PRE-SEASON FINAL – Kings 4, Bruins 1 – Byfield, Kempe, Fiala, Hiller

The LA Kings improved their preseason record to 4-0-1 with a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night at the Videotron Center in Quebec City.

The first half ended goalless. Overall, the Kings outscored the Bruins 11-2, with their best chances coming in the final five minutes. After quite a bit of feeling, Los Angeles increased the intensity towards the end of the pitch and had their best chance through a drive through the slot by Adrian Kempe past Anze Kopitar, which was saved by former Kings goalkeeper Joonas Korpisalo.

After more than 30 minutes without a goal, the teams scored three goals in exactly 30 seconds, giving the Kings a 2-1 lead.

First, the tandem of Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield managed to fend off the onslaught and open the scoring. Fiala moved the puck quickly down the left wing, creating a 2-on-1 rush. From the left side, he played a pass through the slot to Byfield, who hammered the one-timer past Korpisalo for the game’s first goal.

Just 24 seconds later, the Kings doubled their lead when Byfield scored his second goal of the game. Fiala fed Joel Edmundson on the left and although his shot was blocked in front, Byfield won a battle in front of the net and parried the rebound from close range for his second goal of the game, with Fiala picking up his second assist on the net on the play.

The Bruins essentially tied the score after the ensuing faceoff, making the score 2-1 before the second intermission. Boston moved the puck efficiently through the neutral zone, with forward Patrick Brown separating the Kings defensemen from the rush. Brown shot from the slot and beat Kings goaltender David Rittich cleanly with a wrist shot, cutting the Kings’ lead to 2-1.

Early in the third period, the Kings scored a shorthanded goal to pull away by two points. In a reversal of their roles over the weekend in Ontario, this time it was Anze Kopitar who led the rush before sending linemate Adrian Kempe through the slot for a one-timer in transition, which Kempe buried with his second for a 3-1 lead Goal of the exhibition season.

Byfield completed the hat trick midway through the third period as the Kings took a 4-1 lead. Forward Trevor Moore, stationed in the corner, shot a puck toward the net while Byfield darted through the slot, got a stick on the pass and flicked it past Korpisalo for his third goal of the game.

After today’s game, hear from Byfield, Kempe, Fiala and head coach Jim Hiller.

Quinton Byfield

Kevin Fiala
Watching Quinton Byfield control the game offensively tonight
Yes, it was a good game and you could tell that we felt connected, Foegs too, we had a good game. It’s a lot of fun to see (Quinton) dominate, like you said, he’s using his big body and skill now. That’s why I love watching him make plays and just be brave.

Looking for a home on line with Byfield and Foegele
I love playing with both of these guys. It’s not my decision, but I feel like everyone wants to play with the same line all season. It’s okay to move in the interest of the team, sometimes something doesn’t work, but as you can see now it works, so I don’t think there will be any changes.

Tonight’s game is the first time everyone has played together this preseason
It’s great to play with the (full) team, see how good we are, they also have their own team so to speak. Before the season you never know how we will do, so it’s great to see a good team. A good team won today and we just have to keep going.

Adrian Kempe
Anze Kopitar returned the favor with this underhanded 2-on-1 win on Saturday
Yes, it was good. Usually it’s Kopi who finds me, but last game it was the other way around. PK was good, aggressive, we had a few chances tonight, not just us but a few other guys too. Odd-man rushes, which is fun when you’re on the other side. It was a good pass (from Kopitar), I was just trying to find the open goal.

About the general aggressiveness of the penalty shootout
System-wise it’s pretty similar to last year, just a little more aggressive. I think it’s a little easier to adapt to that part than it was maybe last year, a whole new PK pre-control and everything. So I think it’s pretty natural, and I can only speak for myself, but being more aggressive in the D-zone, on the other side of it, you hate it when other teams just come at you because you it hasn’t done much time. There will be times where we make mistakes, but as long as we stay aggressive and do everything together, I think it will work out well.

On wearing the “A” in Drew Doughty’s absence
I think I said this last year, it obviously means a lot to me to carry a letter. Whether I have it or not, I try to play the same way, be loud on the ice, talk to all the guys and help as much as I can. As I said, it’s nice to see that the coaches and players trust me in this area. It’s a beautiful thing and feels good.

Jim Hiller
About Quinton Byfield’s performance tonight
He played well. But he played well. I guess you could say he’s done (tonight). The second goal came just in front of the goal, the third goal went straight through, the first goal was really nice, great game from Kevin. He played like that, I think to me he played like that since the beginning of camp. Maybe he didn’t score three goals, I guess that will be part of the story, but he just plays. He just plays and I don’t think he did anything extraordinary tonight, he just played his game.

About the development of the penalty shootout in the preseason
We’re still working on it because we’ve given up a bit too. They missed some chances in tight situations where we might have missed tasks, so we’re still working on that, but you can definitely see that we’re more on guard and pushing. If you do that, you may give up some opportunities and some good opportunities, but you will also create opportunities. If you’re on your guard you’ll get some chances in the penalty shootout and you’ll see that.

About what he enjoyed most tonight and throughout the preseason
I think what I probably like best is that it’s just a sequel. Going back to day one, we figured it out, we were focused, we played hard and we think we understand our style of play better the further we get here. I think from our side you wouldn’t see that as much, we talk to the players about certain things we want to see and we see that more often. I just think it was a continuation of the way we play and we like the way we play.

About the crowd and the atmosphere in the building tonight
It was great. I mean, it really started with the Patrice ceremony and the nice ovation, I think multiple ovations, that he got from the audience. I thought that brought a lot of energy to the building early on. I don’t know what the shots were, there wasn’t much going on in the first third, but the crowd stayed tuned and saw some really nice goals. I think the building really lit up on some of those 2-on-1 goals.

The Kings are scheduled to practice tomorrow at 11 a.m. at the Videotron Center in Quebec City.