FINAL – Kings 5, Oilers 0 – Kempe, Anderson, Hiller

The LA Kings secured home-ice advantage in Round 1 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 5-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday evening at Rogers Place in Alberta.

The Kings opened the scoring inside the first three minutes of the game as forward Warren Foegele found the back of the net against his former team. Shortly after a Kings power play expired, a slap shot from forward Phillip Danault took a big kick off the endboards, directly to Foegele besides the net, where he buried his 23rd goal of the season, his second against Edmonton, for the early lead.

Midway through the opening frame, the Kings made it three straight games with a power-play goal, opening up a 2-0 lead. Forward Adrian Kempe, stationed at the center point, sent a wrist shot towards the net, with forward Quinton Byfield getting a deflection on the way through, sending it past Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard. Byfield extended his goalscoring streak to four with his 23rd tally of the season.

Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov got in on the scoring late in the opening period, sending the game into the first intermission with a three-goal advantage for the Kings. Moore was the facilitator, as he fed the puck into the slot, with Gavrikov activating in transition. The Russian blueliner pulled the puck onto his forehand and beat Pickard on the glove side for his fifth goal of the season and a 3-0 lead through 20 minutes.

The visitors capitalized on the power play for the second time, scoring the only goal in a penalty-filled second period. Kempe was once again the facilitator from the middle of the ice, feeding the puck to his right to forward Kevin Fiala in the right-hand circle, where he unloaded a one timer, past Pickard and in. Fiala reached the 35-goal mark for the first time in his career on the play, putting the Kings ahead 4-0 through 40 minutes.

The third period saw just one goal as well, with the Kings finding the back of the net to make it 5-0. Kempe and forward Anze Kopitar went down on a 2-on-1 rush, attacking into the offensive zone. Kopitar made the dish, finding Kempe through the slot and the winger buried his 34th goal of the season for a 5-0 advantage and his third point of the game.

Hear from Kempe, defenseman Mikey Anderson and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Adrian Kempe

Mikey Anderson
On the difficulties in assessing a game like that with all that happened
Yeah, it’s hard. There just wasn’t a lot of flow, even from the start, I don’t know what we took, maybe four in the first and they had three or four too. So, right away you lose half the team almost. I guess both teams from guys not going, but the way it goes and happy with the result.

On the cross check to the back of Quinton Byfield’s head in the second period
I mean, obviously no one likes it, especially the way the game’s going. But it’s not for us to talk about.

On what this win means for the Kings, securing home-ice advantage in Round 1
Yeah, it’s a big accomplishment. Obviously, we haven’t had it yet, so it’s fun. It’s a good push. Obviously, you want to get first, everyone does, but we’re happy with what we’ve done so far and it’s a good step. Now we just keep plugging along and taking the next one.

On the feeling surrounding the team heading into a fourth series with Edmonton
I think where we’re at now, I think everyone’s very confident with the group. Obviously, we’ve talked about it a lot this year, there’s been good additions that have added a lot on the ice, but more importantly, in the room. As a group, it feels super tight, maybe the closest since I’ve been here, which is fun. Guys enjoy being at the rink, playing for each other. It’s a fun time of year to be doing it and guys are feeling good about our game.

Jim Hiller
On his thoughts on Darnell Nurse’s major penalty
It doesn’t matter how I saw it.

On his assessment of a game like that with so much happening
Yeah, somebody would have to go back and tell me if there was that many minor penalties and not many coincidentals, a lot for people who went in the box. So, there wasn’t a lot of 5-on-5 time, I guess in third period, but by that time, the rhythm of the game was difficult for a lot of players. We didn’t have a lot of guys who got to play early.

On if the gameflow impacted Samuel Helenius, or if anything else limited his minutes
No, that’s all. He got out there and probably played five of the last 11 minuets, but he didn’t play a whole lot before that. Good teammate, just sitting there ready to go, and he was ready when we needed him.

On the decision to replace Darcy Kuemper with a 5-0 score
It was just late in the game. We thought once we got to five that we were probably pretty comfortable and Ritter’s going to play tomorrow, hasn’t played in a long time, chance to get him a few pucks before he goes in there tomorrow with the back to back. It kind of served both purposes, getting him warmed up a little bit and got Darcy some rest.

On the message to the team in a game that “deteriorates” like it did in the second
Just play hockey. It’s a hockey game. Team that we’re going to play in the playoffs. Two teams out there playing hockey, gets a little physical. It’s going to be physical in the playoffs. We want to make sure we don’t overreact and play our game.

