The LA Kings made it seven of eight points so far on their current roadtrip, as they skated to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday evening at United Center.

Chicago scored the lone goal from the first period as forward Connor Bedard was credited with his third of the season to put the hosts ahead 1-0. Forward Ilya Mikheyev’s pass through the slot was blocked down by defenseman Drew Doughty, but it went right back to him and his second effort towards the net deflected off Bedard’s stick, off the post, off the back of goaltender Anton Forsberg’s skate and in for a wonky goal that opened the scoring.

Early in the second period, forward Alex Laferriere buried the third of three Grade-A opportunities to pull the Kings level. On his instance, Laferriere took a feed from forward Corey Perry in the neutral zone and the pair moved in on a 2-on-1 rush across the offensive blueline. Laferriere kept the puck himself and buried a shot, inside the near post, past Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom for a tie game 3:30 into the middle stanza.

Just shy of 90 seconds later, the Kings took their first lead of the game as forward Kevin Fiala scored on an impressive individual effort. Fiala won a battle at the defensive blueline and took a pass from defenseman Brandt Clarke to create a partial breakaway. Fiala exercised patience and rounded the net before finishing with a wraparound on the forehand to put the visitors ahead 2-1.

Inside the final minutes of play, forward Joel Armia added an insurance goal as he hit the empty net from about one foot out to secure the two points. Forward Adrian Kempe and defenseman Joel Edmundson collected the assists on the play.

Hear from Edmundson, forward Phillip Danault and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.

Phillip Danault

Joel Edmundson
On finally getting that first regulation win of the season
Yeah, it’s about time. I thought every game was just going to go to overtime this year. Definitely feels nice, especially on the road.

On what changed for the Kings between the first and second periods
Sometimes with the back-to-back, some travel, it takes a little bit. We definitely weren’t happy with our first period, lots of turnovers, just wasn’t Kings hockey. But, we were still in the game thanks to Forsy, so we came out firing in the second.

On a cleaner defensive showings of late, the Nashville game aside
Our systems, not every team plays it and we’ve got some new guys in the locker room, so it takes time to adjust, but we’ ve found our groove now. It’s always nice to get on the road and play some good games.

On collecting three points from the back-to-back this weekend
Those are two good hockey teams and three of four points on the road, it’s pretty good. Obviously, we would have liked to win in Nashville but you can’t win them all. That’s definitely something we’re going to build on and the trip’s not finished yet. We have to go play San Jose and they’re playing good hockey.

Jim Hiller
On an update on forward Warren Foegele, who left the game in the first period
Only kind of what you guys know. He’ll get looked at a little closer tomorrow, couldn’t come back tonight We’ll probably have an update tomorrow or probably the following day, when we’re in San Jose.

On if last season’s 11/7 experience helped in going with 11 forwards for most of the game
It can be a little more chaotic on the bench but those guys have been through it. They beared with me different times, flipping the lines around, so we were good there. It ended up being pretty seamless.

On if he felt tonight was a “character win” for the team
Well, I sure thought so. I mean, the first period, we didn’t play any good at all. They played really well, so we had to reevaluate if the back-to-backs were worth it for us and I think we answered that in the final 40 minutes.

On what changed for the Kings between the first and second periods
We were playing underneath everything in the first 20 minutes and trying to make plays under their 1-1-3 and it didn’t turn out very well. So, we just started to get long, started to skate on pucks and just really simplified it.

On better “connectivity” between Fiala, Byfield and Laferriere tonight
Yeah, I mean the greatest example was the second period, Laf rolled out of the corner, Q found that quiet spot, he hit him with the backhand and he got his one timer for a pretty good shot and save. So that, to me, was the best example. That’s what they were missing in Nashville, specifically, Laf had the same spot Q was on the other side of the ice looking for a pass where here he found the soft spot. So, yeah, better, better all three. Laf scores a big goal, and really had his best game of the season overall. If you look at the total body of work, the penalty kill, everything involved and then Kevin scores a world class goal on his own, there’s not many guys who can do that. It’s a great goal and an individual effort.

On finally getting a win in regulation
Oh, it felt good. That tells me, yeah, that’s a pretty good streak, I think it was four in a row and five of six [that went into overtime]. This one was just as stressful, just like those other ones, it’s never easy. But it was nice to get a regulation win.

Notes –
– Forward Alex Laferriere (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the campaign, his third point (2-1=3) of the Kings road trip, dating back to Oct. 21 in St. Louis. The 23-year-old has now scored five goals in seven career contests against Chicago.
– Winger Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season, his 10th goal and 22nd career point (10-12=22) against the Blackhawks through 29 games played against the Central Division foe.
– Forward Joel Armia (1-0=1) sealed tonight’s contest with an empty-net goal, his second tally of the season.
– Forward Corey Perry (0-1=1) recorded his first assist of the season, his third point in as many games (2-1=3), dating back to Oct. 23 in Dallas. Perry (40 years, 163 days) joins Harry Howell (0-3=3, Feb. 24 – March 1, 1973; 40 years, 63 days) as the only other skater in franchise history to establish a three-game point streak at 40 years of age or older.
– Center Phillip Danault (0-1=1) picked up his third assist of the season, his ninth assist and 17th point (8-9=17) through 20 appearances against the club that selected him 26th overall in the 2011 NHL Draft.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) tallied his fourth helper of the campaign and now has three points (0-3=3) in his last two games played after a multi-assist night yesterday in Nashville.
– With his team-leading eighth assist of the season, forward Adrian Kempe (0-1=1) extends his point streak (3-5=8) to a fifth game, dating back to Oct. 18 vs. Carolina, the eighth such streak of at least that length in his career. Kempe also extends his road point streak (5-5=10) to a sixth game, dating back to Oct. 11 in Winnipeg, the third stretch of six or more consecutive away games with a point in his career.
– Defenseman Joel Edmundson (0-1=1) earned his third assist of the season and has assists in consecutive games for the 11th time in his career. The secondary helper stands as his 98th career assist, now just two away from the century mark.
– Goaltender Anton Forsberg made 22 saves on 23 shots on goal to record his second win of the season and his second career win against his former club (March 28, 2024 w/ OTT).

Following the back-to-back, the Kings have a scheduled team day off in San Jose tomorrow, The team will return to the ice for morning skate on Tuesday, October 28 in San Jose.