FINAL – Kings 5, Golden Knights 2 – Moore, Byfield, Hiller

The LA Kings extended their point streak to six games as they downed the Vegas Golden Knights by a 5-2 final on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings got two early power plays and capitalized on the latter, scoring the first period’s only goal to take a 1-0 lead. With the second unit on the ice, forward Quinton Byfield got a shot towards the net, with forward Trevor Moore getting the deflection on a moving screen, past Vegas goaltender Ilya Samsonov and in for his ninth goal of the season, the second straight game the Kings scored on the man advantage.

Vegas struck back in the middle stanza with two goals, taking its first lead of the game into the second intermission.

First, forward Tomas Hertl created the game-tying goal midway through the second period. Hertl gained the offensive zone down the left wing, made a good play off the wall and found defenseman Brayden McNabb in the slot, with the Vegas blueliner firing through traffic and past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper for the goal against his former club.

The Golden Knights pulled ahead through their captain Mark Stone, who scored on a deflection goal to take 2-1 lead. After Stone had the first opportunity, which was stopped by Kuemper, Vegas reloaded and fed defenseman Noah Hanifin, who rotated to the center point. Hanafin got a shot towards the net, with Stone getting the deflection on the way through for his 15th goal of the season and a 2-1 lead.

Inside the first minute of the third period, Moore doubled his account for the evening, burying off the rush to tie the game at two goals apiece. Skating in transition, Moore picked his spot and beat Samsonov clean with a wrist shot for his tenth goal of the season and a 2-2 scoreline. Forward Warren Foegele collected the primary assist while Kuemper had the secondary, his first point of the season.

Foegele made it a multi-point game just shy of the midway point of the third period, as he scored for the third straight game this season against Vegas. Byfield was the facilitator, with a backhanded pass to Foegele driving the net, before the University of New Hampshire product deked to the backhand and scored his 15th goal of the season to put the hosts back on top, this time by a 3-2 margin.

The Kings doubled their advantage later in the third period, as defenseman Joel Edmundson found the back of the net from distance. Byfield and forward Adrian Kempe worked the puck back down low, before Kempe fed Edmundson at the left point. Edmundson knuckled a shot through traffic in front and into the back of the net for his fifth goal of the season and a 4-2 advantage.

Inside three minutes to play in regulation, forward Kevin Fiala added his team’s fifth goal of the game for the final score of 5-2. Byfield and Kempe were once again the facilitators, working the puck below the goal line. Kempe, stationed behind the net, fed Fiala in front, as he drove towards the crease. Fiala collected the pass, pulled it onto his backhand and shot past Samsonov on the glove side for the goal, making it seven goals from six games in February.

Hear from Moore, Byfield and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s win.

Trevor Moore

Quinton Byfield
On his takeaways from tonight’s win
I think the first period was pretty even, then in the second period, they were all over us. We just felt like that wasn’t our best hockey, we weren’t playing what we do. They were beating us in every puck battle, they were playing simple and we weren’t. We just wanted to kind of simplify things and get back to our hockey. Our coach came in and he said that’s a top three team over there potential playoff opponent too, so we just had to step up. Everybody did that.

On a career high four assists tonight
It’s a long season, there’s a bunch of ups and downs, but my recent play has been a lot better, I think. Just kind of reconnecting with Kev and we’ve got, it’s either Laf or tonight, we got Juice on our line too. Just the chemistry that me and Kev have is really building, we’re clicking right now. It’s just hockey is fun right now and we’re just trying to play our best.

On adding Adrian Kempe to his line with Kevin Fiala
I think Juice is one of the most underrated players in NHL. Just being able to get him on our line, he plays a 200 foot game, plays the game right way, he’s hard, just utilizing his speed as well, very quick player and he plays simple as well. Just playing with those two guys, high-skill guys, you kind of just want to get them the puck, and we feed up each other.

On seeing Trevor Moore score a big goal for the team
Yeah, that’s huge. Mooresie, the last couple of years, has been so effective for us and not just that, when he’s in the zone, making his tight turns and just taking it to the net, and using that quick snapshot……then there’s countless shootout goals, he’s done that too and a lot of last year he was doing off the rush. Just to see him just fire that puck and have it go in was a good feeling for our team.

Jim Hiller
On if tonight’s game felt like a playoff-type atmosphere on the ice
Yeah, it was a hard game. I thought we came out pretty well, even though we weren’t really dangerous, to be honest with you. I mean, the power play goal was nice, it was important. Second period they took us to the schoolyard, I thought, a little bit, that was pretty obvious for all of us, faster, stronger, more competitive. So, we had to decide, are we just going to let them take it from us? Clearly, the guys had a pretty good response.

On Trevor Moore getting the game-tying goal in a vintage Trevor Moore way
I think he had about, I’m going to stretch and say 15, but probably 10 to 12 coming down the wing, not always on the strong side, he had some weak side too, where he just shot it past the goalie [last season]. We just haven’t seen that from him this year. It was just great to see. Obviously it was the second, so now he’s got two and hopefully that spurs him on a little bit, get a touch back and feel good about yourself, but it was the goal that he scored, over and over again last year.

