FINAL – Kings 1, Ducks 3 – Lewis, Lizotte, Hiller

The LA Kings missed their first opportunity to lock up a playoff berth, following a 3-1 loss against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday evening at Honda Center.

The Kings opened the scoring just shy of six minutes into the game, as forward Akil Thomas scored for the second time in three games to get the visitors on the board. Forward Trevor Lewis made a crafty move to the net, off the rush, to get the puck into the crease, before Thomas drove the blue paint and buried his second goal of the season for the 1-0 lead.

Anaheim equalized just before the first intermission through forward Frank Vatrano, tying the game at one after 20 minutes of play. After the puck was held in at the left point, forward Ryan Strome fed defenseman Radko Gudas across the blueline. From the right point, Gudas fired a low shot on net, that was kicked out by Kings goaltender Cam Talbot, but Vatrano was on the doorstep to put home the rebound for a 1-1 score.

After a scoreless second period, the Ducks broke open the tie game with two goals inside the first six minutes of the third period, taking a 3-1 lead.

First, just seconds after Anaheim had a goal disallowed for being offside, forward Alex Killorn made it 2-1 less than two minutes into the frame. Cam Fowler teed up Killorn off the left side of the umbrella, with the veteran forward walking to the top of the left-hand circle and picking his spot, glove side, for his 18th goal of the season.

Forward Trevor Zegras made it 3-1 just shy of four minutes later, as he capitalized off the rush. LA was unable to get the puck in at the offensive blueline and Zegras led the rush the other way, scoring clean from the left-hand circle, for his fifth goal of the season and a two-goal advantage for the hosts.

Hear from Lewis, forward Blake Lizotte and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Trevor Lewis

Blake Lizotte
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
Yeah, I think we kind of got away from our game after the first 10 minutes, we came out, our first 10, 12 minutes were great, playing Kings hockey, and we kind of drifted away from that and a few guys went on their own page more than we’d like. That was kind of unfortunate of us and you have to give them some credit too. They have some skilled players who made plays and took advantage of our mistakes.

On if he felt there was any internal pressure on the group with the chance to clinch the playoffs
I think there’s always pressure, it’s really hard to make playoffs and it seems like the Kings/Anaheim games are always close, regardless of where each team is in the standings. I think we both don’t want to let the other team clinch and I think every team around the league wants that. Clinching a playoff spot is always difficult, especially if it comes down to the last four or five games of the year, but we’ll have to get it done next game.

On the team getting away from its identity tonight
I think we kind of got away from Kings hockey after the first 10 or 12 minutes of the game. They made some plays and it’s kind of hard to get the wheels back on track, took a couple of penalties that are maybe uncharacteristic. They made some plays, they’re good team, so we’ll look to bounce back next game.

On a desire to slow down Anaheim’s pace when these teams meet on Saturday
I think partially, what’s slowing them down, is us not turning the puck over. We turned the puck over too much tonight and that allowed them to to not stop on their own end and just play with speed. I think it’s more so on us than maybe some things they did as well. But I think for us, it’s keeping our team accountable to our own game.

Jim Hiller
On his impressions from tonight’s defeat
First 10 minutes, what did we do? We forechecked, we played under the goal line, made it hard on them. We liked our start, we’re on the bench, we’re here to play and then as soon as you start feeling too good about yourself, two turnovers for goals and then we weren’t able to get the forecheck going – I shouldn’t say that, we did at times – but not consistently like we should.

On if he felt that the opportunity to clinch a playoff spot impacted the group at all
I wouldn’t think so. I mean, you get together months ago to try to get to this point and this is a veteran team, so I wouldn’t put any weight on that. I would put weight on. the way we started the game and then we thought it might be easy. It is never easy in the National League.

On if he feels the issues from tonight are “correctable” going forward
Yeah, it’s pretty simple. We have to get the puck behind them, when we did, we had success. When we didn’t, they scored two goals and also pushed pushed us back. So, that’s a pretty easy fix, it’s just understanding and having the will to do it over and over again.

On the team’s physicality tonight and if he expected more
I’ll look at our forecheck early, we were physical on the forecheck, but we didn’t have a lot of pushback the rest of the game. We wanted an easy game, that was clear, and we got an easy game, except the other team beat us.

On the play of the Lewis/Lizotte/Thomas line
I mean, Akil had four shots ,another great shot in the second period, he made a good glove save on him. That line was not the problem, that’s for sure.

Notes –
– Akil Thomas (1-0=1) scored his second career NHL goal in his fourth career game.
– Trevor Lewis (0-1=1) notched his seventh assist of the season and 100th as a member of the Kings. He is the seventh U.S.-born player to tally at least 100 helpers with the organization and 52nd player overall.
– Vladislav Gavrikov (0-1=1) collected his 17th assist of the season for his 23rd point (6-17=23) on the year.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.

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