FINAL – Kings 6, Ducks 1 – Fiala, Anderson, Hiller

The LA Kings moved two points closer to securing home-ice advantage in Round 1 of the postseason, following a 6-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

For the second straight game, forward Quinton Byfield opened the scoring for the Kings inside the first two minutes of play. Skating tonight on the power play, which opened the game with a five-forward alignment, forward Andrei Kuzmenko worked the goal line and found Byfield in the low slot, where he buried from close range for his 21st goal of the season, a new career high, and a 1-0 lead.

Early in the second period, the Ducks tied the game at one through rookie forward Cutter Gauthier. Anaheim moved quickly in transition, as a broken play led to a 3-on-2 attack into the offensive zone. Forward Leo Carlsson fed the puck to his right and Gauthier shot it first time off the rush, narrowly beating Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper for the goal, his 20th of the season.

Just 31 seconds after the Anaheim goal, the Kings pulled back in front, courtesy of forward Anze Kopitar. Defenseman Mikey Anderson, from the left point, sent a wrist shot towards the net, with Kopitar getting a high deflection on the way through for his 20th goal of the season. The goal marked the 14th time in Kopitar’s career he’s scored 20 goals, with only six active players reaching that mark more times than the Slovenian.

The Kings scored their second power-play goal of the game just over five minutes into the middle stanza, opening up the first multi-goal lead of the evening. After a sequence of passes in the offensive zone, forwards Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe used a give-and-go at the point, with Fiala teeing up a one-timer and firing past Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal and in for his 31st goal of the season and a 3-1 advantage.

Late in the second period, the Kings added another to take a 4-1 lead into the second intermission. On a play that was reviewed for an extended time period for a puck being potentially played with a high stick, the goal was eventually upheld. Forward Alex Laferriere was the recipient, as he got a backhanded shot to go from the slot, while falling the ice, for his 17th goal of the season and a three-goal lead at the second intermission.

68 seconds into the third period, Fiala buried his second power-play goal of the game, his team’s third of the evening. Stationed in the right-hand circle, Fiala took a pass through the circles from Kuzmenko and again opted for a one-timer, which beat Dostal to the near post for the 5-1 advantage. The goal made it three on the power play for the Kings in the game, the first time since October 14 in Ottawa the Kings have accomplished that feat.

Midway through the third period, defenseman Jordan Spence got in on the action, as he fired home his fourth goal of the season from the center point. With the puck working low-to-high, forward Phillip Danault worked the puck up to Spence, who fired first-time off the pass, shooting underneath the crossbar and in for the sixth and final Kings goal of the evening.

Hear from Anderson, Fiala and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s win.

Kevin Fiala

Mikey Anderson
On the challenges of establishing any sort of rhythm in a game like that
Yeah, there wasn’t much to it. I don’t know what we had in the first, three, four kills and maybe two or three power plays. So, it sucks for guys that don’t kill or power play, makes it for a long period, but guys stuck with it. Special teams did a good job and ultimately helped get the win.

On the pride he and Vladislav Gavrikov take on the PK
I mean, we’re big defenders, we like making it hard, that’s a way we can contribute. We’ve found some good chemistry out there together, so something we’re happy with and try and keep building on.

On how impactful it can be for the group to get three power-play goals
Obviously, you want it cooking this time of year. They’ve maybe had some ups and downs, they’ll probably tell you that too, but it’s a good time for them to find a groove, find some success. Good for them, but good for the team going forward.

On the importance of bouncing back after a game like Seattle
Didn’t go the way we wanted, but again, this time of year, you play a lot of games, it’s important games no matter who you’re playing, whether teams are still in the hunt or just kind of last couple. It was a good response, obviously points we needed and keep pushing on trying to get home ice.

On seeing guys like Jacob Moverare and Kyle Burroughs get an opportunity over the last couple of games
Yeah, it’s awesome. I mean, it’s a [crappy] year for them, Burr, especially, he hasn’t played I don’t know since when. So, he shows up every day, same with Mo, they’re excited, they’ve got a smile on their face, they’re engaged, they bring a lot of positive energy. So it’s fun to get them to play, see them play well, because it’s a [crappy] year for them, but they’ve took it on the chin and been great teammates.

Jim Hiller
On being on the right side of both special teams on the same night
It hasn’t been too often where we’ve been on the right side of both of them on the same night. We’ve had different nights where, I guess primarily the penalty kill has been pretty good, power plays hasn’t been that great this year, but we got them both going. That was the difference in the game.

On going back to the five-forward power play and what he liked from that look
Kuzy is the right shot, he’s got four lefties there, right? So we have our D, typically we have a right D at least and he doesn’t have a one-timer. So, with Kuzy, when we work it to Kuzy at least, there’s four forward options for one timers, seam or whatever, we saw a couple of them. Think he tried to hit Juice on the up-down, one time, maybe passed it a little bit hard and then he had Kevin and then he had Q and then Kopi’s, of course on the back door. So, it just gives us lots of options and Kuzy is pretty good at finding options.

