FINAL – Kings 4, Red Wings 1 – Lewis, Anderson, Hiller

The LA Kings got back to winning ways on home ice, as they skated to a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

After a dominant first period, the Kings scored two goals in 22 seconds to open up a multi-goal lead heading into the first intermission.

First, defenseman Mikey Anderson activated from the left point and buried his third goal of the season to open the scoring. Anderson worked his way in and seemed to fake out Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot, using the pass to the slot as a misdirection before shooting inside the near post for the early lead.

Shortly thereafter, forward Tanner Jeannot got back on the scoresheet in his first game back, pushing the lead to 2-0. Forward Trevor Lewis was the facilitator, as he came down the right wing with speed on a 2-on-1 rush. Lewis stickhandled around the defenseman to the outside and fed Jeannot at the back post for the tap-in goal, Jeannot’s second of the season, as the Kings pushed their lead to two goals after 20 minutes.

Just 15 seconds into the third period, the Kings picked up an insurance goal from forward Adrian Kempe, who buried his third goal over his last two games played. Skating in transition, forward Warren Foegele chipped the puck through the neutral zone in transition to a streaking Kempe, who buried it high on the blocker side for his eighth goal of the season and a 3-0 advantage.

Inside two minutes to play in regulation, with the goaltender pulled for a 6-on-5 advantage, Detroit got on the board through forward Dylan Larkin, who buried his tenth goal of the season, bringing the visitors back to within two goals. Kempe went on to ice the game late, as he tied himself for the team lead in goals with the empty netter, his ninth of the season, for the 4-1 final.

Hear from Lewis, Anderson and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s win.

Trevor Lewis

Mikey Anderson
On the way the team started tonight’s game
Yeah, it was good. I thought it was a lot of jump, especially from up front. They made it hard on their D, knowing they had a quick turnaround, it was trying to get out fast. I thought our forwards helped the D be able to make it a little more frustrating, but I thought they did a great job.

On continuing the start beyond the first period, unlike in Colorado
Starting good is step one, but you want to make sure you can keep the foot down. Maybe we get a little greedy, maybe try and make a little more complicated than needs to be sometimes, but today, I think everyone was all on the same page, and obviously got the result we wanted.

On Jacob Moverare’s performance tonight, coming in from the AHL
Yeah, typical Mo. He’s awesome to have around. I think he came up yesterday and everyone’s excited to see him at the rink. Maybe not the loudest guy, but he brings a good energy that everyone likes having around. So we’re happy we get to have him and we’re happy he’s here. I thought he was typical Mp for us today, which is good, nice, steady. We’re happy he’s here.

On his goal tonight and finding an opening at the near post
If he’s smart, he would have saw Kevin, he would have thought it was going there. Yeah, I don’t know, I saw a little gap, gave it a go, and lucky went in, so it’s good.

Jim Hiller
On the start tonight and the team’s play on the forecheck
They played last night, so what was important, I thought, was that we jumped on them quick. We were the fresher team, we hadn’t been the fresher team that often this year, so I really liked the start. I thought we started like we were going to try to use that to our advantage with our forecheck, So that probably put them on the heels a little bit, we’ve been there before. That first period was our best period.

On the team’s defensive play in blocking over 30 shots
The fact that those didn’t get to the net, they were more dangerous than 16 shots, right, so we blocked a lot. I thought they had some really good looks. David had to make not a lot of saves, but some high-quality saves. That’s where you can say probably offensively, that was as dangerous as we were all year, but there were those times where it could have went the other way, going in our direction. We got good saves and good blocks and broke stuff up.

On Alex Turcotte’s status after not playing for the final 25+ minutes
I didn’t talk to him before the game, but we had talked as coaches, we were just going to try to get them through about halfway through the game was our point. We had fresh forwards, so we were going to go down to 11, we actually played him a little bit more than halfway through, because I thought he was playing well, but I didn’t want to push it too far. I knew we could get through the last third of the game with rolling some different forwards through. Not based on his play at all, just getting him back up to speed.

On the Kings closing out the game tonight
We stepped on them, but we had more opportunity to put it away. I don’t think I felt comfortable at all until Kempe scored the empty-net goal to make it four. They’re dangerous, you can see them, they make nice passes on the on the entries. Other people might have been comfortable, but I wasn’t comfortable until Kempe scored that last one, but we had a lot of chances, so we stepped on them in that sense, but the goalie played well, Talbs played good.

On Adrian Kempe’s importance and getting four goals over his last two games
You’re looking for a goal scorer at times, and some of our top scorers didn’t start that quickly, as far as the goal department, right? Juice has really picked it up, I’m sure Kevin will soon, Q is going to get some goals soon. So, in the meantime, it ebbs and flows as the season goes, you need somebody, at least one of them going and he’s really hot right now too.

On the play of the fourth line tonight
I thought tonight that line was really good and they were able to forecheck more. I thought Jeanno had a really good game coming back. I thought in the Colorado game, we didn’t get, that line in particular, didn’t get much time in the offensive zone. Tonight they were in there. I don’t know how many hits Sammy had but he didn’t pass too many up, those D knew he was out there, same with Jeanno and Lewis. I just thought that was probably the best that Sammy has played, all things considered,

Notes –
• Defensman Mikey Anderson (1-0=1) scored his third goal of the season, his first goal scored on home ice.
• Forward Tanner Jeannot (1-0=1) recorded his second goal of the season, the 44th tally of his career.
• Forwards Phillip Danault and Trevor Lewis (0-1=1) each picked up a helper, including the Helenius’ second career NHL point.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (2-0=2) scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season, extending his home point streak against the Red Wings to a fifth game (6-1=7), dating back to Nov. 14, 2019. Kempe’s 11 career points (9-2=11) passes Tyler Toffoli (6- 4=10) and Alec Martinez (4-6=10) for sole posession of third-most points against the Red Wings as a member of the Kings by an active skater.
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) notched an assist to extend his point streak to eight games (2-8=10). He becomes the fourth different Kings skater in the last five years to establish a streak of at least eight games (Adrian Kempe, 9 GP in 2023-24; Alex Iafallo, 9 GP in 2019-20; Kevin Fiala, 8 GP in 2023-24).
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (0-1=1) picked up his sixth assist of the season, tying his career-best home point streak of three games (2-1=3), last set from Feb. 7-18, 2021 (0-3=3) with CBJ.
• Forward Warren Foegele (0-1=1) recorded his fourth assist and tenth point of the season. In doing so, Foegele set a career high home assist streak (1-3=4) with three assists in three straight games.
• With his first period assist, Samuel Helenius (0-1=1) becomes the first Kings rookie to record assists in back-to-back home games since fellow 2021 Draft pick Brandt Clarke (2A; Jan. 24 – Feb. 2, 2024).
• Forward Alex Turcotte was credited with three blocked shots tonight, while defenseman Mikey Anderson was credited with eight, both establishing new single-game career highs.
• Forward Alex Laferriere skated in his 100th NHL game tonight, becoming the 28th skater, third American skater, and first third-round selection of the 2020 NHL Draft to appear in 100 career games.
• David Rittich turned aside 17 of 18 shots faced to earn his sixth win of the year (6-4-0).
• The LA Kings finished the game with zero penalties taken, joining the Minnesota Wild (Oct. 22 at FLA), New York Islanders (Oct. 30 at CBJ), and New Jersey Devils (Nov. 9 at NYI) as the fourth team to record a game with no penalties taken.

The Kings have a day off from practice tomorrow and will participate in their annual Rinks Tour throughout Southern California, attending youth hockey practices around the area. The team will return to the ice on Monday, November 18 at 11 AM at Toyota Sports Performance Center.