FINAL – Kings 5, Rangers 1 – Byfield, Foegele, Turcotte, Hiller

The LA Kings bounced back once again after a defeat, with a commanding, 5-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

The Kings got off to a fast start, with forward Alex Turcotte opening the scoring in his first game back on the top line. On a play that started with Turcotte showing support in the defensive zone, taking a pass from Anze Kopitar through the middle of the ice, the Kings punished the Rangers in transition. On a 2-on-1 rush, forward Adrian Kempe fed Turcotte in the slot, with Turcotte finishing for the game’s first goal.

Late in the first period, the visitors doubled their advantage after a connection between forwards Quinton Byfield and Warren Foegele. Byfield danced around his man in the corner, creating space below the goalline before he found Foegele in the slot. Foegele collected in stride, toe-dragged the puck onto his forehand in front and finished from close range for his eighth goal of the season and a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.

The Kings stormed out of the gates in the second period, scoring three goals in a span of 2:18, chasing Rangers starting goaltender Igor Shesterkin from the game.

First, Foegele and Byfield connected again, this time off the rush, to make it 3-0. Foegele gained the offensive blueline and with defenders surrounding him, he fed a pass to Byfield in the slot, which he shot first time, past Shesterkin, for his fourth goal of the season. Both players reached the multi-point mark on the game on the play.

Just shy of two minutes later, the top line scored another dazzling goal to make it 4-0 Kings. The play started with Turcotte, who threaded a pass to Kopitar, standing in front of the net. Kopitar, in a tight space, then fed Kempe driving the back post, where the Swede buried his team-leading 15th goal of the season from close range. The play gave all three players two points on the afternoon, Turcotte’s second career multi-point game in the NHL.

24 seconds after Kempe’s goal, the Kings made it 5-0, ending Shesterkin’s afternoon. Defenseman Brandt Clarke drove the puck into the slot and after a bit of a broken play in front, the puck kicked to forward Phillip Danault, who buried his third goal of the season for the five-goal advantage.

Following Danault’s goal, Jonathan Quick entered the game for the hosts, his third career appearance against the Kings.

The Rangers got on the board midway through the second period, as forward Filip Chytil scored his sixth goal of the season to make it 5-1. Chytil’s shot from the right-side may have deflected off a Kings stick in the way through, working its way past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper for the first goal of the game for the home side, the only time they would beat Kuemper on 32 total shots on goal.

Hear from Byfield, Foegele, Turcotte and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s victory.

Quinton Byfield
On the way his line, and the team, started tonight’s game
For my line personally, our start last game was not good at all. We got hemmed in, so our first shift looked a lot different tonight. We wanted a bounce back game, and I feel like we did that and as a team, we did that as well. The Rangers are a good team, so we kind of just answered the bell. We all just want to have bounce back game and that’s how it happened.

On the bounce back from the loss in New Jersey
Yeah, exactly. It was tough game for us last game, so just bounce back. We’re big bodies, we can work down low, good off the cycle, so we just wanted to get back to that. Get it to the D, simplify it, get to the net, tons of shots. Honestly, just dumb it down and good things happen.

On his skill move leading to Foegele’s goal
I just want to take guys on more, 1-on-1. I just wanted to use my size there to fend him off and when I just wanted to make a quick move to try to open some space. I saw Foegs in that area and I just wanted to put it into space for him and then he did the rest.

Warren Foegele
On his performance and that of his line in playing direct hockey
I think when we’re playing direct and North, we create stuff for the team. I felt that New Jersey game, we didn’t really get a chance to forecheck because we weren’t really playing North. We’ve got a lot of big bodies on the line and takes up space. For us, it’s getting pucks to the net, winning our 1-on-1’s. You saw that play by Q, that’s a hell of a play, winning the battle and that patience, that was a hell of a pass.

On playing North/South, but also having the skill to make plays in tight spaces
I think it keeps defenders on their feet. They’re going to know that when we’re dumping it in, we have a presence. Having Jeanno on our line, it puts some fear into the opponent’s eyes, but once we wear them down, we can maybe take a little bit more time to try to make a play and if there’s no play, then we just cycle it down and the next guy’s up to do what’s next.

