FINAL – Kings 3, Utah 2 – Clarke, Edmundson, Hiller

The LA Kings won their second consecutive game to begin their home schedule on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena, defeating the Utah Hockey Club by a final score of 3-2.

Neither team found the back of the net in the opening period, despite a pair of high-danger chances from Adrian Kempe and Warren Foegele, with the game going into the first intermission 0-0.

Midway through the second period, the Kings got on the board with a power-play goal from defenseman Brandt Clarke. Stationed at the right point, Clarke sent a shot through traffic, which deflected off a Utah stick on its way to the net, past goaltender Connor Ingram and in. Clarke’s goal was his first of the season, with forwards Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala collecting the assists.

The Kings added a second goal from the blueline to double their advantage, as defenseman Joel Edmundson scored his first as a Los Angeles player. The top line created the goal, as Anze Kopitar got the puck across the crease to Edmundson, who activated from the left point and buried from close range for his first goal of the season and a 2-0 advantage late in the second period.

Utah scored a controversial less than three minutes later to pull within one heading into the second intermission. After defenseman Mikey Anderson had his stick taken out of his hands, without a call, Utah scored seconds later. Defenseman Mikhail Sergachev fed forward Clayton Keller in his wheelhouse and the Utah captain one-timed the puck past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper to get the visitors on the board, with a 2-1 scoreline.

Edmundson found the back of the net for the second time at 1:09 of the third on a shot from the left point that made its way through traffic in front of the Utah net that had assists by Kempe and Clarke.

But Utah cut the lead back down to a single goal at 9:47 of the third when Logan Cooley redirected a centering feed by Michael Kesselring past Kuemper from point-blank range inside the crease.

LA held on late in the third, keeping Utah off the board in the second half of the final period to secure the victory, which improved their overall record to 4-2-2 on the season.

Hear from Clarke, Edmundson and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s game.

Brandt Clarke

Joel Edmundson
On if he should give himself a little bit more credit as a goalscorer
Yeah, maybe, I mean, you know, d-coach Smitty just keeps telling us to shoot the puck. Forwards are getting to the net, so might as well hammer some one-timers.

On the shooting mentality from the blueline, leading to an NHL-high seven goals
I think just for us, getting past that first layer and then our forwards are crashing the net. If the goalie can’t see the puck, it’s hard to stop, so forwards are doing a great job of that.

On being able to get that game over the line and doing so more comfortably than on Thursday
I think that just shows our depth and our leadership in those dying moments of the game, having the patience and the calmness just to make plays and get the puck out of the zone. Guys are blocking the puck, putting our bodies on the line. We’ve got to do that if we want to get wins. It’s a hard league to win in.

On the continued development of his pairing with Brandt Clarke
We didn’t know each other a couple months ago, so every day, we’re just getting to know each other more and more, and we sit beside each other in the locker room, so lots of chatter and just getting more confident. He’s such a skilled player, seeing him walk the blueline, little things like that, I give him the green light, I’m like, I got your back, play your game. It’s a work of progress. I think we still have a lot better, so I’m looking forward to it.

Jim Hiller
On scoring getting all three goals from defensemen today, and their output early in the season
You’ve got to shoot to score, but I think what we’ve done better this year, and it’s something Blakey talked about, I think, in the press conference when I was hired, was we need to get a little dirtier around their net. I think if the goalie sees the puck, usually they’re going to save it. We’ve got some deflection goals too and we’ve got some good screens, so it’s a product of the forwards getting of that, and the D obviously, finding lanes and getting it there.

On Joel Edmundson’s contributions with two goals tonight
We brought him in for a heck of a lot of reasons and if he wants to do that, we’ll take that as well. Our d-core, all 6D, Jonesy, good for him coming in there, they defended hard, there wasn’t a lot of room. You can see the Utah players, they’ve got some skill, they’ve got some high-end skill up there, five or six of their guys who made it pretty tough to get anything on the inside.

