FINAL – Kings 6, Canadiens 3 – Fiala, Foegele, Hiller

The LA Kings made it back-to-back victories, as they skated to a 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Inside two minutes into the game, the Kings opened the scoring after a suffocating start in the offensive zone. Forward Quinton Byfield worked the puck back to defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov at the left point and with forward Alex Laferriere providing the screen in front, Gavrikov wired a shot through the traffic and in, past Montreal netminder Jakub Dobes on the glove side for his third goal of the season.

Early in the first period, Montreal equalized with a wonky, deflected goal. Defenseman Mike Matheson shot the puck from the right point and his effort deflected off of defenseman Drew Doughty twice, bounced high in the air over Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper and dropped into the back of the net to tie the game at one.

Less than two minutes after conceding the Kings bounced back with a penalty-shot goal from forward Warren Foegele to re-take the lead. After Foegele was tripped on a breakaway, he was awarded a penalty shot against Dobes. Foegele pulled the puck onto his forehand and snapped his shot into the back of the net from close range for his 13th goal of the season and a 2-1 lead. Foegele’s goal marked the first on a penalty shot for the Kings since Austin Wagner in February 2020 and the first of his NHL career on a personal note.

Just 15 seconds into the third period, defenseman Brandt Clarke provided the Kings with an insurance marker, pulling the hosts ahead 3-1. Forward Anze Kopitar teed Clarke up and the blueliner hit the one timer back towards the near post, through a screen and against the grain for his fourth goal of the season. Kopitar and forward Alex Turcotte collected assists on the play.

Montreal answered back, however, with a seeing-eye shot of their own from the right side. Stationed at the right point, Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier collected the puck and sent it towards the net, evading a pair of bodies in front, as well as Kuemper’s blocker hand, finding the back of the net for his third goal of the season.

The Kings took a 4-2 lead off of a nice team goal in transition, with forward Kevin Fiala finding the back of the net for the second straight game. After Byfield won a battle in the corner, Laferriere transported the puck through the neutral zone, over the blueline with possession. He spun back and fed Fiala, who ripped the shot first time into the top corner for a two-goal advantage.

Once again, the Canadiens pulled back to within a goal with a defenseman finding the back of the net for the third time tonight. This time, Logan Mailloux activated on the rush offensively, collected the puck in the right-hand circle and beat Kuemper clean on the glove side with a wrist shot, pulling the score to 4-3.

Fiala bounced back with his second goal of the evening, restoring the two-goal advantage just 35 seconds after Montreal scored. Skating in transition, Fiala found his way to the same spot on the ice as his first goal, this time hammering a pass from defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov past Dobes for his 20th goal of the season, becoming the second Kings player this season to hit the 20-goal mark.

With just over two minutes on the clock, forward Trevor Moore scored an empty-net goal to seal the game with a 6-3 win.

Hear from Fiala, Foegele and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Kevin Fiala

Warren Foegele
On his penalty-shot goal tonight
It felt pretty good to score on that one. Kudos to Assistant Coach Derek Johnston, he was working with a couple of us yesterday in film on breakaways and things like that, so it’s funny how that works. You’re working on video and then the next day you get that opportunity, so shout out to him.

On the team’s aggressive start and style of play tonight
We came out with a lot of energy. We were moving our feet and we were playing North. I think that’s one thing we’ve done, especially the last two games, is playing more North. We’ve got a lot of fast forwards and we’re utilizing our ability to move our feet and our speed. Playing North, it’s just hard to play against. Playing their D, we’re working them by pushing the pace and things like that.

On getting back to a style of play that led to success in November and December
Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of our success near the beginning of the year, that November stretch, was playing North and playing a little bit more aggressive. During those last two road trips, we were sitting back too much. A good way of playing defense is obviously having good offense and stepping on the gas, right, so the more we can play North, then we’re out of our end and we’re creating some motion and chances.

On getting a goal today, after Danault and Moore scored their goals in Carolina
As a line, I thought we generated a lot. The last couple games we’ve been rewarded as a line and hopefully we can continue that. Those guys work so hard and they’re tenacious, and I try to feed off that energy as well. We’re always trying to get it to the net and good things happen when you bring it to the net.

Jim Hiller
On finding the back of the net six times tonight
The puck went in. I think we maybe played a little bit faster, tried to get out of the zone a little bit when we had good possession, increase our speed. The puck going in against Carolina for sure, tonight, I thought we had plenty of chances, probably could have had more than we did. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it just goes in for you.

On using rest to their advantage with a strong start tonight
What’d we have, 10 shots in the first four minutes. We started how we’re supposed to start, we just didn’t score enough, we got one, I guess. It was a hard game to play. They scored a couple funny goals, Kuemps did have to make a couple key saves, but it took the wind out of our sails a little bit when they scored those odd goals. We stuck with it. We had a couple of lines, Q’s line was really dangerous all night, I thought those guys were.

On the recent production from the Fiala/Byfield/Laferriere line
Kevin and Laf are probably a little bit more pure offensive players and Q just does a great job of complementing them offensively, yes, but also taking care of them defensively. I think it fits pretty good. I think just good chemistry through the three of them and the other fortunate thing for that line is they have lefty/righty. You saw Laf pull up and then he’s able to go cross ice for the one timer. Obviously, it’s available on the other way too, so that’s an advantage for them.

