FINAL – Kings 5, Avalanche 4 – Laferriere, Clarke, Hiller

The LA Kings moved to within one victory of securing home-ice advantage in the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, as they skated to a 5-4 victory over Colorado on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena.

For the third straight game, forward Quinton Byfield opened the scoring, as he buried his 22nd goal of the season. Skating off the rush, Byfield took a drop pass in the slot from forward Andrei Kuzmenko on his forehand and fired clean past Colorado goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood for the early 1-0 advantage.

Midway through the opening period, the Kings doubled their advantage as they scored on the power play, their fourth goal in the last four periods. Attacking again off the rush, this time it was forward Kevin Fiala who capitalized on a Grade-A scoring chance, as he dragged the puck onto his forehand in the slot, picked his spot and beat Blackwood from a dangerous area. Fiala’s goal was his 33rd of the season, tying his career high from 2021-22.

Colorado pushed back with a power-play goal of its own just over three minutes after Fiala’s goal, making it 2-1. Skating 5-on-3, after a pair of Kings minor penalties just 22 seconds apart, the Avalanche worked the puck around the offensive zone, before forward Charlie Coyle fed fellow trade-deadline acquisition Brock Nelson at the back post, where he buried his 25th goal of the season, bringing the game 2-1 into the first intermission.

The Avalanche tied the game early in the second period, off a good cycle in the offensive zone. After Colorado held the puck in at the blue line, forward Artturi Lehkonen went in on the forecheck and retained possession below the goal line. The Finnish winger rounded the net, brought the puck around the cage and fed forward Valeri Nichushkin at the back post, where he scored his 21st goal of the season to equalize for the visitors.

Los Angeles pushed back, however, to pull back ahead just shy of 11 minutes into the middle stanza. Defenseman Brandt Clarke was the facilitator, working his way up the wall in a tight space before he fed forward Alex Laferriere in the high slot, where the Harvard product fired a one-timer through traffic, past Blackwood and in for his 18th goal of the season, his second straight game with a goal, making it 3-2.

The Kings added an insurance goal with less than four minutes remaining in the second period, as forward Anze Kopitar got on the board. A nice sequence in the offensive zone led to a one-timer for forward Adrian Kempe, who shot off the far right pad of Blackwood, with Kopitar driving the net for the rebound, putting it into the back of the net for a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes of play.

The visitors pulled back to within a goal early in the third period as defenseman Sam Malinski snapped home his fifth goal of the season to bring to score to 4-3. Nichushkin made a really nice pass in transition to create a lot of space for Malinski down the right wing, entering the offensive zone. Malinski worked his way into the right-hand circle and went high glove, past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper and in for the goal.

Fiala then made it a single-season career high with his second goal of the afternoon, adding an insurance tally to pull the Kings back ahead by a pair. The forechecking efforts of Laferriere were on full display as he won a battle in the corner off a dump in from Byfield to gain possession back deep in the offensive zone. Laferriere then rounded the net and found Fiala in front for the goal, his second of the game and 34th of the season.

With the goaltender pulled for a 6-on-4 scenario, Nelson scored his second goal of the game to bring Colorado back to within a goal. Off a scramble in front, the Avalanche used the extra skater to their advantage, winning the puck back, before Nelson slotted home from in between the circles, bringing the game to the ultimate final score of 5-4 Kings.

Hear from Laferriere, Clarke and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s victory.

Alex Laferriere

Brandt Clarke
On skating in his 100th career NHL game and the meaning behind that for him
I’m grateful. I’m happy to do it with this team, it’s definitely something that’s exciting. My family was excited, they were all happy for me, they texted me this morning. Happy we got the win too, so it could be an even better memory. Good vibes all around.

On his play leading to Alex Laferriere’s goal in the second period
Yeah the play was just for me to, if there’s a hole there, Kevin will cover me and I’ll go down the wall. If they read it well or if it wasn’t a clean draw, there’s always an out that I could just throw it behind the net and they can go battle for it. Q had a good win on the draw, there was a hole there and then he kind of closed me off in the corner so I cut up the wall, just because that’s where the open ice was. Then Laf made a good play to kind of get some separation, and I slipped it to him, he had a good shot. I was happy it worked out.

On balancing risk and reward in his game as a defenseman
They obviously want me to use my abilities the best I can. They want me to have the puck on my stick, they want me to make plays, but it’s down to the risk and reward factor. If I step up for a play that might be 50/50, just to win a puck battle and chip it back in, instead of giving up something the other way, that’s just not worth it. That’s something they’ve told me to do and I think that’s something I’ve had really good decision making with. I’m happy with how I’m doing. When I see holes like that, I want to take advantage, but I just take it as they come.

On getting a big win today to push towards home-ice advantage in Round 1
That’s what we want. We’re confident, just as a team, however it may go, but we want to play here, we want to play in front of our fans, they’ve been great to us all season and obviously we’ve done well here. I think it’s just, it’s our time to flip the script like that a little bit. I think that’s what I mean, we’re not trying to take the foot off the gas at the end here, we’re not going to let up in some games, so to speak. We’re just going to try to win out, stay on this high and roll right into playoffs.

Jim Hiller
On his impressions from today’s victory
I’ll take every win, I will take every win. They were missing a few guys, 4 or 5 maybe even, pretty good team without those guys. It just goes to show you the depth that they have. It’s going to be a heck of a series with Dallas. I’ll take that win all day long.

