FINAL – Kings 5, Stars 4 (SO) – Danault, Laferriere, Hiller

The LA Kings skated to a 5-4 shootout victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday evening to improve to 17-3-1 on home ice this season, the top mark in the NHL.

Just 11 seconds into the game, the Kings found the opening goal through forward Warren Foegele, who made it consecutive contests with a goal. Forward Phillip Danault threaded a shot off the pads of goaltender Jake Oettinger, with Foegele crashing the net and burying the rebound to put the Kings ahead early. Foegele’s goal was his 14th of the season.

At the opposite end of the frame, Dallas scored the tying goal with just two seconds on the clock, sending the game tied into the first intermission. Stationed up high, forward Matt Duchene sent a shot through traffic and with forward Mason Marchment providing the screen in front, the puck found a way past Kings netminder David Rittich for a 1-1 scoreline after 20 minutes.

Just shy of the game’s midway mark, Kings forward Kevin Fiala continued his scoring streak with the go-ahead goal from close range. Sensing Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel was without a stick, Fiala pulled off a nifty move in front, deking it onto his forehand and firring a shot through Bichsel’s legs, past Oettinger on the glove side and in for his 21st goal of the season, his third straight game on the scoresheet.

Dallas answered back quickly, however, as defenseman Thomas Harley scored the tying goal just over a minute after Fiala put the Kings in the lead. A shot from Ceci was kicked out by Rittich, but Harley crashed the net down the left wing and buried the rebound first time for his eighth goal of the season. With the secondary assist on the play, Duchene made it a multi-point game.

Two minutes and change after Dallas tied the game, the Kings pushed back to take their third one-goal lead of the evening. After a really strong shift from the Fiala/Byfield/Laferriere line, Laferriere finally got rewarded with his 14th goal of the season. The eventual tally came from close range, as Laferriere fought through a battle in front and got a rebound to go from the top of the crease to put the hosts back on top.

In a span of under three minutes, the Stars went from a goal down to a goal ahead, taking their first lead of the evening. First, forward Mavrik Bourque drove towards the net and after Rittich made the initial save on a shot from forward Jamie Benn, the rookie forward buried the rebound for his seventh goal of the season, evening the score at 3-3. Then, Duchene scored his second goal of the game with a shot from the slot to give the visitors a 4-3 advantage.

The back-and-forth affair continued two minutes after Dallas took the lead, with forward Anze Kopitar tying the game for the Kings. Kopitar started the play by forcing a turnover inside the blueline, with forward Trevor Moore collecting and finding forward Adrian Kempe on the right-hand circle. Kempe sent a pass into a dangerous area, off the skate of Kopitar and in for the tying goal, Kopitar’s first since December 29.

With the two teams skating in overtime, Fiala appeared to have extended his two-goal streak to three games with the game-winning goal, but after a video review, the goal was called off due to goaltender interference.

Fiala and Kempe eventually helped the Kings get the extra point with goals in the shootout, before Rittich made the decisive save on Duchene to secure the victory.

Hear from Danault, Laferriere and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault

Alex Laferriere
On tonight’s game and the high-level competition against Dallas
Definitely a fast-paced game, two really good teams going at it and two very defensive oriented teams, but also have really good offense. Yeah, it was a fun game to be a part of and I thought we handled it really well.

On getting rewarded with a goal for his play tonight and over the last few games
Yeah, it definitely felt like a sigh of relief. I mean, when I’m playing well, I’m helping the team, so I can help the team in any way, that’s what I’ll do. If it’s on the scoresheet then that’s even better.

On the emotional shift in seeing a goal called back and then bouncing back to win
That’s probably the first time that I’ve ever been a part of that, so it was definitely weird for me on the bench. You go through the line and high five everyone after and then you’re still playing, so it’s kind of weird, but I mean for me personally, I never thought like we were going to lose that game, so I didn’t change much.

On what’s working after another really strong night from his line
I think just everything. I mean, we’re fast, we like to hunt pucks, those two are such dynamic players and whenever they have the puck, they’re going to make unbelievable plays. For me, it’s just finding open space and trying to get the puck back as much as possible. I think we all kind of feed from each other with that and it’s fun to play hockey right now.

On getting that type of win against a team that gave the Kings a lot of trouble last season
Definitely. I think we’re such a deep team, and I think going even back to last year, we kind of struggled against these guys with their speed and everything and then I think this year, we’re just kind of matching that and even more. I think as long as we can keep doing that with four lines, it’s going to be a pretty good time in playoffs.

Jim Hiller
On the Kings averaging five goals per game this month
Just had to do with flipping the calendar. Funny game. Good thing we didn’t talk about it too much and make it worse…….but we tried our best. Just happens like that, sometimes it does, but I thought we were dangerous tonight, in particular, more so than the Montreal game. I really liked our attack, we were pretty good.

