The LA Kings began a short roadtrip with two points, as they skated to a 4-2 victory over the Utah Mammoth on Monday evening at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
The Kings opened the scoring just shy of eight minutes into the game, as they made a great play in transition to get on the scoreboard. Forward Kevin Fiala threaded a pass to forward Adrian Kempe, who made a nice move around his defenseman and another around Utah goaltender Karol Vejmelka to the backhand and in for his tenth goal of the season, tying him with Fiala for the team lead in goals on the season.
Just over two minutes later, the Kings doubled their lead through forward Joel Armia. Fiala was the facilitator once again, as he rounded his own net and hit Armia with a terrific stretch pass to the far blueline, springing the Finnish winger in alone on Vejmelka. Armia picked his spot and scored high on the blocker side for his sixth goal of the season, putting the visitors ahead 2-0 midway through the opening period.
Just 31 seconds into the second period, Utah got on the board with a power-play goal from forward Dylan Guenther. Off a Kings penalty that carried over from the first period, Guenther, stationed at the center point, one-timed a low-to-high feed from forward Clayton Keller through a maze of traffic in front and into the back of the net for his 11th goal of the season, cutting the Los Angeles advantage to 2-1.
Early in the third period, the Kings found an important insurance goal from forward Anze Kopitar to restore the two-goal advantage. Coming off a good shift in the offensive zone for the Kings, Kopitar drove the net and got a backhanded rebound off, which was blocked, but he buried his first ever goal at Delta Center on the second effort. Kempe collected the primary assist on the play, giving him a multi-point game.
Utah pulled a goal back with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation to make it a 3-2 game. Forward Nick Schmaltz moved his way down the right wing and found forward Clayton Keller in the slot. Keller pulled the puck onto his backhand and snapped a shot, high on the blocker side, past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper and in for his 11th goal of the season, bringing it back to a one-goal game.
Armia picked the empty net late in regulation from his own zone, making it a multi-goal game and a 4-2 Kings win.
Hear from Fiala, Kempe and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s victory.
