FINAL – Kings 2, Lightning 1 – Lewis, Anderson, Hiller

The LA Kings improved to 4-0-0 on their current homestand, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning by a 2-1 final on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lightning got the scoring started just 69 seconds into the game, as defenseman Victor Hedman buried his fifth goal of the season. Stationed at the left point, Hedman sent a shot towards the slot, which deflected off of Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson and in for the game-opening goal, Hedman’s fifth from 11 career games played in Los Angeles, to put the visitors ahead 1-0 early.

Later in the period, Anderson got one of his own to level the score through 20 minutes of play. Forward Phillip Danault won a faceoff in the offensive zone, clean back to Anderson, who used a half-slapshot from the left point to beat Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy clean on the glove side for his fifth goal of the season and a tie game at the first intermission.

With just over five minutes to play in regulation, the Kings took their first lead of the game, after forwards Alex Turcotte and Adrian Kempe combined for the game-winning goal. Turcotte showcased his speed down the right wing, working his way into a 1-on-1 situation. After cutting through the slot, Turcotte dropped the puck back to Kempe, who hammered the one-timer past Vasilevskiy for the goal, his team-leading 19th of the season.

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

Trevor Lewis

Mikey Anderson
On his goal in the first period, tying the game off a faceoff goal
We were just trying to get pucks to the net. I think we’ve scored a few faceoff goals just from shooting the puck, so Phil snapped it back, came up way too high, so just once I grabbed it, figured I’d just shoot it. Luckily, no one saw it and found a way in.

On logging 11:22 in the third period, after Joel Edmundson left the game
I feel good. It’s not fun when you see Eddy go down, so obviously things get shaken up a little bit, but it was good, I feel good.

[Reporter] – How good was it to see him come back on the bench there at the end, was that a little reassuring for the group?

Yeah, that’s huge. He’s a big part of this group, not only out there, but in the room, he plays a big factor into how we function. Seeing him come out just to sit with us for the end there is as nice as a teammate, a guy you pull for and a guy you want around you.

On getting the most difficult matchups, taking on Kucherov’s line throughout the game
They’re fun, they’re the matchups you want. I thought at the start, we weren’t very good. I think we gave up way too much, but you can tip your hat to them, they know how to make plays, they find space. Then, as it went on, maybe got a little more comfortable trying to slow them down, get stick on puck, just trying to maybe be a little more in their face. Obviously we did enough to come out with two points today.

On being a part of teammate Trevor Lewis’ 1000th NHL game
He’s got a lot of moving parts right now, I would say it’s hard to even play a game, but it’s super cool. He’s done so much for this organization and then this group in particular, he’s kind of the grandpa of the group sometimes, but he’s awesome to have around. I’ve been lucky that I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with him the last two years now, him and the family and what an accomplishment, what a day for him. Bery fun to spend it with him and then get to celebrate tonight.

Jim Hiller
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
I thought it was probably our most lopsided game. I think after the second period, our forwards as a group had four shots on net. So yeah, Darcy stole it, but you know that can happen. I can remember earlier in the season we had a game, I think was against Chicago, that we probably should have won, we ended up giving one up late and they beat us in overtime. You hope that they balance themselves out, but we’ll take it. Darcy was outstanding, though.

On good teams finding a way to win games in which they didn’t play their best
First, you’ve got to look at the goaltender every night. I know probably the Dallas game was another one that was similar, I don’t even remember who was playing goal that night, but you look to your goaltender. We talked about it after two, Darcy gave us a chance. Game was still tied and Darcy gave us a chance to even have a chance. Then, great play by Turc. We needed somebody to make a play, Turc makes a great play, Juice finishes and then we hang on and put our fingertips.

On getting continued contributions all over the ice from Mikey Anderson
Mikey’s game, we’ve talked about him a lot, where Mikey’s game has gone, where it is tonight, when I didn’t think we have many of our players……I didn’t think we had a lot of guys that were even up to an average level for the way they play. Somehow, some way, Mikey was elite with a group that really struggled. Power to him, he’s playing some hockey, boy.

