FINAL – Kings 4, Sharks 1 – Rittich, Kaliyev, McLellan

The LA Kings improved to 13-1-1 away from home this season as they skated to a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday evening at SAP Center.

The visitors got the scoring started late in the first period with the lone goal from the opening 20 minutes. Skating on the power play, forward Arthur Kaliyev was first to a puck behind the San Jose net and quickly fed forward Anze Kopitar in front, where the captain buried for the third straight game. Kopitar’s goal was his 13th of the season, second-most on the Kings.

Early in the middle stanza, forward Trevor Moore became the first Kings player this season to reach 15 goals, as he extended his team’s lead to 2-0. Forward Kevin Fiala executed a spinning feed through the neutral zone to Moore, who gained the offensive zone with possession and snapped his shot past San Jose goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen on the blocker side for the two-goal advantage.

Just 70 seconds later, forward Alex Laferriere extended the lead to three goals. Stationed at the left point, defenseman Jordan Spence sent a shot through traffic, towards the net, with Laferriere getting a deflection from the left-hand circle for his fourth goal of the season. Spence and Kopitar tallied the assists on the play, Kopitar’s second point of the evening.

With San Jose on a late power play, and the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, the Kings iced the game with a late insurance goal from forward Trevor Lewis, who picked the empty net for his fifth goal of the season.

With just 79 seconds left in the game, with the outcome no longer in doubt, San Jose ended the shutout bid for Kings goaltender David Rittich. Defenseman Jacob MacDonald got the hosts on the board with a power-play goal, bringing us to the final score of 4-1.

Hear from Rittich, Kaliyev and Head Coach Todd McLellan following tonight’s game.

David Rittich

Arthur Kaliyev
On the takeaways he had from tonight’s victory
I thought we played hard, got our game back, I thought every line had an impact on the game. We were rolling as a team. I thought we got back to the game that we played when we played well during that win streak. It’s great to see that again.

On the play he made for an assist on Anze Kopitar’s power-play goal
Yeah, I just made a line change with Q and just saw a rebound, quickly saw Kopi and just passed it to him. It was good that he buried it.

On the performance of the power play as of late, with goals in six straight games
Yeah, a lot of good progress. We have a lot of great players on two units, so we have confidence in any unit that goes out there and we’re doing a good job.

On the start to tonight’s game and how the Kings took over after opening the scoring
Yeah, they came out really flying out there, pressuring all over the ice, I thought we were not ready for a bit then we matched their speed and took over after that first goal. It was good to see, but they came out really hot off the bat.

Todd McLellan
On if he felt there were stylistic similarities between tonight’s win and the win over Seattle
Yeah, there were. I thought we checked as tight as we did against Seattle, we didn’t give up much. We were a little more creative offensively maybe then we were against Seattle, but the game management skills were there. Unfortunately at the end, we took the penalty and they got the power-play goal, that’s not the way we wanted to end it, but we’ll take the win, we’ll get home and try to get some rest and get ready for tomorrow.

On if there was any surprise in seeing the performance of David Rittich here tonight
Not at all. Coming out of training camp, he was very highly thought of, I think I mentioned that to you this morning and we felt we had three goaltenders that can play at any time. He, again tonight, all he did was increase our confidence in him and he in us. That’s a good sign.

On the play of Arthur Kaliyev, leading to Kopitar’s game-opening goal
An important component of a power play is the retrieval, so there’s always going to be shots and there’s going to be plays made, but your opportunity to score is often on that re-attack and the ability to go get something loose and pull a penalty kil out a position and Arthur did that. He was the fresh player in the line change and he went and found a loose puck and was able to put it into a scoring area and obviously Kopi did the rest production.

On another road victory and the team’s continued success playing away from home
You have to have the skill and the talent to win games and I think we’re blessed with that. More importantly, I think that skill and talent plays together and they play as a team. We follow our structure and I’ve been asked this before and I think I can answer it now. The difference between home and road is we play a simple, team game on the road. We hand off could shifts, sometimes when we’re home we play in pieces, we extend things, we get a little too cute. So, we’ve got to take this road game and put it in play at Crypto.

On if there’s any added importance in getting the win tonight over a divisional opponent
I think anytime you play a rival there is, it’s quite early in the season, first time that we’ve played against San Jose this year, so we really are just worrying about our game and ourselves, not necessarily the opponent. But, they are obviously a California team, one of the three that often play against each other, there’s a built-in rivalry that’s been there for years.

Notes –
– Anze Kopitar (1-1=2) scored his 198th career road goal as part of his 133rd career road multi-point performance. In doing so, Kopitar tied Dave Taylor (198) for the third-most road goals in franchise history. It is Kopitar’s third straight game with a PPG, the first time in his career he has scored a goal on the man advantage in three straight games.
– Kopitar’s goal was also the 67th game-opening goal of his career. Only Marcel Dionne (70) and Luc Robitaille (69) have more game-opening goals in club history. Kopitar also now has 70 points (27-43=70) all-time against San Jose, surpassing Shane Doan (27-42=69) for the fourth-most points vs. the Sharks in league history.
– Trevor Moore (1-0=1) collected his team-leading 15th goal of the season and 10th on the road. Only Sidney Crosby (14), Travis Konecny (11) and Brayden Point (11) have more road tallies.
Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) notched his fourth goal of the season and second in three games (1-0=1 on Dec. 13 vs. WPG).
– Trevor Lewis (1-0=1) scored his fourth goal of the season for his 170th point (74-96=170) as a member of the Kings, tying Mike Donnelly (87-83=170) for the seventh-most points by a U.S.-born player in club history.
– Blake Lizotte (0-1=1) notched his fourth assist of the season, placing him at 99 career points (34-65=99), one shy of becoming the 17thh American player in franchise history to score 100 points as a member of the Kings, and just the sixth American-born undrafted player to do so.
– Kevin Fiala (0-2=2) recorded his team-leading 22nd and 23rd helpers of the year as part of his eighth multi-point outing this campaign.
– Phillip Danault (0-1=1) extended his road point streak to four games (1-3=4).
– Blake Lizotte (0-1=1), Arthur Kaliyev (0-1=1) and Jordan Spence (0-1=1) both collected assists.
– David Rittich stopped 15 of 16 shots to earn his first victory with the LA Kings in his debut with the club.
– The team held San Jose to 16 shots on goal for just the third time in franchise history: 10 SOG on Jan. 11, 1994 and 15 SOG on Mar. 26, 2001.
– The Kings improved their record to 13-1-1 on the road in 2023-24. Their 13 such wins are the most by any team through their first 15 away contests to start a season in NHL history.

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow and will return to the ice for tomorrow evening’s matchup against the Seattle Kraken.

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