The LA Kings made it consecutive victories as they skated past the St. Louis Blues by a 5-4 final in the shootout on Saturday evening at Enterprise Center. <\/p>\n
The Kings scored the only goal of the first period as forward Taylor Ward found the back of the net for the second straight game. Forwards Jeff Malott and Samuel Helenius forced a turnover along the wall and quickly turned the puck around in transition. Malott made a nice move to the inside and fed Ward in the slot, where he used a quick release to get his shot on net, past St. Louis goaltender Joel Hofer, for a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes of play. <\/p>\n
Just 71 seconds into the second period, the Kings doubled their advantage as defenseman Brian Dumoulin scored his first goal with the organization. Forward Alex Laferriere rounded the net and banked a pass off the boards to Dumoulin at the center point, where he unloaded a one-timer, through a screen in front by forward Corey Perry, and into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead. <\/p>\n
The Blues answered back just over a minute later, however, with St. Louis forward Dalibor Dvorsky pulling the hosts back to within a goal. Attacking in transition, Dvorsky scored on a very similar play to Ward\u2019s goal in the first period, as he gained inside positioning and used a quick release to rip a shot high on the glove side, past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper and in for his ninth goal of the season. <\/p>\n
Skating on their third power play of the game, the Blues tied the game at two goals apiece via former Kings forward Brayden Schenn. St. Louis attacked off the rush, making two good passes to create space, before forward Pavel Buchnevich fed Schenn in the slot, where he buried from close range to tie the game 2-2 with his tenth tally of the season. <\/p>\n
St. Louis took its first lead of the evening less than two minutes later via an individual effort from forward Jordan Kyrou. Working down the right wing, Kyrou used his speed to get around Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson before he worked his way around the net and scored on a wraparound, his tenth goal of the season, giving the Blues their first lead of the game midway through the second period.<\/p>\n
The visitors were able to stop the bleeding shortly after Kyrou\u2019s goal, as Laferriere got one back to tie the game at three. Perry collected the puck below the goal line and used a shifty move to work the puck to Laferriere at the netfront, where he buried at the near post for his second goal in as many games in this building and a 3-3 score. <\/p>\n
In his first game back from an upper-body injury, forward Trevor Moore scored a massive goal midway through the third period to put the Kings back in front. After defenseman Brandt Clarke got a shot through from the right point, which was stopped, Moore was first to the rebound as he got it across the line for his sixth goal of the season and a 4-3 lead for the visitors. <\/p>\n
With Hofer on the bench for the extra attacker, the Blues tied the game late to force overtime. A shot from defenseman Justin Faulk was kicked out by Kuemper, but the rebound went directly to Kyrou, who buried it first time, tying the game at four and forcing things into the extra session.<\/p>\n
After overtime came and went without a goal, the Kings earned the second point via the shootout. In Round 4, Moore scored in the first round before Kuemper made his third save to seal the victory, 5-4 the final.<\/p>\n
Hear from Moore, Laferriere and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight\u2019s game. <\/p>\n
Trevor Moore<\/p>\n
Alex Laferriere
On his takeaways from tonight\u2019s game
Really resilient from our group, I thought. Giving up three goals in the second there and then being able to bounce back like that was huge. You look at our group, you look at Mooresie, the way he came back tonight was huge for us, he played unbelievable all night and was able to get a huge goal for us. I think that just goes to show the identity of our team and that everyone\u2019s ready to go every single night.<\/p>\n
On what the Kings did to halt the momentum at 3-2 and push back the other way
I think we just simplified it, right from the start. Right when they scored that third goal, we just got it in and we were able to win pucks back and just get it towards the net. I think we dominated them from that point on. I think we just kind of played a little bit more Kings hockey than we did at the start. <\/p>\n
On his goal and the play Corey Perry made to set him up
Perrs just made an unbelievable play. He\u2019s one of the best netfront guys in the league. Anytime you can get him the puck down low and behind their goal line, it\u2019s going to create positive stuff I just tried to get open and looked like he had eyes in the back of his head there, and kind of just slung it towards me and was able to sneak it in.<\/p>\n
On the opportunity that this trip presents for the Kings to string wins together
Yeah, it\u2019s huge. We\u2019ve been good on the road this year and I think it\u2019s created a lot of momentum for us as a team. Being able to get wins here in tough buildings is going to be huge for us. We\u2019re at a point in the in the year where every point is pivotal, I think it\u2019s huge for us. <\/p>\n
Jim Hiller
On having Trevor Moore back and the performance he gave the team tonight
Close to 20 minutes of ice time. Mooresie is such a reliable, dependable player, has been for a long time for the franchise. We clearly missed him, but he had to get healthy and you can just see how important he is to the team. He said it took him<\/p>\n
On his takeaways from tonight\u2019s game
We started good. Second period, the three goals in a short amount of time was really disappointing, when they made mistakes, obviously. So, when you make a mistake and it goes in, you want to hold it. We weren\u2019t able to do that and gave them three, but I really liked the pushback after that, to tie it was important. I thought the third period was our best period. They scored a big one late, but the third period was good, we had other chances. It was nice to see the one go in, at least, to get us back ahead.<\/p>\n
On what he felt the team was able to do at 3-2 to push the game back the other way
Everybody was disappointed. The bench was pissed off, as we should have been. We just did a few things that were uncharacteristic of us. Frankly, if we play that style and it\u2019s going the other way, we have a hard time outscoring those mistakes, so we have to play it pretty, clean, or else we\u2019re going to have a tough time. We got four tonight, so that\u2019s excellent, but we don\u2019t get four on a lot of nights. The guys cleaned it up. They were mad, they cleaned it up and again, proud of the effort in the third to come out and play our best. <\/p>\n
On seeing Brandt Clarke in after the hit on Corey Perry
You love to see it, right? I think Sammy Helenius has been showing us that too and back at it again tonight for Sammy. To see Clarkie jump in there, this is what Clarkie is. He\u2019s an ultra-competitive player and that shows in a lot of different areas on the ice. That was just another example of it.<\/p>\n
On seeing Brian Dumoulin get his first goal of the season tonight
Yeah, we were all happy for Dumo, for sure. It was just a simple indirect and again, Corey Perry standing in front of the goalie, but it was a good shot. It was a really good shot, up high in the net. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Notes \u2013
\u2013 Forward Alex Laferriere (1-1=2) picked up his 11th assist of the season before scoring his 13th goal of the year for his second multi-point outing of the season. In doing so, he doubles his totals (2-2=4) at Enterprise Center through five career visits to the building.
