The LA Kings clinched a third straight win with a 4-2 lead over the St. Louis Blues at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night.
The Kings scored goals from Kevin Fiala, Carl Grundstrom, Adrian Kempe and Gabriel Vilardi in the win, with Fiala (1-1-2) and defenseman Drew Doughty (0-2-2) each scoring multiple points. Goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo recorded his first win in the Kings jersey with 24 saves between the whistles.
The hosts opened the scoring after just over three minutes through Grundstrom, who scored his first goal since returning from injury to put the kings on the board. Defender Matt Roy sent a shot through from the point, with Grundstrom deflected just outside the line for his seventh goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.
However, St. Louis equalized in the final two minutes of the opening period to go into the first break with a 1-1 score. Korpisalo made the first save on a shot by striker Pavel Buchnevich, but the rebound went past a Kings stick inserted straight into the slot to striker Robert Thomas, who buried the crucial goal.
A highlight reel game gave the Kings the lead with the only goal of the second period. Forward Quinton Byfield threw the puck high in the air, over everyone to force Kempe to break away. The Kings forward screened his defender to create some space and fired a high blocker, past a pokechecked Jordan Binnington to put the hosts back in front.
The Blues leveled the game midway through the third period with a goal shorthanded and leveled by two goals apiece. St. Louis forward Kasperi Kapanen played a pass in his own zone, ran the length of the ice on a breakaway and shot past Korpisalo on the glove side for his ninth goal of the season.
However, the Kings responded to the power play with the game-winning goal just under three minutes before the final buzzer. After being denied on his first try, Vilardi made a skillful move in tight quarters and deking with the backhand for the go-ahead goal. The marker was his third in as many games, extending the lead to 3-2.
Fiala ended the game within two minutes to play with an empty goal.
Hear from Korpisalo, Roy and head coach Todd McLellan after today’s win.
Joonas Korpisalo
Matt Roy
About the differences between playing with a left-footed partner and a right-footed partner
I’m not sure, [Gavrikov] and Durz are completely different players. Both bring different aspects to the game in a positive way. It was nice playing with Gav today, he seems to be a calm player in a good way, he’s always in position, he always does the right thing, he’s got a great racquet. He makes it easy to play with.
About partnering with Gavrikov, who is a “like-minded” player
Yes I think so. I’m still learning about him as a player but he wasn’t afraid to rush like I am and he’s also focused on defense. I think it was a nice addition out there and I’m excited to see what else he has.
At the comfort level of the group playing in one-goal games
Well I think we’re learning. We’ve kind of shown that in the past but I think if we move forward we’ll have some confidence and like I said we know we have to finish it and win the game so we’re going to do that.
Todd McLellan
On Joonas Korpisalo’s debut with the Kings tonight
I thought he looked very confident. It’s not easy playing with a new team, not understanding the calls or touches, what may or may not happen. I think part of goalkeeping is predictability and you get into a situation where you don’t really know the team at all. He made some really good saves, I’m thinking of the deflection in the second half, a slit shot behind our net. He figured out the penalty, where we rotate and the things we have to do, so he looked really good.
At the comfort level of the team playing in one-goal games
I think we’re comfortable. It would be nice not to be in that situation, but we feel comfortable on both sides. We think we can come back, we showed that and we think we can hold the lead. There is no such thing as perfect, we’ve been bitten a bit. I think our goalkeeping is solid, our Ds know what they need to do and our strikers do the job for the most part. Even if you want to win 5-0 every night, it’s probably good for us to get into those games once they’re over and you’re winning.
About the game of pairing Gavrikov – Roy tonight
I felt they both played solid games. They killed pieces when they had to kill pieces. I saw some offensive instincts with Gavrikov tonight where he stepped in and went to holes and created or kept alive some offensive plays, I’m told he has that in his game. On the other hand, we broke up a pretty good couple in Durzi and Roy. I think tonight we saw Durzi in a different position that he should be used to but isn’t and now he needs to retrieve a lot more and that needs to be polished up. As we try to tinker around, we help one and maybe hinder the other, but we want everyone to have flexibility so they can play in and out of the lineup.
To Gabe Vilardi, who influenced two straight games with high-profile plays for goals
Yes, and I’d even argue three games if you think about the game he made in Winnipeg. It’s not an easy thing, you have to have really good hands and while you’re doing everything you have to have a sense of what’s going on around you so that your awareness is still alive and you’re not just looking at the puck. He’s got these hands that they had in these gloves and they’ve been with our organization for a long time. He’ll be using them a lot more and he’ll look good doing it.
On special teams that make the difference late in the game
I think those are the games that we will see as we get closer to the end of the year. Tight checking, little space, hitting out of corners and in tight areas somehow, and we need to be able to play on both ends, with or without the puck. Then the special teams come into play. Obviously our penalty tonight did a really good job, our power play gave us the win but put us in a situation where we needed one so that was a little disappointing. Probably a combination game tonight.
Remarks –
– The decisive goal extended Gabriel Vilardi’s scoring streak to three games, marking his third three-goal streak of the season.
– Carl Grundstrom scored his seventh goal of the season. He has now three goals in his last two games against the Blues (2-0-2, 10/31/2022).
– Adrian Kempe scored his 29th goal of the year. He is now one goal away from registering a 30-goal season for the first time in his career. The last Kings skater to record a 30-goal season was Ziggy Palffy (3x, 2000-01 to 2002-03).
– Kevin Fiala (1-1-2) registered his 20th multipoint game of the campaign. He is the first Kings skater to record 20 multi-point games in his first season with the Kings since Craig Conroy (20 GP in 2005-06).
– Drew Doughty (0-2-2) picked up his 40th and 41st points of the season for his ninth multi-assist effort of the year and also marked the eighth 40-point season of his career.
– Doughty also ran in his 1.077. Play as the LA King and tie Luc Robitaille for the 4th most played games in franchise history.
– Matt Roy recorded his 12th assist and 21st point of the season, matching his career high in a season previously set in the 2021-22 season (2-19-21).
– Quinton Byfield extended his assist and points streak (0-3-3) to three games of his career. Viktor Arvidsson and Rasmus Kupari also counted helpers.
– Joonas Korpisalo stopped 24 of 26 shots in his LA Kings debut while also becoming the second Finnish-born goaltender to start for the LA Kings – Markus Mattsson (38 GP).
The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Toyota Sports Performance Center.