FINAL – Kings 4, Canadiens 1 – Gavrikov, Laferriere, Englund, Hiller

The LA Kings concluded the roadtrip on a high note, with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday evening at the Centre Bell.

Despite a strong start from the visitors, it was Montreal that opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the first period. Defenseman Justin Barron got the hosts on the board, as he carried the puck through the offensive zone, circled the net and scored on a wraparound effort, his first goal of the season.

Late in the first period, the Kings tied the game at one through defenseman Mikey Anderson. Off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov worked the puck to Anderson, who fired from the left side, through a crowd in front and directly in for his first goal of the season and a 1-1 score heading into the first intermission.

The second period saw just one goal, coming from the Kings, as they took a one-goal lead through 40 minutes of play. With the new-look line of Warren Foegele, Alex Turcotte and Alex Laferriere on the ice, the trio connected after working the puck in the offensive zone. Turcotte moved the puck back to defenseman Jordan Spence at the point and his shot through traffic was deflected in by forward Alex Laferriere for his third goal of the season.

After much of the third period passed by 2-1, defenseman Andreas Englund found an insurance goal to put the Kings ahead by two. Stationed at the point, Englund got a shot off through traffic, which evaded both the bodies in front of the net and Montreal goaltender Samuel Montembeault for his first goal of the season and a two-goal advantage.

Forward Adrian Kempe capped the scoring with an empty-net goal, giving the Kings a 4-1 victory.

Hear from Laferrriere, Gavrikov, Englund and Head Coach Jim Hiller following today’s win.

Vladislav Gavrikov
On finishing the roadtrip on a positive note
Yeah, I mean, finishing the right way won that game. It’s a huge two points for us, especially on that long roadtrip. We can bring some home and just reset and we’ll be ready for the next one.

On when he last played on the right side and his comfort level there
Back in the day, I would say. I played my whole juniors [career] pretty much on the right side and then switching to the left. Yeah, that was nothing unusual for me, I would say. I feel very comfortable there.

On where the team improved tonight to come away with the win in Montreal
Our forwards, I think, did a great job on the forecheck and backcheck, so they tried to keep it tight and create some turnovers. That’s how the change started. That was huge. Then, our special teams, the PK, and Ritter made a couple key saves for us in the end. That’s pretty good that we didn’t give anything up on the PK.

Alex Laferriere
On linking up with Alex Turcotte tonight and the performance of their line
Yeah, I thought we did really well. I mean, he’s a really easy player to play with. He’s always hard on the forecheck, winning puck battles and he’s always in the right spot. I love going out there with them and yeah, I think we did well tonight.

On when he found out about the wholesale line changes
I wasn’t really fully sure on all the lineups, Jimmy talked to Turcs earlier this morning and Turcs came up to me and told me we were playing together. I knew I was playing with those guys. I’m not sure if Jimmy talked to the other guys, but I assume he did,

On an improved defensive performance tonight, after allowing 14 goals over the last 2 games
It was awesome. I think our team played really good defense and obviously Ritter played unbelievable. I think just our resilience as a teaml, I think our penalty kill was something we wanted to focus on tonight and I thought they did an unbelievable job tonight keeping them off the scoreboard. I think it just goes to show our resilience.

Andreas Englund
On his second career goal coming in tonight’s game
Yeah, I pretty much just got the puck and tried to get it through to the net. There wasn’t a whole lot more to it.

On the team’s play in the 1-2-2 neutral zone tonight
Yeah definitely, I thought we won a lot of pucks there. That made us come down into the o-zone a lot better, made us spend more time there and get more chances.

On showing patience early in the season and staying ready to check in
You’ve got to take your chance when you get it. Nobody wants to sit out any games, but unfortunately somebody has to. You’ve just got to stay ready [assistant coach] Derik Johnston is taking great care of us, when we’re not playing and making sure we’re ready.

Jim Hiller

Notes –
• Defensemen Mikey Anderson (1-0=1) scored his first of the season to tie the opening frame at a goal apiece.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-1=1) notched his third asssist of the season on Anderson’s tally and scored his second goal of the
season with the empty-net marker. Kempe has now picked up points in four straight games in Montreal (3-2=5), dating back to Nov.
9, 2021. The multi-point effort is the 70th such performance of Kempe’s career.
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (0-2=2) assisted on both Anderson and Kempe’s goals to collect his first two assists of the
season for his 16th career multi-point performance and 11th multi-assist performance.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=0) tallied his third goal of the season with assists from Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) and Jordan Spence
(0-1=1), marking each player’s first point against the Canadiens in their young careers.
• Spence, who provided the primary assist on Laferriere’s goal, picked up his second primary assist of the campaign for his first at
even-strength. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, only Moritz Seider (35) has more primary assists by a blueliner selected in
the 2019 NHL Draft than Spence’s 16.
• With his secondary helper on Laferriere’s go-ahead-goal, Turcotte extends his first career point streak to a third consecutive game
(1-2=3) dating back to Oct. 14 at OTT.
• Defenseman Andreas Englund (1-0=0) scored his second career goal for his first point of the campaign.
• Forward Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) collected his third assist of the season.
• Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) recorded an assist in in career game number 1,378. Kopitar has now tied Joe Sakic, Dean Prentice and
Vincent Damphousse to enter the top-50 in NHL History. His 691st career road game ties Damphousse for the 45th-most in
league history.
• With his assist, Kopitar has now recorded seven points (3-4=7) within the team’s first five games of the season for the eighth time
in his career, passing Luc Robitaille (7x) for sole possession’ of the most such starts in franchise history.
• Goaltender David Rittich made 26 saves on 27 shots faced at Bell Centre to capture his first victory of the campaign.
• Per NHL PR, the Kings extended their win streak against Montreal to seven games dating to Oct. 30, 2021, the team’s longest
active run against a single opponent. Overall, it is tied for the third longest winning streak against one franchise in Kings history, behind Chicago (10 GP from Nov. 20, 1997 – Nov. 16, 1999), Anaheim (8 GP from Feb. 25, 2022 – Feb. 24, 2024) and Washington (8 GP from Dec. 19, 1974 – Nov. 5, 1975)

The Kings have a full team day off tomorrow, after they return home to Los Angeles. The team will get back on the ice on Saturday, 10/19, for practice at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.