On coming out and putting a game away early, after a good opening period
There’s so much hockey left in the game and they got a lot of weapons on their team, so you for our team, we talked about, let’s have a good push in that first five minutes of the second, and we certainly did. It kind of just ended the game there, but I’m proud of the way the guys battled the whole game, we really didn’t give them much the remainder of the two periods.

Alex Turcotte
On getting the call up to the top line
I thought we played great. That first goal was awesome, I think all five guys on the ice touched the puck. We were supporting each other, we were playing with confidence. Playing with those guys is always a treat and I’ve had a good amount of experience with that this year. It felt really easy with them.

On starting his goal in the defensive zone with a support play to Kopitar
I think even before that, it starts with the D, they made a couple good dink plays and Kopi made a great play through the middle to me, and I looked up and I was kind of surprised I had a 2-on-1 with Juice, my eyes were wide open for that, I was really excited to see that. Juice made a great pass. I’m pretty sure everyone thought he was shooting and the D bit, goalie bit, so just a great play by all.

On Kempe’s goal and the passing play that led to it
That was a lot of fun, for sure. Puck kind of squirted out to me as I entered the zone, from Juice and I saw Kopi by himself. He got hooked on that, so they would have had a penalty, but I think just the awareness he had was incredible. It kind of deked the goalie, had had him and he just made a no look, backhanded pass to Juice for a wide-open net. Definitely a highlight reel play and it was definitely cool have that one.

Jim Hiller

Notes –
• Per NHL PR, the Kings scored three times in 2:18 during today’s middle frame, marking their fastest three goals since Jan. 13, 2022 (1:23 vs. PIT). It also marked the club’s fastest three goals on the road since Feb. 5, 2019 (1:20 at NJD).
• Forward Alex Turcotte (1-1=2) opened today’s scoring in his fifirst visit to Madison Square Garden for his first career point against the Rangers before adding an assist for his fifirst multi-point performance of the campaign (3-7=10).
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-1=2) extended the Kings’ lead to 2-0 through the fifirst period by scoring his eighth goal of the season. The next period, Foegele collected his seventh assist of the campaign and now has 15 points (8-7=15) on the year.
• Forward Quinton Byfifield (1-1=2) registered his 100th career point (31-69=100) with his feed on Foegele’s goal. In doing so, Byfifield becomes the eighth skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to reach the century mark. Shortly after, Byfifield added to that total by scoring his fourth goal of the season.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-1=2) recorded his third multi-point game in his past four outings. The Swedish winger has now recorded at least one goal and one assist in eight contests this year, tied for the fourth most such occasions behind Martin Nečas (12), Leon Draisaitl (11), and Kirill Kaprizov (9).
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-2=2) picked up an assist in each of the fifirst two periods this afternoon, his sixth and seventh points over his last six games. In doing so, Kopitar extends his team-lead in helpers to 26 and pushes his lead in points to 34 (8- 26=34). Per NHL PR, Anze Kopitar now has 178 points (62-116=178) since turning age 35 on Aug. 22, 2022. Kopitar surpasses Bob Nevin (64-113=177) for the most points by a player age 35+ in Kings history.
• Forward Phillip Danault (1-0=1) scored his third goal of the season, his second point (1-1=2) in as many games. The center now has fifive points (2-3=5) in his last fifive games at Madison Square Garden, dating back to Dec. 6, 2019 with Montreal.
• Forward Tanner Jeannot (0-1=1) collected his third helper of the season, his fifirst career point against the Rangers.
• Forward Akil Thomas (0-1=1), defensemen Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) and Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) all recorded assists in the
second period of today’s matinee. In doing so, Clarke and Thomas each registered their fifirst career points against New York in
their debut appearance against the Original Six franchise.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 31 of New York’s 32 shots on goal to improve his record to 7-2-3 on the campaign.

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow. The group will return to the ice on Monday, December 16 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.