomes the fifth defenseman selected in the 2019 NHL Draft to reach the 30-point mark.
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) extended his team lead in assists to 41 while pushing his assist and point streak to a fourth straight game (1-7=8).
– Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) registered an assist in a third consecutive contest, his 33rd helper of the campaign.
– Cam Talbot stopped 22 of 24 shots faced, improving his overall record to 23-16-6 on the season.

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow and will return to the ice for practice on Wednesday in Vancouver, before traveling to Edmonton later that day.

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