On Trevor Moore’s first game back from injury
In the end, we moved the lines around and they had to go against Point’s line. Mooresie probably played a little more than I was going to play him out of the gate, but just for certain circumstances, we weren’t having a good game, that was obvious. We needed somebody to try and just contain that line just a little bit and that’s a good job for Mooresie. I thought he played really well in his first time out.

On using Quinton Byfield as the matchup center against Kucherov’s line tonight
Everybody was really excited for Q, he had a great preseason, scored a lot of points, and everybody was thinking along those lines, where we were thinking, he’s going to score points, yes, but he’s got to play a good two-way game and he can. Even when he wasn’t scoring, I know there were a lot of people talking about it, he’s not scoring, but he was getting better and better defensively. He wasn’t cheating and he was learning the position defensively in the NHL all over again and he got ahead of his defensive game, got ahead of his offensive game. Now he’s scoring a little bit more, but a defensive game is really solid. We’ve thought for some time that he’s going to start taking on some of the tougher matchups. Him and Foegs are a pair, Foegs is a penalty killer, a good forechecker, checking-type player, dependable, so for us, it was a natural progression. This wasn’t just all of a sudden. We’ve had this in our mind for a while. Three of them can do it and they’ll do it on different nights.

On being a part of Trevor Lewis’ 1000th NHL game
It’s really special, what an achievement, what an incredible achievement. There are so many things that go into it. You have to be an excellent player, have to have such a great support system, have to remain healthy, you have to do the things the coach likes you to do, to keep playing late in your career. It’s just awesome.

On grinding out a 2-1 win in almost a perfect Lewis style
Lewie, we call him like the Wild Thing, remember the old movie, Major League. Once we get a lead, he comes out of the bullpen. It was a night that we scored late, so Lewie is out of the bullpen and down there in the 5-on-6 and alongside Kopi and Juice. We didn’t do it because it was the 1000th game for him, we did it because that’s his job and he’s been there a lot of times. They were able to get it done again.

Notes –
• Forward Trevor Lewis skated in his 1,000th career NHL game tonight, becoming the 13th skater selected in the 2006 NHL Draft to do so. Lewis is the first Utah-born skater in league history to skate in 1,000 career games, and becomes the 26th skater to reach the 1,000 game milestone as a member of the Kings, and just the second U.S.-born skater to do so, joining Dustin Brown.
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the campaign, tying his single season career high (5-15=20) set in 2022-23. With the goal, Anderson (16-55=71) surpassed Mario Ferraro (15-66=81) for sole possession of sixth most goals amongst defensemen selected in the 2017 NHL Draft, while also tying Juuso Valimaki (11-60=71) for eighth in points.
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) picked up his 18th assist of the season, extending his assist-streak to a career best sixth game (0-6=6). Danault has now scored six points (4-2=6) over his last seven games against Tampa Bay, including an active three-game road point streak (2-1=3) dating back to Dec. 14, 2021.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his 19th goal of the season, extending his home point streak against the Lightning to a fourth game (3-2=5), dating back to Jan. 29, 2020. Kempe joins Anze Kopitar (6GP, 2-5=7; Nov. 19, 2013 – Jan. 29, 2020) as the only skaters in Kings history to have a home point streak of four or more games against Tampa Bay.
• Kempe’s goal stood as the game-winner, the 28th of his career. Kempe is now tied with Butch Goring and Mike Murphy for the ninth most in franchise history.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) collected his 11th assist of the season for his 15th point of the campaign. The helper on Kempe’s go-ahead marker is Turcotte’s fifirst career point against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
• Per NHL PR, goaltender Darcy Kuemper (7-0-2) extended his point streak to nine games and became the sixth goaltender in Kings history to do so. The others: Gary Edwards (13 GP in 1974-75), Rogie Vachon (11 GP in 1974-75 & 10 GP in 1976-77), Robb Stauber (10 GP in 1992-93), Ben Scrivens (9 GP in 2013-14) and Jonathan Quick (9 GP in 2009-10).
• The Kings extended their winning streak at Crypto.com Arena to a ninth consecutive game, the third time in franchise history that the club has posted a home win streak of as many games. The Kings’ two longest stretches are 12 games (1992-93) and 10 games (1990-91).

The Kings have a scheduled team day off tomorrow and are scheduled to return to the ice on Monday, January 6 at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.