FINAL – Kings 4, Islanders 1 – Danault, Gavrikov, Hiller

The LA Kings made it three consecutive victories as they skated to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena to begin a three-game homestand.

The Kings opened the scoring in a 6-on-5 situation as they took advantage of a delayed penalty to get on the board. Working the puck around the outside, forward Anze Kopitar fed defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov at the right point, where he hammered a one-timer through traffic in front, past New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin and in for his fourth goal of the season and an early 1-0 advantage for the hosts.

Midway through the second period, the Islanders tied the game at one, as forward Anders Lee continued his scoring ways against the Kings. Defenseman Adam Pelech did well to escape the Kings on the forecheck and led the rush up the ice, dishing off to forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau. On the right wing, Pageau centered the puck to Lee, who buried his 12th career goal in 20 games played against the Kings to tie the game at one.

Less than a minute after the Islanders tied the game, the Kings responded with a goal of their own to pull back in front. Forwards Trevor Moore and Warren Foegele used an aggressive forecheck to win the puck back in the offensive zone, before Moore fed forward Phillip Danault in the slot for a first-time shot that found the back of the net for his sixth goal of the season and a 2-1 lead.

With exactly six minutes remaining in the second period, the Kings scored a shorthanded goal to take their first multi-goal lead of the evening. Forward Quinton Byfield took advantage of a broken stick on the Islanders power play, finding himself on a breakaway the other way. He picked his spot and scored on the blocker side to extend his goal streak to four games and his team’s lead to 3-1.

The second period featured two disallowed goals for the Islanders, both successfully overturned by the Kings on coach’s challenges. Forwards Anthony Duclair and Lee each had the puck in the net for the visitors, with the challenge wiping both off the board and keeping the Kings ahead by two heading into the intermission.

With just over a minute to play in regulation, defenseman Drew Doughty iced the game with an empty-net goal from 200 feet away from the net, bringing the game to the final score of 4-1.

Hear from Gavrikov, Danault and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s victory.

Vladislav Gavrikov

Phillip Danault
On the performance of the penalty-killing unit, going 8-for-8 tonight
A little bit of luck, with the goals [disallowed], but just playing hard. We did the little details on the PK, obviously a little bounce, but we’ve been doing it game after game and we got rewarded tonight.

On the importance of video coaches Samson Lee and Cole Lussier on overturning those two goals
Yeah, I mean these guys, we’re a team and there’s the staff, d-men, forwards, goalies and the staff. They do so much in the shadows and that was a big example right there. Those moments are key, you’ve got to think fast. Really, they were the first stars tonight, both of them. We don’t give them enough credit and we get so much from them.

On his goal tonight and the hard work his line put in to earn it
For sure. We always have two guys in the pile working hard for the puck and we’re hard on the forecheck. We deserved that one. We’ve worked so hard every game and it was just a matter of time, I guess. I think our role is key. We know we’re playing the big lines and we try to shut them down but we also can bring some offense. That’s our bread and butter right there. If we can bring some offense every night then it makes us really hard to play against.

On another exceptional performance from goaltender Darcy Kuemper
Yeah, Darcy is obviously a massive piece of our team. If he plays like this every night, we have a chance to do something good.

On taking eight minor penalties and the importance of cleaning that up moving forward
Too many penalties tonight. We had a day off yesterday, maybe that’s why [laughs]. We’ve got to fix that, because a very good power play would have taken care of this.

Jim Hiller
On successfully overturning two goals and the influence of his video coaches on the decision
The rule is very interpretive. I don’t even bother looking at the rule book, Sam[son Lee] knows it like the back of his hand and he’s going to spend some time, he’s thinking of four or five different things amongst the rule. Again, I don’t even know the rule completely, it’s a good thing I don’t. There’s a lot to weigh and then there’s arbitrary. Did they call it a goal on the ice, that has an effect, or was it not a goal on the ice. I know Cole [Lussier] supports him, they work as a team and probably the most important contribution from the coaching staff at least, that’s for sure, was those two.

On if he was more upset with eight penalties or happy with eight successful kills
The penalties, I’m disappointed that we put ourselves in a position to take eight penalties, you know what I mean? So, it’s not the penalties so much, it’s how we played and clearly how we approached the game. That’s what I’m most disappointed in.

On what he specifically didn’t like in his team’s game tonight
We turned the puck over, incredibly. In the second period, they had seven Grade-A chances off seven of our turnovers, so that’s not good. That’s just not managing the puck. That’s not giving yourself a chance. Other teams make good plays and they’ve made some nice plays too at different times where you know, good play, you’re trying your best, but they spin off you, make a sauce pass, that’s a good play. But it was the times that we just gave them the puck. Changing, bad changes, you guys saw it, second period it was hard to watch and we just couldn’t get a hold of ourselves. I would say this though, I would have to say this, I think Kopi, particularly in the third period in the faceoff circle, and even at 5-on-5, hopefully settled us down a little bit from what was really a lousy second period.