On Quinton Byfield’s four-assist night and the impact he made on the game
It was a hard game, it’s hard to stand out. So, he had the two penalties, one was okay, the other, I didn’t really like and what are you going to do? You have to have a response. I thought the tail end of the second period, he really got going. There were some chances there, he had some good energy, probably carried it over to the third. The backhand pass to Foegs was about as good as you can make it, so it was nice to see that it wasn’t just work, because we always expect that from him, it was just an incredible pass. Nice to see. We needed it. We needed somebody step up and he was the guy.

On moving Adrian Kempe with Byfield and Kevin Fiala in the second and third periods
We were moving around the lines around quite a bit in the second period, really wasn’t much going on, and they just happened to have a chance to go together and I thought they had a spark. So, we got them up there again, they had a spark again. I thought the last two or three shifts of the second period they gave us some life, brought some energy into the building. We just discussed that, should we keep them together? We don’t usually do that and we felt like we had them going, they had some energy, so let’s give them a run. They were really good, clearly, made a big difference. They made a big difference and looked really good doing it. So, I don’t know if we’ll see it again, or if we’ll see it again next game, or whenever, I’m sure at some point, but we’ll talk about it as a coaching staff.

On the message between the second and third periods, and the response from the Kings
I thought our team had to kind of work within a little bit and decide what the third period was going to look like. Nobody expected to come out and just score four goals but I think we expected……they kicked sand in our face, I felt like okay, we’re here to play after the first period and we’re just going to let them continue to do that, or were we going to push back a little bit? When I say push back, that’s stronger on our sticks, more aggressive, quicker and we had that response, or the players had that response. It’s pretty impressive.

On he feels the biggest hole on the team right now is the LW spot with Kopitar/Kempe
Yeah, I mean that line with Turc or whoever it’s been, really haven’t got a lot of traction lately. So, I think that’s probably a pretty fair comment. I don’t like to say it’s a hole, but we were just trying to get that line, who carried us in many ways for the first half of the season, to just get some traction again and get feeling good about their game, some consistent time in the o-zone, some chances. It just hasn’t happened a lot lately. So, that’s the reason to move things around a little bit.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (0-4=4) registered a four assists on the night (19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd), bumping his season point total to 33 (11-22=33), to mark his first career four-point game. This achievement clinches his second consecutive 30-point season, joining teammates Phillip Danault, Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar, Warren Foegele and Alex Laferriere as the seventh Kings skater this season to hit the 30-point mark. He is also the first Kings skater aged 22 years of age or younger to record at least two seasons of 30 or more points since Drew Doughty (3; 2009-2012).
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-1=2) registered his 15th goal of the campaign while also picking up his 15th helper for his 29th and 30th points of the season. The native of Markham, Ontario now has points in three straight games against the Golden Knights (3-1=4).
• The pair of points also marks Foegele’s sixth point in his last four games (3-3=6).
• Forward Trevor Moore (2-0=2) scored his ninth and 10th goals of the season tonight, stretching his point streak to a fourth game (3-1=4). With his pair of goals, Moore reaches double-digits in goals for the fifth consecutive season, and hits the 200-point milestone in his NHL career. Moore’s first goal tonight marks his first power play goal of the 2024-25 campaign.
• The Kings are tied for the third most skaters with the 30 points or more this season, trailing only the Washington Capitals and Winnipeg Jets who each have eight such players on their roster.
• Defenseman Joel Edmundson (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season, his third point (1-2=3) in his past two outings.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence (0-1=1) picked up his 16th assist of the season. Spence’s 11 career power play assists ties Chicago’s Alex Vlasic for the fourth most among defensemen selected in the 2019 NHL Draft. With the assist, the newly turned 24-year-old becomes the first Kings defenseman since Alex Edler (0-2=2, April 21, 2022 vs. CHI) to record an assist on his birthday, and is the 19th different Kings blueliner to do so.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his 23rd goal of the season, extending his home point streak against Vegas to a third game (2-2=4), dating back to Oct. 28, 2023. Fiala now has scored seven goals in his last six games, dating back to Feb. 1 at Carolina.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-2=2) notched his 22nd and 23rd assists of the season. Kempe has now recorded multi-point efforts in two straight games against the Golden Knights (1-1=2; Oct. 30, 2024).
• Defenseman Jacob Moverare recorded five blocked shots tonight, tying a career high previously set on Feb. 26, 2024 against the Oilers in Edmonton.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper (0-1=1) stopped 21 of Vegas’ 23 shots on goal to secure the victory and improve his record to 18-6-6 on the campaign. The native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan also notched an assist while recording his eighth straight win on home ice and tied Kelly Hrudey (8 GP in 1991-92 & 1990-91) for the longest home win streak by a Kings goaltender.

The Kings will have a team day off tomorrow. They are set to return to the ice for morning skate on Wednesday at 10:30 AM at Crypto.com Arena.