On the “play recognition” that Andrei Kuzmenko brings to the team
One thing he can do, is he is able, individually, to open up lanes on the ice. Sometimes you have the puck and people are all over the place, you try to make the right play. He’s got the ability to shift, move quickly and adjust his body, so maybe there wasn’t something there, but he knows where it is and then he’s able to make the play. I think that’s a part of his individual skillset, not just his decision making, so it’s nice to have the combination of the two and I think that’s probably where he excels.

On winning another game when hitting the three-goal mark
Yeah, well it means that we haven’t scored enough goals often enough, you know what I mean? Those are the ones that we’ve lost, usually. It also means we play pretty good defense, because if we score three, it’s usually a night for us. It’s a really interesting statistic, that’s unheard of for me, to hear something like that, one sided like that. So yeah, two things – we play good defense, be nice if we could score more some nights.

On the impact of Anderson and Gavrikov on the penalty kill
They made so many plays on that penalty kill tonight, too. Anaheim moves the puck really well. They had us down low a number of times and those two just made really, really good plays. Nobody gets a goal or assist, so we can’t talk about how many goals they have or how many points they have, but man, I can tell you, their teammates and us as coaches, we go through that after and some of those plays are like some of the plays that Kuzmenko made, high, high level, but defensively. There’s not a lot of statistics that can measure that, but yeah, just two of the most elite penalty killers, I think, in the league. They’ve grown into it this year. With this new style of penalty killing too, it’s difficult for the defenseman on the bottom, he really has to recognize situations in a hurry and those two have done a really good job of it.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) opened tonight’s contest his 21st goal of the season, establishing a new single-season career high, before adding his 29th assist of the campaign in tonight’s middle frame. By recording his 27th career multi-point performance, Byfield (21-29=50) has now reached the 50-point mark for the second straight season (20-35=55 in 2023-24).
• Forward Kevin Fiala (2-0=2) scored his 31st and 32nd goals of the season, his fifth and sixth goals (6-1=7) over his last five home games against the Ducks, dating back to Jan. 14, 2022. Since Fiala’s NHL debut on March 24, 2015, only Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl (28G) has scored more goals against the Ducks than Fiala (19G).
• Both of Fiala’s goals were scored on the power play, marking his 29th and 30th power play goals (PPG) as a member of the Kings. His next strike on the man-advantage will tie Tyler Toffoli (31PPG) and L’ubomir Visnovsky (31PPG) for 27th most in franchise history.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (1-1=2) scored his 20th goal of the season, marking third straight campaign reaching the milestone (28G in 2022-23, and 26G in 2023-24) and 14th such year of his career. He is now tied with Peter Bondra and Stan Mikita for the seventh most 20-goal seasons by a player born outside of North America. With tonight’s pair of points, Kopitar boosts his career total against the Ducks to 90 (32-58=90), the most points against Anaheim in NHL history.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) notched his 17th goal of the season to extend his point-streak to three games (1-2=3), dating back to April 5 vs. Edmonton. Laferriere now has three goals and four points (3-1=4) in his last four games played against the Ducks, dating back to Oct. 20, 2024.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence (1-0=1) scored his first career goal against the Ducks to add to his career-high season in both goals (4G) and points (4-22=26).
• Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (0-3=3) collected his 21st, 22nd, and 23rd assists for his 32nd, 33rd, and 34th points of the season (11-23=34). Kuzmenko has recorded 10 points (3-7=10) in his last six games played and has accumulated 13 points (5-8=13) in the 13 contests played at Crypto.com Arena since the trade deadline.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-3=3) recorded his 32nd, 33rd, and 34th assists of the season, marking his team-leading 22nd multi-point effort of the campaign. In doing so, Kempe surpassed Phillip Danault (33A) for second on the team in assists. Kempe (17-17=34) also surpasses Alex Frolov (12-20=32) for fourth most points against the Ducks in Kings history, having found the scoresheet 18 of his last 22 Freeway Faceoff appearances.
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-2=2) picked up his 15th and 16th assists of the season, reaching the 15-assist mark for his third straight campaign. Among American-born defenseman, only Alec Martinez (4x) has more 15-assist seasons in a Kings uniform than Anderson (3x).
• With tonight’s helpers, Anderson (6-16=22) sets new single-season career highs for both assists and points. The 25-year-old blueliner’s multi-point effort tonight also marks his fourth such game of the campaign, the most that he has recorded in a single season in his career.
• Center Phillip Danault (0-1=1) recorded his 33rd assist of the season, his 41st point of the campaign.
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) tallied his 20th assist of the season, reaching the 20-helper mark for the third time in his career. With his set-up on Spence’s goal, Moore has now tallied 200 points (89-111=200) as a member of the LA Kings, becoming the ninth undrafted skater in franchise history to do so.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves on 25 Anaheim attempts tonight to improve his record to 29-11-7 on the campaign.
• Per NHL PR, Kuemper earned his 19th home win of the season and tied Jonathan Quick (2011-12 & 2010-11), Felix Potvin (2001-02) and Mario Lessard (1980-81) for the fifth highest single-season total by a Kings goaltender.
• Additionally, Kuemper joins Miikka Kiprusoff (16 GS in 2003-04) as just the second goaltender in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to allow two or fewer goals in 15 consecutive starts. He passes Dwayne Roloson (14 GS in 2003-04), and Martin Brodeur (14 GS in 1997-98) with tonight’s result.

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