On securing home-ice advantage with tonight’s win
Yeah, I mean it feels good. These guys have battled. I remember getting together and talking about some things, making some changes and they’ve battled pretty hard. The part that I like is they’ve battled this hard but they’ve got more in them. That’s the most important part of the night.

Hiller added that he did not have a further update on forward Quinton Byfield, beyond the update provided by the team that he did not return with an upper-body injury.

Notes –
• Forward Adrian Kempe (1-2=3) contributed two power play assists, his 36th and 37th helpers of the year, before burying his 34th goal of the year in the final frame (34-37=71). With his second three-point effort of the season, Kempe clinches his second consecutive 70-point season (28-47=75 in 2023-24).
• Kempe now has six helpers and seven points (1-6=7) over his last three consecutive appearances, dating back to April 10 vs. Anaheim.
• With the first of three Kings tallies in the opening stanza, winger Warren Foegele (1-1=2) increased his career-high in goals this season with his 23rd of the year before recording his 22nd assist of the campaign.
• Foegele now has five points (2-3=5) in four appearances against his former team as a member of the Kings this year. Per NHL PR, the only players with more tallies in their first season with the Kings over the past 20 years are Phillip Danault in 2021-22 (27) and Pavol Demitra in 2005-06 (25).
• Center Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) followed Foegele with his 23rd goal of the year, his third power play strike of the campaign and second in the past four calendar days. In doing so, Byfield extended his goal- and point-streaks to a fourth game (4-3=7), dating back to April 7 against Seattle.
• Following his six-game goal-streak earlier this year (6-0=0 from March 5-15), Byfield is just the fifth Kings skater to record multiple goal-streaks of at least four games in length in a single season before turning 23 years old, and is the first to accomplish the feat in nearly four decades. Byfield, whose 23rd birthday is still four months away, is joined on that list by Luc Robitaille (2x in 1987-88; 2x in 1986-87), Jimmy Carson (3x in 1987-88) Bernie Nicholls (2x in 1984-85; 2x in 1982-83), and Dave Taylor (2x in 1979-80; 3x in 1978-79).
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (1-0=1) found the back of the net for the fifth time this season and needs a pair of points (5-23=28) to clinch his second career 30-point campaign (5-28=33 in 2021-22 with CBJ).
• Winger Kevin Fiala (1-1=2) notched his 23rd assist of the campaign before firing home his team-leading 35th goal of the season in the middle frame. Fiala secures his third straight multi-point effort (5-1=6) with his 23rd and 24th power play points of the year (14-10=24), the most among all Kings skaters.
• Per NHL PR, Fiala (35G) ties Timo Meier (35 in 2021-22 and Nico Hischier (35 in 2024-25) for the second most goals in a single season by a Swiss player. Meier has the most with 40 in 2022-23.
• Forward Trevor Moore (0-2=2) notched his 21st and 22nd assists of the year (18-22=40) and has now secured his third career 40-point season (31-26=57 in 2023- 24 and 17-31=48 in 2021-22).
• Center Phillip Danault (0-1=1) recorded the 34th helper of his campaign on Foegele’s game-opener. The assist marked Danault’s 152nd even-strength point (61- 91=152) as a member of the Kings, breaking a tie with Derek Armstrong (44-107=151) and Glen Murray (68-83=151) and matching Jari Kurri (57-95=152) for the 33rd most even-strength points in Kings history.
• Forward Anze Kopitar (0-2=2) picked up his team-leading 45th and 46th assists of the campaign, extending his point-streak to a third game (2-3=5), dating back to April 10 against Anaheim.
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) picked up his 18th assist of the campaign, further bolstering his single-season career highs in assists and points (6-18=24).
• The Kings drew 53:00 penalties in minutes (PIM) this evening, their most penalties drawn in minutes since March 20, 2024 vs. Minnesota (79 PIM), the only other time in the past decade that the Kings’ opponent has taken 53:00 PIM or more in a regular season contest.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside all 16 of Edmonton’s shots faced in 48:13 of time-on-ice (TOI), while David Rittich made five saves in the remaining 11:10 to split the shutout.
• Tonight’s game marked the Kings’ second consecutive shutout of the Edmonton Oilers (3-0 on April 5) and their 47th win of the year, tying for the second most wins in a season behind only 2015-16 (48).

The Kings are not scheduled to hold a morning skate tomorrow and will return to the ice tomorrow evening against the Seattle Kraken at 7 PM at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, WA.