FINAL – Kings 3, Ducks 1 – Dubois, Roy, Hiller

The LA Kings skated to a 3-1 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena, moving one step closer towards securing the third seed in the Pacific Division.

After a first period that came and went without much in terms of offense, the Kings broke the deadlock less than three minutes into the second period, to take a 1-0 lead. Skating on the power play, forward Pierre-Luc Dubois started the play by firing the puck into a dangerous area and later finished it off at the back post, after forward Viktor Arvidsson worked the puck free to Dubois for the goal, his 16th of the season.

Just past the game’s halfway point, defenseman Matt Roy doubled the advantage for the hosts. After his first shot hit forward Blake Lizotte, the centerman collected and fed Roy back at the center point, where he shot through traffic and in for his fifth goal of the season, with forward Trevor Lewis providing the screen in front. Lizotte and forward Akil Thomas tallied the assists on the play, Thomas’ first career assist in the NHL.

Midway through the third period, Anaheim got on the board through forward Trevor Zegras, who brought the visitors within just one goal. Skating down the left side and into the slot, Zegras took a pass in full stride from defenseman Olen Zellweger, pulled it back on his forehand and fired inside the far post, on the glove side, for his sixth goal of the season, ending the shutout bid for goaltender David Rittich.

Inside three minutes remaining in regulation, the Kings added an insurance goal from forward Kevin Fiala, pulling us to the final score of 3-1. The line of Fiala, Lizotte and Lewis worked well along the wall, with Lewis seeing his shot saved by Anaheim netminder Lukas Dostal and Fiala corralling the rebound, wrapping it around the net on the forehand and in for his 29th goal of the season and the two-goal lead.

Hear from Dubois, Roy and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s victory.

Pierre-Luc Dubois

PLD with the media🎤@LAKings I #LAKingsLive pic.twitter.com/NwHXDh8poX

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) April 14, 2024

Matt Roy
On his impressions from tonight’s game
I thought it was a good effort. I thought we all played together, for the most part, and everyone was working hard and doing their jobs tonight.

On the team’s improved performance in the second half of the season
I’m not sure, just sometimes it’s the way the season plays out. We knew we had to dial it in at home, because we weren’t doing well at all in the beginning, so we did know we had to step up a bit at home and I’m glad we did. Now, we need to fix the other part.

On the team’s confidence level with two regular-season games remaining
I think it’s good for everyone. When we’re on, we’re on, and I think you can tell when we’re not having a great game. We just need to figure out how to keep it more consistent.

On the importance of these final three games and going into the playoffs with momentum
I think it’s huge. If you can go into the playoffs feeling good, I think it just kind of helps your team’s mindset and you just kind of feel more ready. You don’t want to go in losing focus or confidence. You want to be ready to go and you want your teammates to be ready to go as well.

Jim Hiller
On the challenges of manufacturing energy in a game like this, directly after clinching
That’s human nature, for sure. I thought the first period was really sleepy, I thought we got going better in the second period and then they made their push in the third. The shift before we scored, I think the Dubois line was out there, about a 40-second shift in the o-zone, I thought that was probably the most important shift of the game. Then Liz came out and those guys, got on the faceoff and Kevin scored the big goal, I guess the two of them together, but that shift was really important. We had to stem the tide and an excellent shift from that line.

On Pierre-Luc Dubois’ game and if there is a plan for his playoff usage
Yeah, I don’t know exactly, I mean, we’ll see what everything looks like. He played a really good game tonight, I thought he looked good with Q and Juice. We’ll see where it goes. A power-play goal for him, so we’ll see.

On Dubois feeling comfortable playing netfront on the PP
He was there, he was in Kopi’s spot today with their group, he did a good job and got one off the backside. Yeah, we’ll still figure it out. That group has had a lot of different looks with RV out and coming back in that moves Q with that group. So, there’s just been a lot of different things going on there. Laf’s a righty, he got a chance to play there tonight, so we’re still sorting through that.

