FINAL – Kings 4, Canucks 1 – Kempe, Edmundson, Smith

The LA Kings moved back into the second wild card position in the Western Conference as they skated to a 4-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Monday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

It took just 89 seconds for the Kings to get on the board, as defenseman Brandt Clarke and forward Adrian Kempe connected on the game’s first goal. Clarke activated down the right wall, rounding the net with possession, before he fed Kempe in the slot to open the scoring for the hosts. Kempe’s goal was his 70th point of the season, making it three straight years with at least 70 points for the Swede.

Late in the first period, the Canucks tied the game at one with defenseman Marcus Pettersson getting the visitors on the board. Stationed at the left point, Pettersson fired into traffic in front, perhaps taking a deflection on the way through, past Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg and in for his third goal of the season and a 1-1 score.

Within two minutes of Vancouver’s tying goal, the Kings restored their one-goal advantage through forward Joel Armia. After forward Jared Wright forced a turnover in the neutral zone, forward Scott Laughton led the rush the other direction, before he dropped the puck to Armia, clearing a lane by driving to the net. Armia, with space in the slot, beat Canucks goaltender Nikita Tolopilo with a wrist shot for his 13th goal of the season and the 2-1 lead.

The Kings had numerous chances to extend their lead in the second period and finally made it 3-1 via Kempe’s second goal of the evening. Forward Artemi Panarin fed the puck to defenseman Joel Edmundson at the point and after Edmundson got a shot through, Kempe deflected the puck on the way by, past Tolopilo and in, for his team-leading 34th goal of the season and a two-goal lead after 40 minutes of play.

Midway through the third period, the Kings added another insurance tally to extend their lead to three. Forward Alex Laferriere sent a shot from the left point that was deflected off the stick of Canucks defenseman Elias Nils Pettersson, off forward Trevor Moore and in. The goal was Moore’s his 12th of the season, with defenseman Mikey Anderson collecting the secondary helper for a 4-1 lead, which stood up as the game’s final score.

Hear from Kempe, Edmundson and Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith after tonight’s victory.

Adrian Kempe

Joel Edmundson
On extended o-zone time with the top forward line
Yeah, I’m just trying to keep up with the other four, honestly it feels good. It seems like that’s the game plan, get us out there with them and let Clarkie make some plays and get some movement around. So, it’s been working. I think Bread brings nice offensive ability, he’s drawing up the plays for us, he’s kind of the mind behind it. I just kind of listen to what he says.

On his 20th assist of the season, his first time hitting that number
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think the first 10 years my career, I didn’t get any offensive-zone shifts, so I usually started off in the d-zone. I think that’s why it feels good to chip in offensively, especially in moments like this, these are big games for us.

On if this game comes with extra pressure against a team lower in the standings
This is a game we needed to win, especially at this point in the season. Throughout the season, you’ll see teams kind of lower their standard going into games like this, but Vancouver, they beat Colorado not long ago and they’ve been playing good hockey. They’ve got some young guys in the lineup that are trying to make an impression and it’s a huge game for us, so we have to treat every game like a playoff game right now. We were excited for the game, crowd was buzzing tonight, so we just kind of

D.J. Smith
On playing tonight against Vancouver, with the disparity in the standings
Give Vancouver credit. They played hard the entire night, they had us in for bunches in our zone. I think someone asked me this morning about playing these games and I said they’re the hardest ones, because over there, you’ve got people fighting for a job every single game here down the stretch, to try and be in the NHL. A lot of those kids played hard over there. They forechecked, they made it hard on us.

On getting off to a good start tonight
Give Q’s line credit, back-to-back games, they get it in, they go to work, they set up the next shift and tonight, they set it up and Juice puts it in the back of the net. Everyone has a role on this team and in order to win, it takes you to sometimes sacrifice a little bit of yourself. Sometimes that’s o-zone starts for Q’s line to give Kopi, Bread and Juice more of those starts, or, they’ve got to play a certain way to set up the next line. But, if you want to win in this league, you need people to fill roles and right now, guys are doing that.