On seeing Alex Laferriere rewarded for all of his work with a three-point game
I thought he was a key player tonight. Obviously he ends up on the score sheet, but I just thought he had some jump tonight, he was physical. He’s been a little bit under the weather probably the last while, I think it’s carried on. He looked a little stronger, a little more like himself tonight, I don’t think he has over the last couple of weeks, but good game for him. He’s going to be a really important player for us in the playoffs, because he’s got great physicality and he started that tonight.

On Brandt Clarke’s performance in tonight’s game
It’s difficult to make plays as a defenseman, offensively this time of the year, but we saw tonight, and this is the beauty of the game, he makes a great play on Laf’s goal, he gets an assist. He makes a really good play on Kopitar’s goal and doesn’t get an assist. Well in our books, we account for it a little bit differently and we respect the play he made there. Equally as important, if I take you back to the three and a half on one, he read the play, Kempe chased the puck, Brandt went back inside and ended up blocking the shot, that was a really-good chance in the second period, equally as important as those offensive plays he made. That, to me, is where the growth in his game is. You get it on both sides and now you really start to contribute to the team.

On the difficulty of dropping to five defensemen with Kyle Burroughs
It is [hard], there’s no question. There’s no question. That’s certainly not the plan going in, but you’ve got to make a decision at some point during the game. I’ve talked about Burr before, just what a teammate. You hate to see it, all of us, but we’ve got to make a decision we think is, in the moment, the best thing for the team just to do one thing – win the hockey game. Different nights, different things happen, but you’ve got to win the hockey game, that’s priority one.

On keeping the five-forward group on the ice, up 4-2, in the third period
Yeah, I mean, we’ve gone back and forth on that and you know what happens sometimes is you don’t go with five, you go with four, and then you don’t score, they come back and score, they score again, and now you’re going 4-4, why didn’t we try to score? So, I mean, I’ve been on both sides of it, right? Then sometimes you leave them out there and they get a shorthanded goal against, and you’re like, why did we have five forwards on there? So, it’s easy to look back, but those guys are going pretty good right now, so we’ll give them the trust to go up there and try and get another one.

On Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov stepping up with Doughty/Edmundson out
I can’t talk about Gavy without talking about Mikey and I can’t talk about Mikey without talking about Gavy. From the beginning of the year, where we lost Drew and those two for me, stabilized our back end. The two of them started the year with 29 minutes or 28, they helped us get our footing underneath us. So, I don’t like to speak about one without the other and they both have had better seasons than I think I could have imagined. Now, they’ve set the bar for where they’re at and they’ve got to keep it going that way. They’ve just been terrific in so many ways.

Notes –
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-2=3) scored his 21st goal and recorded his 30th and 31st assists of the season. The goal stands as the 50th
of Byfield’s NHL career, making him the ninth skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to reach 50 career goals. Byfield becomes the fourth different skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to record multiple 30-assist campaigns, joining Seth Jarvis (2x), Lucas Raymond (3x) and Tim Stutzle (4x).
• Byfield’s three-point contest today stands as his fourth such effort of the season, setting a new personal single-season high for three-point games. Byfield becomes the ninth different skater in Kings history to record eight or more three-point games before turning 23 years old.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (2-0=2) scored his 33rd and 34th goals of the season, establishing a new single-season career high and surpassing Adrian Kempe for the team lead with his sixth goal in his last five games. Fiala’s first period power play goal also marks his 31st PPG as a member of the Kings, tying Tyler Toffoli and L’ubomir Visnovsky for 27th most in franchise history.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (1-2=3) picked up his 22nd and 23rd assists along with his 18th goal of the season, clinching his first career 40-point season and becoming the seventh different Kings skater to reach the mark this season, tied for second most in the league. With his first three- point game of his career, Laferriere extends his point streak to a fourth game (2-4=6), dating back to April 5th against the Oilers and ties Phillip Danault (8-33=41) for the sixth most points among Kings skaters this season.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (1-0=1) scored his 21st goal of the season, his 11th point (1-10=11) over his last eight games against the Colorado Avalanche, dating back to March 9, 2023. Only Luc Robitaille (20G) has scored more home goals against the Avalanche as a King than Kopitar’s eight.
• Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (0-2=2) recorded his 24th and 25th assists of the season and now has a total of 12 points (3-9=12) in his last seven games played and 16 points (5-11=16) in his last 12. Kuzmenko’s point total now sits at 15 (5-10=15) in the 14 games played at Crypto. com Arena since joining the Kings, putting him in the lead for most home points scored by a Kings player since his acquisition.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) tallied his 35th assist of the season for his team-leading 68th point of the season and has now minted 10 points (4-6=10) over his last seven games played. Kempe has also accumulated 10 points (6-4=10) in his last eight games versus Colorado. Kempe now sits four shy of 400 points in his career.
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) recorded his 17th helper of the season, establishing a new single-season career high in assists (16A, 2023-24), and now has points in back-to-back games (0-2=2 vs. ANA).
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) recorded his 27th assist of the season while skating in his 100th career game today, becoming the seventh defenseman selected in the 2021 NHL Draft to reach the mark.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 22 of 26 shots faced in today’s matinee to improve his record to 30-11-7 on the season.

The Kings are not scheduled to practice tomorrow and will travel to Edmonton. The team is set to return to the ice on Monday, April 14 at 10:30 AM Pacific at Rogers Place in Edmonton.