FINAL – Kings 5, Wild 1 – Byfield, Lewis Hiller

The LA Kings scored five unanswered goals to hand the Minnesota Wild their second regulation loss of the regular season by a 5-1 score on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Trevor Lewis scored twice in the win for the Kings, while Kevin Fiala found the back of the net against a former team for the second straight day and Quinton Byfield recorded his first goal of the year as well as an assist.

With the win, the Kings moved into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division with an 8-3-3 mark and 19 points through 14 games.

LA also got two-assist nights from Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, and David Rittich turned out 23 of Minnesota’s 24 shots on goal to earn his fourth win of the campaign.

The Wild controlled play during the first period, putting the Kings on their heels with a 9-2 shot on goal edge. LA won 12 of the 17 face-offs in the opening frame and were able to keep Minnesota off the board with six blocked shots while Rittich denied all chances that came his way.

Moments after LA successfully killed a tripping penalty to Brandt Clarke at 4:17 of the second, Zach Bogosian broke through for the Wild, giving the home team a 1-0 lead with a wrist shot that made its way through a screen and into the top of the net at 7:31.

Minnesota got its third power play of the contest at 11:22 of the second when Kyle Burroughs was whistled for holding, but the Kings successfully killed the chance, just as they did with the Wild’s first two man-advantages.

That helped turn the tide for the visitors, who broke through to tie the game 1-1 at 14:30 of the second on Warren Foegele’s fifth goal of the season. The strike came on a scramble in front of the Minnesota net after an initial shot by Laferriere was stopped by goaltender Filip Gustavsson.

The Kings then took the lead for the first time when Fiala buried a shot from the inside of the left circle during LA’s first power play at 18:55. The former Wild forward’s seventh of the year came with assists by Laferriere and Anze Kopitar.

Lewis extended the lead to 3-1 at 7:39 of the third with his 100th career NHL goal. The tally was scored after Gustavsson dropped a rebound to the ice on an initial shot by Lewis, and the veteran picked up his own rebound and put it into the net. Assists on the goal went to both Andre Lee and Tanner Jeannot, who helped keep an extended shift alive in the offensive end prior to the strike.

LA wasn’t done, however, as Byfield added on at 14:12 by redirecting a puck that was sent his way by Vladislav Gavrikov. The tip went off the left post and in to give the Kings a 4-1 advantage.

Lewis capped off the scoring two minutes later with an empty-net tally at 16:14 for his third of the season. Trevor Moore recorded the second assist on both of the team’s last two goals for his first multi-point game of the season.

Gustavsson finished the contest with 23 saves in a losing effort for the Wild, who were held to an 0-for-4 night on the man-advantage. Fiala’s power play goal in the second period capitalized on the team’s only power play of the game.

More on tonight’s win below from Byfield, Lewis and Kings head coach Jim Hiller –

Quinton Byfield
On how it felt to get his first goal of the season after a lot of chances
Yeah, I was saying I had the worst shooting percentage in the league with a goal. So, I’ve had a lot of grade A’s. It’s honestly just on myself, maybe just, you know, gripping a little too hard right now. I’ve had multiple breakaways, two-on-ones, stuff like that, you know, in practice, I’m burying all these and then comes to the game, I don’t know. So just to get one there, great pass by Gavrikov, feels good to get it off the back and hopefully they start falling now.

On Trevor Lewis scoring his 100th career goal
Well, last game, you know, he could have got his 100th into the empty net and instead decided to pass it. It’s just the type of guy Lewey is so see him get his 100th goal and then 101 was special and he’s a great guy in the locker room and we’re excited to have him, have that achievement and be there in that moment with him is special and something that will cherish.

On the mood of the team after two wins on a back-to-back
Yeah, I mean, obviously back to backs are hard. The first period was definitely their period and we had to kind of focus in and start playing our game. But, you know, two big wins on the road. It’s big for us, and hopefully we can carry this momentum.

Trevor Lewis
On getting the win on the road and hitting his milestone
It’s great just to get the win. I think it was a big road trip for us. Early on in the game, we had to find our legs and kind of grind it out. And we found the legs, and we played well the second two periods.

On the role the team’s penalty kill played in the win
Yeah, big kills always build momentum for your team. I think everyone gets up on the bench for them, and we’ve been doing a pretty good job at it and finding our pressure points and all those type of things. So we just got to keep that up.