On Darcy Kuemper’s performance tonight, after missing five games due to an injury
Yeah, he’s big, you know what I mean? I think they had a few point shots too, where there was lots of traffic, and thus far, it seems to be able to hit him. I know though, they got the one, Keller got the one, somebody crossed in front, I don’t know if it was Hayden in front of the net, took his eyes away, makes it hard, but he’s just big in the net and the pucks hit him.

On if the officials gave any explanation the disparity of calls on stick lifts
No, no. I don’t think we really asked. I mean, they have a tough job. I will say this, you can always think that the refereeing is biased against you, every team feels that way, I’m sure Utah does, every night you can feel that way. So, they have a really tough job, they’ve got to make decisions in a split second, so as much as sometimes you think you’re getting it against you, there’s no sense in complaining. Their job is probably the toughest on the ice.

On holding players accountable after taking multiple penalties in a game
Well, I’ll talk about this, because we’ve talked about it, I think after the last game, we’re taking too many penalties. That’s clear. So, you can’t take that many penalties and when you show up more than once or twice or three times, then the coach has to do something.

On what he would like to see from Quinton Byfield to get him going offensively
I would have liked to see him shoot on the 2-on-1. I think sometimes, when you’re struggling to get the first goal, you want to get the first one. I know Kopi wouldn’t have minded if he shot. If he shoots and he doesn’t score, maybe it’s off the pad, Kopi goes to the net, he gets a chance at a second one. So that’s the one I would say, just don’t overpass, don’t overthink, don’t overpass, puck to the net and shoot it.

On if he is losing patience with Kevin Fiala
I’m not going to talk a lot about Kevin. We did get the two points, which was, I think, the most important part of the afternoon. We played extremely hard, checked extremely hard, and I think that’s more important than Kevin right now.

Notes –
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (1-1=2) scored his first career power play goal and recorded an assist. Clarke’s seven points (1-6=7) this season set a new single-season career-high, besting his six point (2-4=6) campaign in 2023-24.
• Defenseman Joel Edmundson (2-0=2) scored his first two goals as a member of the Kings for his first career multi-goal game. Edmundson becomes the fifth different defenseman selected in the 2011 NHL Draft to record a two-goal game, joining Dougie Hamilton (9x), Jamie Oleksiak (2x), Scott Harrington and Scott Mayfield, while also becoming the eighth defenseman selected in the 2011 NHL Draft to reach the 30-goal mark in his career. Edmundson’s two goals this season are tied with Mikey Anderson for the team lead among defensemen.
• Forward Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up his sixth assist and ninth point of the season, leading the Kings in both categories. The assist was the 798th of his career, passing Jari Kurri (797) for sole-possession of 35th most in NHL history. Kopitar’s assist also marked his 1,220th point (422-798=1,220) of his career, breaking a tie with Jean Beliveau (507-712=1,219) for 45th-most.
• Kopitar skated in his 689th career home game tonight, tying Eric Staal for 50th-most in league history.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-2=2) picked up his fourth and fifth assists of the season for his third multi-point effort of the 2024-25
campaign. Kempe’s second-period helper marked his 100th career power-play point (30-17=100). Kempe becomes the seventh skater born outside of North America, and the first Swede, to tally 100 career power-play points with the Kings. Kempe’s three multi-point games are the most among Kings skaters this season and his eight points (3-5=8) trail only Anze Kopitar (3-6=9) for the team lead.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) picked up his second assist of the season and scored his first point at Crypto.com Arena this season. Fiala’s 39 points (18-21=39) during the 2023-24 campaign were second on the team, trailing only Kempe’s 42 points (16-26=42).
• Forward Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) notched his fourth assist of the season for his first point at home this campaign.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence recorded five shots on goal tonight, setting a new single-game career high.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 of 25 shots faced en route to his first home win of the season, improving his record to 2-0-
2 on the year.

The Kings have a scheduled day off on Sunday before returning to practice on Monday at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.