FINAL – Kings 5, Senators 2 – Moore, Fiala, Hiller

The LA Kings made it three consecutive victories for the first time this season, as they skated past the Ottawa Senators by a 5-2 final on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game, as Alex Laferriere found the back of the net on the third of three consecutive shifts spent in the offensive zone off the opening puck drop. After a nice play by forward Phillip Danault on the forecheck to force a turnover, the alternate captain connected with Laferriere on a give-and-go play out of the corner and although Laferriere didn’t get all of the shot, it went between the legs of Ottawa goaltender Anton Forsberg and in for the 1-0 score.

The Senators tied the game inside the final minute of the opening period, taking the game into the first intermission at 1-1. Shortly after Danault had his stick slashed out of his hands, which went uncalled, Ottawa converted quickly in transition, with two well-executed passes finding Tim Stutzle in space and the German forward beat Kings netminder David Rittich through the five hole for the game-tying goal.

Just over six minutes into the second period, the visitors took their first lead of the game. Off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker set up his partner, Thomas Chabot, for a one-timer from the right point. Chabot’s shot was deflected on the way through by forward Adam Gaudette, redirecting the puck past Rittich for a 2-1 lead.

Shortly after Ottawa took the lead, the Kings answered back, thanks to an individual effort from forward Kevin Fiala. Fiala started the play by forcing a turnover on the forecheck, before he created space for himself in the slot and finished with a wrist shot, past Forsberg on the glove hand, to tie the game at two with an unassisted goal, one of the best so far this season for the Kings, Fiala’s ninth in total.

The Kings found the go-ahead goal less than two minutes into the third period, as Anze Kopitar buried his eighth goal of the season. Forward Trevor Moore made a nice move in transition, cutting into the slot off the rush and getting his shot on net, with the rebound popping up in the air, where Kopitar batted it on net, directly past Forsberg for the goal. Moore and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, who originally hit Moore with a pass in transition, collected the assists on the play, with Moore finding the scoresheet in his first game back in the lineup.

The Kings added the insurance goal late in the third period, as Fiala and forward Adrian Kempe connected on a power-play goal. Fiala, working from the left-hand circle, made a move to the middle, drew the attention to himself and threaded a pass through to Kempe, who one-timed his shot past Forsberg for his team-leading 12th goal of the season and a 4-2 advantage.

Moore picked the empty net inside the final two minutes of regulation, giving both he and Kopitar a multi-point game.

Hear from Moore, Fiala and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s win.

Trevor Moore

Kevin Fiala
On the confidence the third-period PPG gives him and that unit
A lot. I think it was a nice play overall, we were moving pucks and we were moving around. We’re looking forward to taking this to the next game.

On the continued evolution of the power play for the Kings
I think just play with your instincts. I mean, we have so many weapons out there, I think just use them all, we’ve got to use them. I think if you just look at one option or whatever, it’s maybe easy for the other team. That’s why I said we were moving around today, everywhere, especially that last one and that’s why I think the other team looked confused. So, I think it was a good step forward and we’re going to take this positive with us and hopefully keep it going.

On scoring three in the third period, including one early to set the tone
Third period of hockey is probably the most important, that’s the finish line, no matter if you’re down or up, you’ve got to rely on all the guys and, like I said, it’s a big part of our team.

On his goal tonight and how he saw that play develop
I was kind of reading [Brandt Clarke’s] shot, just kind of hoping for a bounce. I was kind of cheating over there and got the bounce, made a nice play and scored. I was happy.

Jim Hiller
On getting three goals in the third period, including the early goal to pull back ahead
Yesterday we were square going into the third, it wasn’t a Picasso, but we got the job done. We had to battle and the goalie had to be really good. So today, we had to get the same thing done, but it was a different script, I thought we played really well in the third. Still needed the goalie, but our guys made some nice plays, nice goals, it makes it a little easier when you score some nice goals.

On Kevin Fiala’s play, with his goal and his assist on the PPG
Great to see, wasn’t it? Power Play hasn’t gone that well yet this year, we’ve had a lot of chances we haven’t scored on, but nice to see that. We’ve seen a lot of that since Kevin showed up, Kevin to Juice, or Kevin pulling inside himself, so, yeah, nice to see. I thought Kevin was good last night and I thought tonight, he built on that. I thought he was the most dangerous player on the ice.