On being in first place after back-to-back wins
Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, these points are always crucial, and you want to always be in a playoff spot. I think we just got to keep building and there’s still things we can get better at, and we just got to keep building on our game and keep going.

Jim Hiller
On the success of his team’s penalty kill, which significantly impacted the game
The penalty kill, it’s been pretty good for a while now; and when I say pretty good, it’s nothing more frustrating as a power play when you don’t get set up and at least get some good looks, and our penalty kill has been doing a good job not letting them get set up. So it’s not just the fact you don’t give up a goal, but you can gain a little momentum from it, and that’s been an important part of the game for us.

On things that helped the team get going after a slow start
Well, I thought when Kaprisov got hurt and he had to go out, I thought that, maybe took them a little bit of time to adjust to that, and we started getting some legs. I don’t know if it was exactly that moment, but it felt a little bit like that’s kind of when we started being able to push it a little bit.

On Quinton Byfield scoring his first goal of the season
He was ready. I think we all were. The guys were really excited for him on the bench. Obviously, probably could have had three tonight, but he’ll take one, I’m sure, and I believe they’ll start going in for him.

On the play of Trevor Lewis, who got his 100th goal
Lewey, you know what he just gives you what he’s got every night, and he does so many little things, face-offs at opportune times, penalty kill, the leadership, the example that he sets for our young players. We got a lot of young players right now, so to see him in the league of this age and still getting out there and then hitting milestones like that, everybody in that room is pretty happy for him.

On his team being in first place after 10 of 14 games have come on the road
This is a tough trip. I mean, I’m really proud of the team for this. And I think the important part is we got great goaltending both nights. And you can’t come into two buildings like this with the travel unless you get great goaltending to give us a chance. So that was probably the most important part of the trip. And then, eventually the guys just got it done. We were better in Nashville than we were tonight, but give our guys credit, they played pretty well the second half of the game. 

Notes –
• Forward Trevor Lewis (2-0=2) scored his second and third goals of the season for the 100th and 101st goals of his career. Lewis becomes the fourth American and 21st overall skater selected in the 2006 NHL Draft to reach the milestone.
• Lewis (101-129=230) becomes second Utah-born skater in League history to reach 100 career goals. He joins fellow Salt Lake City native Steve Konowalchuk (171-225=396), who played 790 games with the Capitals and Avalanche from 1991-2006.
• This is Lewis’ second career multi-goal game as a member of the Kings (2-0=2; Jan. 16, 2014 at STL). Per Stathead, Lewis becomes the 150th different skater to tally multiple two-goal games with the Kings.
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season. Foegele has now scored three goals over his last two road games against the Wild (3-0=3), dating back to Oct. 24, 2023 (with EDM), and four goals over his last four road games against the Wild (4-0=4), dating back to Nov. 16, 2019 (with CAR).
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his seventh goal of the season, extending his point streak to a fifth game (3-4=7), and has now tallied nine points (3-6=9) over his last seven matchups against the Wild.
• Fiala has now recorded 48 power play goals in his career, passing Mark Streit (47) for sole-possession of the fourth-most such tallies among Swiss-born skaters all-time. Only Streit (47-160=207) and Roman Josi (64-185=249) have registered more power play points among their countrymen in NHL history than Fiala’s 134 (48-85=134).
• Winger Alex Laferriere (0-2=2) picked up his fourth and fifth assists of the season. With the assists, Laferriere has tallied six points (2-4=6) over his last five games.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up his 10th assist of the season, extending his point streak to a fourth game (2-4=6). Kopitar is the
second Kings skater this season to reach the 10-assist threshold, along with defenseman Brandt Clarke (11A).
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) scored his first goal and notched his sixth assist of the season for his first multi-point effort of the campaign. Byfield (29-66=95) now sits five points shy of becoming the seventh skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to reach 100 career points.
• Forward Tanner Jeannot (0-1=1) picked up his first assist as a member of the Kings.
• Forward Trevor Moore and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov each picked up their fifth assists of the season.
• The Kings successfully killed off all four of the Wild’s power-play attempts tonight, their third-straight road game against the wild registering a perfect penalty-kill, dating back to Feb. 21, 2023.
• Goaltender David Rittich turned aside 23 of Minnesota’s 24 shots on goal to improve his record to 4-3-0

The LA Kings will have a scheduled day off on Wednesday and will return to action Thursday, Nov. 7, against the Vancouver Canucks at Crypto.com Arena at 7:30 p.m PST.