On finding success against Dallas after struggling in that matchup last season
You know, we beat them earlier in the year, but they smoked us, they beat us pretty good. We got lucky, we kind of stole the game earlier. It’s the best we played against them. I thought it was one of our best games of the year, to be honest with you. Just all in, just the different elements. We were good on the rush, good in o-zone. They’re going to get you sometimes, they’re good too, I just really liked the game.

On Anze Kopitar’s game-tying goal
If you go back and look at Kopitar’s goal, which was obviously the biggest goal of the game, if you go back and look at it, it’s so subtle. Of everything that happened on that goal, Kopi dug in and chased the puck down and got there first, knew Mooresie was coming and just poked it against the wall so it would stay there and the player would take him. It was just such an elite play and of course it all ended up very good and he scored the goal, but the play made there, boy, that was probably the play of the game.

On seeing Kopitar snap out of his scoring slump at a crucial point in the game
I think he would say that went a little bit longer than……he was a little more patient than he would like to be on that one, but yeah, it’s nice to see it. Sometimes you get into that funk and it goes that long, you wonder, am I ever gonna get one again. He’s been around long enough, but I think that one was wearing on him just a little bit.

On if tonight was perhaps Drew Doughty’s best game since returning
I think it’s probably his best. The first game, he’s going on adrenaline, it’s a different style of game in Florida, they’re forechecking you a lot, but yeah, I thought he looked more like himself tonight, I really did. 29 [minutes] is too much, he won’t end up with that much but we were missing Mikey and of course Mikey gets his 25 now. We’ll try to win games and they’re close games. If they’re not close then you can spread the minutes sometimes a little bit, but we needed him there, runs into overtime, he gets a little extra.

On an uptick in offensive production off the rush as of late
There’s always an emphasis to create more off the rush, but I would say our breakouts and our speed is maybe noticeably different over the last couple games, I would say. That seems to be working well and when it works well, the players are more inclined to remember the instruction, to execute the instructions, so I just think generally, we probably got away from it when we were getting tight, and we looked better this way.

Notes –
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) scored his 14th goal of the campaign with his second goal in two games played against the Stars this season (1- 1=2 on Dec. 4, 2025). With his game-opening marker coming 0:11 seconds into tonight’s contest, Foegele ties Dave Taylor (0:11 on Jan. 19, 1985 vs NYI) for the third fastest goal from the start of a game in LA Kings history.
• Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his 14th goal of the season and hit the 30-point mark for the first time in his career. Laferriere (15-18=33) ties JJ Peterka (15-26=41) and Tyson Foerster (15-10=25) for sixth most goals scored by a forward selected in the 2020 NHL Draft.
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-1=2) scored his 21st goal of the season and picked up his 14th assist, marking his fifth and sixth points in his last three games (5-1=6). Fiala has now tallied multi-point efforts in three consecutive games, marking the fifth time in his career that he has recorded at least two points in three or more consecutive games (Last: 3-5=8 in 3GP from Feb. 27 – March 3, 2024).
• Tonight marked Fiala’s 10th multi-point performance of the campaign, breaking a tie with Anze Kopitar for the second most such games this season among Kings skaters.
• Forward Anze Kopitar’s (1-0=1) 13th goal of the season marked his 432nd career goal, surpassing Dave Taylor (431) for third all-time in goals scored in franchise history. With his 22nd goal against the Dallas Stars, Kopitar (22-39=61) ties Dustin Brown (22-24=45) for third-most goals scored on Dallas by an LA King.
• Tonight marked the captain’s 1,425th career regular season game, surpassing Pat Verbeek (1,424) for sole possession of 36th most in League history.
• Forward Phillip Danault (0-2=2) collected his 22nd assist of the season, surpassing Brandt Clarke (4-21=25) for second on the team in assists. Tonight’s performance also marks Danault’s third multi point effort of this campaign and his fourth point in his last three games (1-3=4).
• Forward Quinton Byfield (0-1=1) collected his 18th assist this season to extend his point streak to three games (0-6=6) for the second time this season (3-2=5 from Dec. 28, 2024 – Jan. 1, 2025). In doing so, Byfield (39-78=116) ties Dawson Mercer (77-78=155) for seventh most assists recorded by a player selected in the 2020 NHL Draft.
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) tallied his 15th assist of the season, extending his point streak to three games (2-1=3), dating back to Feb. 1 against Carolina.
• Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) picked up his 21st assist of the season for his 45th point, keeping pace with teammate Anze Kopitar for the team lead. The assist marks Kempe’s 373rd career point, tying Florida’s Aaron Ekblad for the 10th most points among skaters selected in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft. The Kramfors, Sweden, native scored the clinching goal in the third round of tonight’s shootout.
• Goaltender David Rittich made 26 saves in tonight’s victory to improve his record to 12-11-0 on the season.
• With tonight’s victory, the Kings improved to 50-29-7 under Head Coach Jim Hiller. By doing so, Hiller becomes the fastest head coach in franchise
history to reach the 50-win mark, doing so in 86 games.

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate in advance of tomorrow’s game. The team will return to action tomorrow evening against the Anaheim Ducks at 7:30 PM at Crypto.com Arena.