On Darcy Kuemper’s play tonight and the rock he’s been for the team this season
The goaltender in hockey, people would tell you, is probably the most important position. Maybe not the most important player, it’s the most important position because one guy doesn’t play all the minutes. So, you need that. You need it on nights particularly when you don’t have your best as a group of forwards and defensemen and that was tonight. We relied on him way too much but he was there and he looked good doing it. I think that’s the other part. When you look at goalie and he makes all those saves and sometimes he’s all over. He just looked good doing it, that’s a pretty good compliment.

On the importance of defenseman Mikey Anderson, who played 11:46 on the penalty kill
Yeah, he was clean, I don’t recall off the top my head him having any turnovers as far as contributing that way. He was really good and he has been for a long time, but the problem with all those penalties is the other guys, some of the D and a lot of the forwards, I thought Sammy’s line was really good again tonight and they don’t hardly get to play because you’ve got the penalty killers out there, so it just really disrupts the whole thing. So, I wish we would have played better, we didn’t, but guess what, we got the two points. We dug in when we needed and Kuemps held our ground.

On the element of luck in a game like tonight
Without a doubt, but I also think there’s been nights when luck wasn’t on our side, and that is hockey. There’s a lot of random things that happen in a hockey game. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it goes against you, but you have to make sure you try to keep your composure and play through those things because when you feel like you’re unlucky or you’re lucky and you’re getting the bounces, you can play a different style of game and it doesn’t work either. I think with hockey, the focus and the mental discipline is equally as important as all the physical skills and the physicality, speed and all the stuff that’s happening. The focus, the discipline, mental discipline, man, that’s the hardest thing.

Notes –
• Center Phillip Danault (1-0=1) scored his sixth goal of the season, extending his home point streak against the Islanders to a fifth game (4-2=6), dating back to Dec. 3, 2019.
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) scored his 15th goal of the season, the first shorthanded goal of his career. With the goal, Byfield extends his career-best goal streak to fourth game (4-0=4), dating back to March 5, 2025.
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (1-0=1) scored his fourth goal of the season and 23rd point (4-19=23) of the campaign. The tally marks his fififth career goal against the Islanders, and third goal against them on home ice. Tonight marked the third plus-4 outing in Gavrikov’s career.
• Defenseman Drew Doughty (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the campaign. The tally stood as the third short-handed goal of his career, tying Mark Hardy for the third-most by a blueliner in Kings history.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) recorded his 36th assist of the season, the 475th primary assist of his career, breaking a tie with Vincent Damphousse (474 A1) for sole possession of the 35th most in NHL history.
• Kopitar’s nine career home assists against the Islanders ties Luc Robitaille and Bernie Nicholls for the fififth-most in franchise history.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence (0-1=1) tallied his 18th assist of the season, his second assist against the Islanders in his career. Spence’s 11 assists and 12 points (1-11=12) recorded at home this season tie his career high in both categories, set in 37 home games played last season.
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) recorded his 16th assist of the season for his 29th point overall, marking him one point shy of recording his second-consecutive 30-point season (31-26=57; 2023-24), and his third such season as a member of the Kings overall. This is his third assist at home against the Islanders in his Kings career.
• Forward Warren Foegele (0-1=1) picked up his 18th assist of the season and is now one point shy of reaching 200 points (98-101=199) in his career. Foegele’s plus-26 rating leads all Kings skaters this season and trails only Florida’s Gustav Forsling (+31) for the most amongst all 2014 NHL Draftees this season.
• Forward Andrei Kuzmenko recorded a new single-game career high in blocked shots with three.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside 33 of the Islanders’ 34 shots on goal to improve his record to 20-8-7. Kuemper reaches the 20-win mark for the fourth time in his career, and the victory tonight stood as his 30th win overall as a member of the Kings.
• Kuemper became the fourth goaltender on a new team this season to reach the 20-win mark, joining Logan Thompson (28 w/ WSH), Kevin Lankinen (22 w/ VAN) and Jacob Markstrom (22 w/ NJD).
• The Kings successfully killed eight penalties in tonight’s victory, the most in the NHL this season. Since the NHL began tracking in 1977-78, tonight’s contest marks the 18th time in League history that a club has killed eight or more penalties while scoring two shorthanded goals, and the first to do so the New York Rangers who did so on Nov. 30, 2019 at New Jersey.

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