On going down to 11 forwards and if regular line movement helps with familiarity in that situation
I think so. You know, I played a lot of 11 forwards last year, I’m really comfortable with that, it’s almost a preference at times, to be honest with you. Sometimes players, like Sammy was playing really well tonight, he had a real good game, dangerous, almost scored his first goal, so maybe not fair that he doesn’t play that much at the end, when I went from 11 to 10 and just this group of guys we’re really comfortable with, so somebody has to pay a price sometimes. I think everybody has played with everybody. If you’re a good player, you can play with somebody else, I don’t think the chemistry seems to be a huge issue. To make that point, you saw Phil, Laf and Kevin, who haven’t spent a lot of time together and last night and tonight, I thought they were our most dangerous line if you take the two nights in total and they hadn’t played together. Good players playing hard, they’ll compliment each other.

On moving Brandt Clarke back onto the top unit
I thought they were dangerous the first time around, but we needed that goal at that time. I think as much as it’s Clarkie back at the [point], it puts Kevin and Juice back in their spots a little bit too. I didn’t mind the five forwards, had a little bit of success over the last three or four games, but that felt better tonight against that penalty kill too. Sometimes it’s penalty kill dependent.

On getting Trevor Moore back in the lineup after missing yesterday’s game in Anaheim
Really, really important. I mean, great goal, great move on Kopi’s goal, that was a big goal, probably the biggest goal at night, so, yeah, nice to have him back out there, for sure. I like that line. We’ve kind of got some different lines going that are playing pretty well together.

*Hiller added that he doesn’t want to speculate, but believes that forward Trevor Lewis could be out “for awhile” with a lower-body injury he suffered during the first period. At this time, Hiller ruled Lewis out for Wednesday’s game against Dallas, in what would have been his 1,000th NHL game, but did not have a designation beyond that for now.

Notes –
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-1=2) scored his ninth goal of the season and picked up an assist, extending his goal streak against the Senators to a third game (4-0=4), dating back to March 7, 2024. Only Artemi Panarin (4GP; 4-4=8) has a longer active goal streak against the Senators.
• Fiala’s assist marked his 100th as a member of the Kings. Fiala is the first player of Swiss nationality, and the second Swiss-born player (Mark Hardy, 250A), to tally 100 helpers for the Kings.
• Anze Kopitar (1-1=2) scored his eighth goal and recorded his 21st assist of the season, extending his point streak against the Senators to a fifth game (2-9=11), dating back to Dec. 16, 2022. The goal marked Kopitar’s seventh career goal against the Senators, breaking a tie with Trevor Lewis (6G) and Rob Blake (6) for sole possession of the second-most goals against Ottawa in franchise history, behind only Luc Robitaille (8).
• Kopitar’s 1,240 career points (427-813=1,240) passes Peter Stastny (450-789=1,239) for the 42nd-most points in league history.
• Per NHL PR, Kopitar (21) became the fifth Kings player with more than 20 career third-period, go-ahead goals, joining Marcel Dionne (33), Luc Robitaille (32), Dave Taylor (24) and Dustin Brown (24)
• Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his 11th goal and 20th point of the season. Laferriere becomes the 11th skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to record multiple 20-point seasons. Among all skaters 25 years of age or younger, only Washington’s Connor McMichael (11) has scored more even-strength goals this season than Laferriere (10).
• With his 23rd career goal, Laferriere surpasses Danny Bolduc (22-19=41) for sole possession of the 12th-most NHL goals scored by a Harvard alumn. Laferriere’s goal extends his point streak to a third game (2-3=5), joining Kopitar as the second Kings skater with three different three- game point streaks this season.
• Forward Trevor Moore (1-1=2) scored his fourth goal and notched his 11th assist of the year, marking his 15th point (4-11=15) of the campaign. Moore’s 15 points this season surpasses the Sabres’ Jason Zucker (5-9=14) for the most points among California-born skaters this season.
• Moore’s 177 points (75-102=177) as a member of the Kings ties Bob Nevin (64-113=177) for the 10th-most points scored for the Kings by an
undrafted skater.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his team-leading 12th goal of the campaign to push his goal streak at Crypto.com Arena to a third straight game (3-0=3).
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) picked up his 11th assist of the season, extending his point streak to a third game. Danault has now tallied three assists over his last three home games against the Senators, dating back to Nov. 11, 2022.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence (0-1=1) tallied his fourth assist of the season for his first career point against the Ottawa Senators. Spence becomes the eighth different blueliner selected in the 2019 NHL Draft to record a point against Ottawa.
• Goaltender David Rittich turned aside 20 of 22 Senators’ shots to improve his record to 9-6-0 on the campaign.

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow and a full-team community event on Monday. They are scheduled to return to the ice for practice on Tuesday, December 3 at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.