On scoring multiple goals within a couple of minutes after conceding
Yeah, because it just felt like a funny one. Felt like we were in control and then we weren’t and then okay, we’ve got control of it again and now we don’t. I would like to say that we just felt completely comfortable on the bench and there was great energy, but it was a little tense for some time, but I liked the response. We needed to score some big goals and we got some real individual efforts and nice goals. We haven’t had a lot of those real nice ones, I guess it’s Kevin in the last game, but it’s been a while, they’ve been pretty grind them out, muck them in goals.

On Kevin Fiala’s offensive production as of late
We talked about Kevin didn’t have a great start to the season. There was some different things going o that he was working through, that he and I were working through but it’s been for some time. Somebody asked me, I think he’s going to have a really good second half. He’s worked his way through it and he’s been working hard and consistently and really, I think, playing some of his best hockey consistently, you can probably go back about 10 games. It hasn’t got all the results, but you can just feel it coming, or we could, at least. It’s nice to see it start to go in for him but I maintain I think he’s going to have a real strong second half.

On Warren Foegele’s penalty-shot goal
We’ve missed a fair amount of breakaways this year, so I know that Derek Johnston’s been working with the guys, talking about some different things through video, especially our left-handed shots. We haven’t scored enough of those opportunities, so there’s always things you can talk about and then it comes down to it in the moment and you have to execute it. It’s easy to see it on video and talk it but it’s up to the player in that moment to pick their spot and I thought he did. He drew the penalty with great speed, bice play by Mooresie on the wall, great speed. I probably thought that was the most important goal in the game, to be honest, looking back on it. Most important goal.

Notes –
• Forward Kevin Fiala (2-0=2) tallied his 19th and 20th goals of the season, hitting the 20-goal threshold for the seventh consecutive season, the eighth time in his career overall. With back-to-back multi-goal performances, Fiala leads all Kings skaters with four games of two or more scores.
• Fiala’s first goal stood as the game-winner, the fourth deciding tally of his campaign. Fiala is now tied with Warren Foegele and Alex Laferriere for the second most game-winning goals (GWG) on the team behind only Anze Kopitar (5 GWG).
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (1-1=2) scored his third goal of the season and picked up his 16th assist of the campaign. Gavrikov has now recorded four points (1-3=4) over his last two games against the Canadiens, dating back to Oct. 17, 2024. With the goal, Gavrikov has now scored three home-ice goals in a season for the fourth time in his career, becoming the seventh defenseman selected in the 2015 NHL Draft to record four such seasons.
• With his pair of points, Gavrikov becomes the first Kings defenseman in franchise history register multi-point efforts in back-to-back games against the Montreal Canadiens.
• Forward Quinton Byfield (0-3=3) registered his 15th, 16th, and 17th assists of the season, extending his point streak against the Canadiens to a third game (2- 5=7), and marks his eighth point (3-5=8) in five career games against Montreal. Byfield’s trio of helpers marked his second three-point game of the season.
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) picked up his 13th assist and scored his 13th goal of the season, beating Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes for his first career penalty shot goal on his first career attempt. It is the Kings’ first penalty shot goal scored since Austin Wagner scored against Pavel Francouz (Feb. 22, 2020 vs. COL). Foegele’s goal is the first Kings penalty shot goal scored against the Montreal Canadiens in franchise history. His penalty shot stands as the fourth attempt by a Kings skater against a Canadiens goaltender overall in franchise history, and the second attempt by a Kings skater against the Canadiens this season, joining Kevin Fiala (Oct. 17, 2024 vs. Sam Montembeault).
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (1-0=1) scored his fourth goal of the season while collecting his first career point against the Canadiens. In doing so, Clarke (4-21=25) ties Olen Zellweger (4-9=13) and Luke Hughes (4-17=21) for the fourth-most goals this season by a defenseman selected in the 2021 NHL Draft.
• With his sixth career goal, Clarke also ties Zellweger and Ryker Evans for the fifth-most career goals scored by a defenseman selected in 2021.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) picked up his 13th assist this season for his 20th point of the campaign (7-13=20), marking the first time in his career he has hit the
20-point mark. With the helper, Turcotte becomes the 10th different Kings skater this season to record at least 20 points. Only the Dallas Stars (11) and Carolina
Hurricanes (12) have more skaters with 20 points or more this season.
• With the helper, Turcotte becomes the ninth different Kings forward to record at least 20 points this season, joining Philadelphia, Dallas and Carolina for the most
forwards to score 20 points or more this season.
• Forward Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) notched his 32nd assist of the season, extending his assist streak against the Canadiens to a third game (0-5=5), dating back to
Dec. 7, 2023. Kopitar’s nine career home assists against Montreal place him in a five-way tie for the third-most in franchise history, along with Dave Taylor, Bernie
Nicholls, Mike Murphy and Wayne Gretzky.
• The assist stood as his 450th career home assist, the 33rd player in NHL history to do so. The assist also marked his 824th career assist, breaking a tie with
Evgeni Malkin for sole possession of the 30th-most in league history.
• Forward Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his eighth goal of the season for his while forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) picked up his 16th assist of the season.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside 18 of the Canadiens’ 21 shots to improve his record to 16-6-6 on the season.

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