On how the team responded to playing without Anze Kopitar
I thought we did a good job. Again, it was flat to start, there wasn’t a lot of intensity, but then we got our energy going and give Anaheim credit, they played well. You can see the speed they’ve got, I thought they came through the middle of the ice and they were dangerous, they had three breakaways or partials by the time they got through us. I thought we did a good job with Kopi. He’s a hard guy not to have in there, because he means so much to everybody, but the guys did a good job.

On if he feels the team is building momentum down the stretch
We want to play well. I mean, you can play well and not win in this league, that happens on a lot of different nights, so we want to play well. We’ll take the wins, we want to win of course, but we just want to be feeling good. Whether that’s winning or playing well and maybe not quite getting it done, just feeling good going into it.

On the play of defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in tonight’s win
I just have to say this, because he’s on the top of my mind and nobody’s asked, or rarely ask about him, but I thought Gavrikov was really strong tonight. In the defensive zone, on the penalty kill, breaking the puck out, he really stood out to me on the bench. We don’t talk about him enough, he’s a good warrior back there.

On David Rittich’s play, tonight and over the last several months
He was great. Obviously Cam’s had more of the workload here over the last six weeks anyways, but what you’re seeing with David is he just comes in and plays really well and that’s exactly what you’re looking for. It’s hard when you’re not in the rhythm, it’s easier to be going every second, third game. He’s had some to sit and he comes in and he just plays well, so that’s a really, really strong attribute by a goaltender, that you don’t have to be in that rhythm to be able to play well. Give him credit, he made some saves tonight, he was probably the difference in the game.

Additionally, Jim Hiller shared that Anze Kopitar missed tonight due to “something nagging”. Hiller was unsure on if Kopitar would miss additional games but “would assume that” he would have played tonight, were it Game 1 of the playoffs.

Notes –
– Pierre-Luc Dubois (1-0=1) scored his 16th goal of the season for his 40th point (16-24=40) of the campaign, marking the sixth time in his career he has reached the 40-point plateau. Dubois becomes the sixth skater selected in the 2016 NHL Draft to record six or more 40-point seasons and becomes the 12th different Quebec-born skater to record a 40-point season with the Kings.
– Matt Roy (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season for his 25th point (5-20=25) of the campaign. Roy is now one point shy of tying his single-season career high of 26 points (9-17=26, 2022-23). Roy’s goal stood as the game-winner, the fourth GWG of his career. Only Joe Corvo (6) and Alec Martinez (12) have scored more game-winning goals among American-born Kings blueliners.
– Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his 29th goal of the season, his ninth point (6-3=9) in his sixth game against the Ducks since joining the Kings.
– Blake Lizotte (0-1=1) tallied his eighth assist of the season.
– Viktor Arvidsson (0-1=1) collected his eighth assist of the season for his eighth point (3-5=8) in his last seven contests against the Ducks.
– Akil Thomas (0-1=1) picked up his first career NHL assist, extending his point streak to a third game (2-1=3). With the assist, Thomas has picked up points in back-to-back games against the Ducks (1-0=1, April 9, 2024).
– Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) picked up his 46th assist of the season for his 21st helper on the man-advantage, tying Juha Widing (21PPA, 1972-72) for the most power-play assists in a season by a Kings skater of Swedish nationality.
– With helpers on Kevin Fiala’s marker in the final frame, Trevor Lewis (0-1=1) registered his eighth assist of the season while – Drew Doughty (0-1=1) recorded his 50th point of the campaign (15-35=50), the fifth 50-point season of his career, breaking a tie with Rob Blake (4x) for the most such seasons by a defenseman in franchise history.
– David Rittich made 28 saves on 29 of Anaheim’s shots to improve his record to 13-6-3 on the season.
– With tonight’s victory, the Kings extended their home winning streak to eight games, the longest such run since the 2010-11 campaign (8-0-0; Oct. 12 – Nov. 13, 2010). It is the fifth different home winning streak of at least eight games in franchise history.

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

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