FINAL – Kings 3, Capitals 0 – Fiala, Kuemper, Hiller

The LA Kings moved into second place in the Pacific Division, as they won their fourth straight game, a 3-0 triumph over the Washington Capitals on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings opened the scoring with the lone goal from the first period as forward Warren Foegele picked up his 19th goal of the season. After a slap shot from Phillip Danault was awkwardly saved by Washington goaltender Charlie Lindgren, the puck fluttered below the goal line, where the Kings went to work. Eventually, forward Trevor Moore worked the puck to Foegele in the low slot, where he scored on his second attempt to put the hosts ahead 1-0.

After a the second period came and went without a goal, the Kings doubled their lead 65 seconds into the third period as they converted on their second power play of the evening. Forward Anze Kopitar collected the puck at the left point and drifted down the wall, towards the corner, before he sent a pinpoint seam pass to forward Kevin Fiala in the right circle, where he fired a one-timer past Lindgren and in, high glove side, for a 2-0 lead.

Less than a minute later, the Kings made it 3-0, with Fiala in on the action once again. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov stepped up offensively to force a turnover at the blueline, sending Fiala and forward Quinton Byfield the other way on a 2-on-1. Fiala threaded a pass to Byfield, who hit it first time and found the back of the net, extended his goal streak to five straight.

The Kings held on at 3-0, as goaltender Darcy Kuemper picked up his third shutout of the season. Kuemper made 21 saves in total, as he collected the victory against his former team.

Hear from Fiala, Kuemper and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s victory.

Kevin Fiala

Darcy Kuemper
On the confidence of the group in taking on top opponents, especially at home
We’ve been doing a great job of embracing the challenges of playing these top teams all year. We get up for them and I think they bring out our best hockey. We feel, especially on home ice here, that it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, if we play our game, we’re going to come out in front.

On the gameplan to a successful evening against Washington
Yeah, we just didn’t give them a whole lot all night. We knew how dangerous they were and we just try to play defense first and then take advantage of the offense when it comes. I thought we just had everyone committed to that kind of game plan and it worked to a T tonight.

On the performance of the penalty kill over the last two games
I think we had a little bit of a tough stretch on that one road trip, where we didn’t feel like we were ourselves out there, so we had some meetings and regrouped and got back to what makes us our best out there. Obviously we’ve been getting huge kills and we’re feeling really confident on it.

On the team’s approach right now, with the postseason less than 20 games away
I know it’s cliche, but right now, just the schedule is so busy, you’re going to have to take it one game at a time. Obviously we have our eye on trying to get home ice for playoffs, I think every team in the race wants that and we just know how important every point is going to be down the stretch here. We just want to make sure we’re coming to play every night and try to get as many wins as we can.

On if this win had any special meaning for him, against his former club
You know, it wasn’t really about playing the old team tonight, it was about playing one of the best teams in the league. We wanted to be at our best and I thought we were. Those are the kind of wins that make the group feeling good.

Jim Hiller
On the team’s performance tonight in securing a shutout win over Washington
It was a really good game. Like I said, full 60 minutes. I thought where we did a really good job was backchecking. There’s a number of different ways you can describe it with tracking back, having numbers, we didn’t really give them much off the rush coming through the neutral zone, we made them dump it and try to forecheck us. If we had a game plan, we played it as well, adhered to it as well, for 60 minutes, each player, as we could do.

On the team’s performance this season against the top teams in the NHL
We’ve beat some of the top teams in the league this year at home and on the road. We went into Vegas, went into Winnipeg this year, those are the teams at the top of the standings. I hate to say it the wrong way but we expect to beat them. We know we’re not going to beat them every time, the best teams like that at the top of the league, but we expect that we can beat them, that we play with them, and if we play like that, more often than not, we will.

On the strong performance of the Byfield/Fiala pairing, on a line with Alex Laferriere
I think they complement each other but I know that they [Fiala and Byfield] scored tonight, but I would include Laf in that as well, because I think sometimes he gets lost in the mix. He does a lot of good work, so we just have to include Laf. I would say the line looks really good. If you recall, in the summer, as we came into training camp, we had Foegs starting with them, but we had Q and Kevin together. They got off on a terrific training camp and preseason, and then first five or six came in the regular season and it just wasn’t working, so we took them apart. That was the plan in the summer, we talked about it, we really saw those two as two guys that were going to be a pair and we tried to find a winger for them.

On if right now is the best understanding and most confidence he’s had with Kevin Fiala
I think that’s a really fair statement. It goes up and down still, like it always does, just like my mood and your mood and everybody’s mood go up and down, so it’s never going to be just perfect, but yeah, I think Kevin has come a long way in his game, just his overall game is better than I’ve seen it since my time here. Of course you want him to score too, that’s what he gets a pretty good paycheck to add some goals, but it’s not just that. It’s just how he’s playing the game. Tonight was just a really great example of it. Tonight, for me, was one of the best games that he’s played since I’ve been here.

