FINAL – Kings 4, Utah HC 2 – Moore, Fiala, Hiller

The LA Kings found a way to get the job done, as they skated to a 4-2 victory over Utah Hockey Club on Thursday evening at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

Utah was in control of the game during the first period but the two sides played to a 0-0 scoreline after 20 minutes. The hosts did put the puck in the net 85 seconds into the game, but Dylan Guenther’s goal was quickly overturned as the play was offside, keeping the game tied at zero.

The Kings proceeded to open the scoring on a bizarre sequence that resulted in forward Adrian Kempe extending his goal streak to three games. Forward Andrei Kuzmenko sent a pass towards the net and Kempe was hauled down from behind, taking out Utah goaltender Karel Vejmelka, with the puck hitting off Kempe and deflecting in on the way there. With Utah’s Logan Cooley initiating the contact, it was ruled a good goal, Kempe’s 33rd of the season.

Later in the second period, Utah tied the game at one with a pinpoint finish from forward Lawson Crouse. Forward Josh Doan fed a pass off the endboards to Crouse, who worked his way out into the bottm of the left-hand circle. Crouse picked his spot and shot over the shoulder of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, high on the shortside, for his 11th goal of the season and a 1-1 score after 40 minutes.

Just over four minutes into the third period, the Kings pulled ahead for the second time in the game as Kevin Fiala capitalized on a turnover deep in the Utah defensive zone. With the teams skating 4-on-4, the Swiss winger picked off a pass through the middle of the ice, right in front of Vejmelka’s net, and Fiala shot and scored on the short side for his 29th goal of the season and a 2-1 Kings lead.

Just 44 seconds later, forward Trevor Moore scored an unassisted goal of his own, adding a valuable insurance goal early in the third period. Moore evaded a check at the defensive blueline and chased down a loose puck on the left wing for a breakaway. Moore took the puck to the net, got Vejmelka to move laterally and slid the puck through the fivehole on the backhand for the 3-1 advantage.

With just under two minutes remaining in regulation, defenseman Drew Doughty picked the empty net, putting the Kings ahead 4-1. Utah got a late power-play goal from forward Jack McBain, who scored with just 20 seconds left to make it a 4-2 game, the eventual final score.

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

Trevor Moore

Kevin Fiala
On if tonight was an example of a good team finding a way to win
I think so, yeah, that’s the point. I mean, we didn’t play good at all in first two periods, but Darcy kept us in and then who cares? 1-1 game and I think we just flipped the switch, which is awesome. So yeah, it was a good team win.

On the message in the room between the second and third periods
I think overall, we weren’t happy with our first two and we know we have way, way better. It was still a 1-1 game. We were mad, but also we believe, the belief was there, obviously, that we can still do it. No panic at all, whatsoever. So, I’m proud of the team that we responded like that.

On the performance of his goaltender, Darcy Kuemper to keep the game 1-1
Both of our goalies have been absolutely fantastic. Darcy, I mean the last little bit here, he’s keeping us in the games. It’s been awesome, it’s been great to see and to watch the response after. Without him, we couldn’t have won the game.

On the Kings winning 7 of the last 9 at a key time in the season
I didn’t know we were that good, obviously, we’ve been on a, on a roll here. I think we just take it game-by- game, we don’t even think about the past, what happened, or whatever. We just take it game-by-game, and it’s been awesome so far. Right now, we’re at the highest level that we have been and that’s the best part of it.

Jim Hiller
On the Kings finding a way to get the job done in that game
Well, I was wrong, first of all, said our legs would be good, we’d play well and we did not for the first 40 minutes, with the exception of the goalie, but then give our guys credit. Third period, we played good. We scored, but we didn’t give them near as much, they didn’t have time in our zone. So, we did get it together. I don’t know why it took 40 minutes to do that, but we’ll take the win.

On needing to play 20 minutes of “Kings hockey”, similar to the game in Philadelphia in December
Good reminder, because we talked about it in the intermission of that game, about playing 20 minutes of Kings hockey. I don’t think we talked about that again until tonight, at the second intermission, playing 20 minutes of Kings hockey and they responded. Obviously, in the Philly game we did, and I think we just got back to our game a little bit. We scored some high schools. That’s important. Yeah, we just checked a lot.

On getting two goals 4-on-4 to swing the game
Right, and it hasn’t been a strength of ours all year, we’re minus double digits, I believe, in 4-on-4. Yeah, nice to see a turn, it’s an important part of the game. I thought Kevin actually was probably, up front, probably our best player start to finish, so I was glad to see him get rewarded for that, and then real nice finish by Mooresie.

On Adrian Kempe’s goal and how he say that play unfold
It was a penalty, Juice was driving the net and Cooley took him down. So, at that point, I thought, we were just going on the power play, we didn’t know the puck was in the net. WSe took a few good looks at it after and yeah, the puck wound end up in the back of the net on that. I didn’t get an explanation, I didn’t need one from the referees. They called it a goal and we moved on.

On yet another strong performance from Darcy Kuemper
He just made good saves. He’s done that for us all year, he’s really, and we didn’t know this coming in, we knew he was a good goalie, would play well for us, but he’s been our backbone all year. Wins like this, you just need your goaltender to let you get your legs underneath us and he just gave us every opportunity. Otherwise, it should have been over. We would not have been able to come back, so give him full marks.

*Hiller did not have any further comment on tonight’s lineup change, with defenseman Jacob Moverare coming in, in place of defenseman Jordan Spence. Spence took the pre-game warmups, pointing to a coaches decision.

Notes –
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) recorded his team-leading 33rd goal of the season to extend his goal- and point-streak (3-1=4) to a third game, dating back to March 30 versus the San Jose Sharks.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his 29th goal of the season and has four points (2-2=4) across each of the Kings’ three games against Utah this season.
• Forward Trevor Moore (1-0=1) potted his 18th goal of the year 44 seconds after Fiala’s tally to double the Kings’ lead in the final frame. With his first career point against the Utah Hockey Club, Moore extended his goal- and point-streak (4- 1=5) to a third game, dating to March 30.
• Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (0-1=1) tallied his 20th assist of the season and now has a three-game assist- and point- streak (2-4=6), dating back to March 30 against San Jose. Kuzmenko now has 30 points on the campaign (10-20=30), reaching the threshold for the third consecutive season.
• Defenseman Drew Doughty (1-1=2) picked up his 12th assist of the year and scored his fourth goal of the season and now has five points (2-3=5) in two games played against the Utah Hockey Club. Doughty recorded his 132nd career multi-point game and tied Charlie Simmer for the ninth most in Kings history.
• Per NHL PR, the helper was the blueliner’s 86th assist on a game-opening goal, tying Dustin Brown (86) for the fifth most in that scenario by a Kings player. The list is topped by current captain Anze Kopitar (164).
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-1=1) contributed his 32nd helper of the season and has now reached the 40-point threshold for the seventh season of his career. Danault has recorded the last four of his 40-point years with the Kings, becoming fifth Quebec-born skater in Kings history to post as many such campaigns. The native of Victoriaville, Quebec, joins Steve Duchesne (4x), Bob Berry (5x), Marcel Dionne (12x), and Luc Robitaille (13x)
• Forward Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) picked up his 28th assist of the year on Doughty’s empty-net marker.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 28 of Utah’s 30 shots on goal to improve his record to 27-10-7 on the campaign.

The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow. The team will return to action on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena against the Edmonton Oilers at 1 PM.