On another big game offensively from Panarin and Kempe
The league is run by the big boys and you look at the best teams in the league, they all have stars and they all have guys that make plays at Big times. Right now, that line is doing it for us.

On the goal from the third line and their play in the neutral zone
I don’t know how many games in a row they’ve scored off a neutral-zone transition. The first guy hounds, the second guy picks one off and away they go. That line’s been really good for us. Like I said, everyone’s got a little bit of a role. I feel confident that line could play against anyone in the league as well. Obviously, our matchup [line] is Q, but that line could play with anybody.

On Anton Forsberg’s play and the goaltending rotation going forward
That’ll be a conversation that I’m going to have with Bucks, management and we’ll make the best decision for the organization. Give Forsy credit. He’s playing some net right now and the guys are playing in front of him. So, we’ll do what’s best for us to win and we’ll do what’s best for us to make the playoffs.

Notes –
Forward Adrian Kempe (2-0=2) scored his team-leading 33rd and 34th goals of the season to clinch his third consecutive 70-point season (34-37=71), becoming the eighth skater in Kings franchise history to record three consecutive 70-point seasons. The first of Kempe’s pair of tallies marked his ninth game-opening goal of the season, tied for the most in the League, per NHL PR.
– Kempe’s 35th career multi-goal game is the 108th multi-point game of his career. Of those 108 such appearances, 16 have been recorded this season––the most among Kings skaters. Kempe’s performance tonight extends his point streak against the Vancouver Canucks to a fifth game (5-3=8), dating back to Jan. 16, 2025.
– Per NHL PR, Kempe’s two strikes marked his 114th and 115th career home goals, passing both Charlie Simmer (114 G) and Mike Murphy (113 G) for the ninth-most such goals in Kings history.
– Forward Joel Armia (1-0=1) scored his 13th goal of the season, his second consecutive game with a goal (1-0=1 on April 6 v. NSH) to reach 25 points (13-12=25) on the campaign.
– Forward Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his 12th goal of the season, his second consecutive game with a goal against Vancouver (1-1=2 on March 26).
– Forward Artemi Panarin (0-2=2) collected his 54th and 55th assists of the season, marking his 23rd and 24th points (8-16=24) in 24 career games played against the Vancouver Canucks.
– With his seventh multi-point showing as a member of the Kings, Panarin has 25 points (8-17=25) in 22 games played since being acquired by Los Angeles on Feb. 4, 2026. In doing so, the winger ties Craig Conroy (11–14=25) and Jozef Stumpel (7–18=25) for seventh most points recorded through a player’s first 22 games with the Kings.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) notched his 32nd assist of the campaign, building on his career-best season with his 40th point of the year (8-32=40) to tie for the third most points by a Kings skater this season.
– Forward Scott Laughton (0-1=1) recorded his seventh helper of the year on Armia’s tally. In doing so, Laughton (13-7=20) clinches his ninth consecutive 20-point season, dating back to the 2017-18 campaign as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-1=1) notched his 20th helper of the season on Kempe’s second tally of the game, boosting his career-highs in both assists and points (2-20=22).
– Forward Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) collected his 20th assist of the season, his second consecutive game with an assist against Vancouver (0-1=1 on March 26).
– Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) picked up his 16th helper of the year, his 20th point on the campaign (4-16=20). Anderson posted a pai of assists in the Kings’ visit to Rogers Arena on March 26.
– Captain Anze Kopitar played in his 1,517th career regular-season NHL game tonight, breaking a tie with Matt Cullen (1,516 GP) for sole possession of the 23rd most games played in League history.
– Goaltender Anton Forsberg earned his 14th victory of the season tonight by turning aside 24 of the Canucks’ 25 shots on goal.

The Kings are scheduled to return to the ice for practice tomorrow, April 9, at Toyota Sports Performance Center at 11 AM.