On the motivating factor of pushing to finish in the Top 2 in the Pacific Division
I’d like to, we’d like to, but I don’t think that has to be a focus, because I think the focus should be on what we just did tonight, coming out and playing. If we could do that consistently enough over the next 18 games then we should give ourselves a pretty good chance. Yeah, we’d certainly like to have home ice, but we say that we have to do this because this……we just have to come out and be focused and play as a team like that.

On the notion of being a difficult team to play against
That means we’re playing our game and we’re playing well. We’ve talked to our team about that. We’ve heard that from numerous teams this year, smothering and really not fun to play against and difficult to play against. Really, for me, that’s a really a show of respect when the other team says that about you, because it’s hard to do that, for 60 minutes it’s hard to do that. You really have to be committed in some areas of the game that aren’t as enjoyable, aren’t as fun, aren’t as creative as some of the other areas of the game are. So, I take that as a real compliment for the players that they’re committed to doing that and that means you’ve got a chance.

On the team’s defensive performance against a player like Alex Ovechkin
It was everybody, whoever happened to be on the ice against him and that’s the whole point of the of the night. At any point, everybody on the ice, they were in sync, they were playing, they were working, they didn’t give much time and space. Then, of course, our penalty kill did a really good job when we were shorthanded and that’s where Ovie is most dangerous. We did a really good job taking it away.

Notes –
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-1=2) posted his 13th multi-point effort of the season with his 25th goal and his 19th assist for his 43rd and 44th points of the campaign. With his power play marker in the third period, Fiala clinches his third career 25-goal season and adds to his team-leading nine power play goals. The goal also marked Fiala’s 53rd career goal on the man-advantage, breaking a tie with Nino Niederreiter for the third most power play goals all-time among skaters of Swiss nationality.
• With his multi-point effort, Fiala extends his goal streak against the Capitals to three games (4-1=5), dating back to Jan. 7, 2024, and has now notched 14 points (6-8=14) in 16 career games against the D.C.-based franchise.
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) scored his 19th goal of the season for the 200th point (99-101=200) of his NHL career, becoming the 30th skater selected in the 2014 NHL Draft to reach the threshold. Foegele is only the second skater selected in the third round of the 2014 NHL Draft to reach the 200 point mark, joining Brayden Point (296-322=618).
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) is the fifth different skater in franchise history to establish a goal streak of at least five games in length before turning 23 years old, and the first to do so since the 1987-88 campaign: Jimmy Carson (6 GP & 5 GP – 2x) & Luc Robitaille (2x: 6 GP).
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) picked up an assist for his 30th point of the campaign (13-17=30) to extend his point streak to three games (1-2=3), and becoming the eighth different Kings skater to hit the 30-point mark this season
• Moore played in his 400th career game tonight, becoming the fifth California-born skater in NHL history to do so and joining Lee Norwood (503 GP), Auston Matthews (612 GP), Matt Nieto (704 GP), Jason Zucker (753 GP) and Brooks Orpik (1,035 GP). Of those five skaters, only Moore has reached 400 career games after going undrafted.
• With his helper tonight, Moore recorded his second-consecutive 30-point season (31-26=57; 2023-24), and his third 30-point season overall as a member of the Kings, becoming the 16th undrafted skater to record three 30-point seasons with the Kings, and the fourth undrafted American-born skater to do so, joining Bob Kudelski (3x), Mike Donnelly (3x) and Alex Iafallo (5x).
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (0-1=1) recorded his 20th assist of the season, eclipsing the 20-assist mark for the second time in his NHL career (5-28=33 with Columbus in 2021-22). Gavrikov also set a new team-high in points with the Kings (4-20=24) since joining the club in 2022-23, surpassing his previous high for the 2023-24 season (4-19=23).
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up his 37th assist of the season, extending his point streak to a fourth game (2-3=5), dating back to March 8 vs. STL. Kopitar has now recorded six points over his last six games (3-3=6) dating back to March 3, 2025.
• The assist marked Kopitar’s 453rd career home assist, tying Jari Kurri for the 31st-most in league history, and his 89th career primary power-play assist at home enters him into the top-50 in all time in that category, tying Alex Ovechkin and Chris Chelios for the 48th-most in league history.
• Defenseman Drew Doughty (0-1=1) tallied his sixth assist of the season. With their respective assists on Fiala’s power play goal, Doughty and Kopitar have now factored on the same goal 308 times, surpassing Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang (307) for sole-possession of the second-most by a forward-defenseman combination in League history. Only Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey (350) have done so more times.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves against his former team for his third shutout of the season, the 34th of his career and his sixth as a member of the Kings, tying Mathieu Garon and Jonathan Bernier for the 12th most in franchise history. Kuemper improves his record on the year to 21-8-7.
• Per NHL PR, Kuemper (11-0-1) matched the longest home point streak by a goaltender in Kings history, a mark Kelly Hrudey (11-0-1) first set in 1990 91.
• The Kings improved to 8-0-3 in their past 11 home games and matched the third-longest home point streak in franchise history (also 11 GP in 2001-02 & 1990-91). The only longer stretches: 2022-23 (11-0-2 in 13 GP) and 1992-93 (12-0-1 in 13 GP), per NHL PR.

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