\u2013 Forward Taylor Ward (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the season tonight, the second consecutive game in which the 27-year-old has found the back of the net (1-0=1 on Jan. 20 v. NYR).
\u2013 Defenseman Brian Dumoulin (1-0=1) scored his first goal as a member of the Kings. The native of Biddeford, Maine, becomes the 25th American defenseman to score a regular season goal for the franchise.
\u2013 Forward Trevor Moore (1-0=1) scored his sixth of the season to mark his 100th career NHL goal. The Thousand Oaks, Calif., native joins Auston Matthews (426 G), Jason Zucker (230 G), and Jason Robertson (198 G) as the fourth California-born player to reach the century mark. Moore later scored the game-deciding goal to secure the Kings\u2019 fourth shootout victory of the season, tied for the fourth most among all NHL teams.
\u2013 Forward Jeff Malott (0-1=1) picked up his third assist of the season on Ward\u2019s goal, marking the first time that the native of Burlington, Ontario, has found the scoresheet in consecutive contests (0-1=1 on Jan. 20 v. NYR) in his career.
\u2013 Forward Samuel Helenius (0-1=1) recorded his second helper of the campaign on Ward\u2019s game-opener, his second career instance with points in consecutive games played (0-1=1 on Jan. 20 v. NYR), joining a back-to-back span (1-1=2) from March 22 \u2013 23, 2025.
\u2013 Forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) collected his team-leading 22nd assist of the season with a secondary helper on Dumoulin\u2019s strike and extends his point streak to a third game (2-1=3), dating back to Jan. 17 in Anaheim. The 29-year-old winger has three points (2-1=3) through two visits to St. Louis this season and now has 19 points (11-8=19) in 31 career games played against the Blues, including six points (3-3=6) in his last many visits to Enterprise Center, dating back to Oct. 31, 2022.
\u2013 Forward Corey Perry (0-1=1) registered his 15th helper in 2025-26 with the primary set-up on Laferriere\u2019s game-tying tally. The 40-year-old ties Anze Kopitar (15 A) for fifth-most assists among team skaters this season. Perry played in his 1,431st career regular season NHL game this evening, tying Luc Robitaille (1,431 GP) and Scott Mellanby (1,431 GP) for the 35th most games played in League history.
\u2013 Defenseman Mikey Anderson (0-1=1) notched his seventh assist of the year on Laferriere\u2019s goal. Anderson\u2019s 72 career assists tie Brian Benning (72 A) for the 26th most by a defenseman in Kings history.
\u2013 Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) recorded his 19th assist of the season on Moore\u2019s goal, his sixth point (1-5=6) in his last seven games, dating back to Saturday, Jan. 10, in Edmonton. Clarke continues to lead all Kings blueliners in both assists and points (6-19=25) and now ties Quinton Byfield (19 A) for second most assists among Kings skaters this season behind Adrian Kempe (22 A).
\u2013 Forward Joel Armia (0-1=1) notched his ninth assist of the season, his 19th point as a member of the Kings (10-9=19). In doing so, the native of Pori, Finland, breaks a tie with Marko Tuomainen (9-9=18) for sole possession of 10th most by a skater of Finnish nationality in franchise history.
\u2013 Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 25 saves in regulation and overtime and turned aside two of three shootout attempts to earn his 13th victory of the campaign and 54th career win as a member of the LA Kings, tying Gary Edwards (54 W) for eighth most in franchise history.<\/p>\n
The Kings are not scheduled to practice tomorrow and will return to the ice on Monday, January 26 for morning skate in Columbus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Kings made it consecutive victories as they skated past the St. Louis Blues by a 5-4…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-436714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}