FINAL – Kings 5, Wild 1 – Byfield, Lewis Hiller

The LA Kings scored five unanswered goals to hand the Minnesota Wild their second straight loss of the regular season by a 5-1 score on Tuesday night at the Xcel Energy Center.

Trevor Lewis scored twice in the win for the Kings, while Kevin Fiala found the back of the net against a former team for the second straight day and Quinton Byfield recorded his first goal of the year as well as an assist.

With the win, the Kings moved into sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division with an 8-3-3 mark and 19 points through 14 games.

LA also got two-assist nights from Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, and David Rittich had 23 of Minnesota’s 24 shots on goal to earn his fourth win of the campaign.

The Wild controlled play in the first period, putting the Kings on their heels with a 9-2 shot at the rim. LA won 12 of the 17 face-offs in the opening frame and was able to keep Minnesota off the board with six blocked shots while Rittich denied every chance that came his way.

Moments after LA successfully killed a tripping penalty on Brandt Clarke at 4:17 of the second, Zach Bogosian broke through for the Wild and gave the home team a 1-0 lead with a wrist shot that went through a screen and into top of the net at 7:31.

Minnesota got its third power play of the contest 11:22 into the second when Kyle Burroughs was whistled for holding, but the Kings killed the chance, as they did with the Wild’s first two man advantages.

It helped turn the tide for the visitors, who broke through and tied the game 1-1 at 14:30 of the second after Warren Foegele’s fifth goal of the season. The attack came on a scramble in front of the Minnesota net after an initial shot from Laferriere was stopped by goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson.

The Kings then took the lead for the first time when Fiala buried a shot from inside the left circle during LA’s first power play at 18:55. The former Wild forward’s seventh of the year came with assists from Laferriere and Anze Kopitar.

Lewis extended the lead to 3-1 at 7:39 of the third with his 100th career NHL goal. The tally was scored after Gustavsson dropped a rebound to the ice on an initial shot from Lewis and the veteran picked up his own rebound and put it in the net. Assists on the goal went to both Andre Lee and Tanner Jeannot, who helped keep an extended shift alive on the offensive end prior to the strike.

LA wasn’t done though as Byfield added at . 14:12 by redirecting a puck sent to him by Vladislav Gavrikov. The header went off the left post and in to give the Kings a 4-1 advantage.

Lewis tied the score two minutes later with an empty-netter at 16:14 for his third of the season. Trevor Moore recorded the second assist on both of the team’s final two goals for his first multi-point game of the season.

Gustavsson finished the contest with 23 saves in a losing effort for the Wild, who were held to an 0-for-4 night on the man advantage. Fiala’s power play goal in the second period capitalized on the team’s only power play of the game.

More on tonight’s win below from Byfield, Lewis and Kings head coach Jim Hiller –

Quinton Byfield
About how it felt to get his first goal of the season after many chances
Yes, I said I had the worst shooting percentage in the league by a goal. So I’ve had a lot of A’s. It’s honestly just on myself, maybe just, you know, grabbing a little too hard right now. I’ve had more breakouts, two-on-ones, stuff like that, you know, in practice I bury all of those and then come to the game, I don’t know. So just to get one there, a great pass by Gavrikov, it feels good to get it off the back and hopefully they’re starting to drop now.

About Trevor Lewis scoring his 100th career goal
Well, last game, you know, he could have got his 100th into the empty net and instead decided to send it. That’s just the type of guy that Lewey is, so to see him get his 100th goal and then 101 was something special and he’s a great guy in the dressing room and we’re happy to have him, to have that performance and to be there in the moment with him is. special and something to cherish.

On the mood of the team after two wins on a back-to-back
Yeah, I mean, back to back is obviously tough. The first period was definitely their period and we had to focus and start playing our game. But you know, two big wins on the road. It’s big for us and hopefully we can carry this momentum.

Trevor Lewis
About getting the win away from home and reaching his milestone
It’s great just to win. I think it was a great road trip for us. Early in the game we had to find our legs and kind of grind it out. And we found our feet and we played well the other two periods.

On the role the team’s penalty kick played in the victory
Yes, big kills always build momentum for your team. I think everybody’s coming up on the bench for them and we’ve done a pretty good job of that and finding our pressure points and all that kind of stuff. So we just have to keep at it.

On being in first place after back-to-back wins
Yes, it’s big. I mean, those points are always crucial and you always want to be in a playoff spot. I think we’ve just got to keep building and there’s still things we can get better at and we’ve just got to keep building on our game and keep going.

Jim Hiller
On the success of his team’s penalty kill, which significantly affected the game
Penalty kill, it’s been pretty good for a while now; and when I say pretty good, it’s not more frustrating as a power play when you don’t get set up and at least get some good looks and our penalty kill has done a good job of not letting them get set up. So it’s not just the fact that you don’t give up a goal, but you can get some momentum from that and that’s been an important part of the game for us.

On things that helped the team get going after a slow start
Well, I thought when Kaprisov got hurt and he had to go out, I thought maybe it took them a little time to get used to it and we started to get some legs. I don’t know if it was exactly that moment, but it kind of felt like that’s when we started to be able to push it a little bit.

Quinton Byfield scored his first goal of the season
He was ready. I think we all were. The boys were really excited about him on the bench. Obviously, he probably could have had three tonight, but he’ll take one, I’m sure, and I think they’ll start going in for him.

Played by Trevor Lewis who got his 100th goal
Lewey, you know what he just gives you what he has every night and he does so many little things, face-offs at opportune times, penalty kills, the leadership, the example he sets for our young players. We have a lot of young players right now, so to see him in this age league and still get out there and then hit milestones like that, everybody in that room is pretty happy for him.

His team is in first place after 10 of 14 games have come away
It’s a tough ride. I mean, I’m really proud of the team for this. And I think the important part is that we got great goaltending both nights. And you can’t get into two buildings like this with the journey unless you get some good gatekeeping to give us a chance. So that was probably the most important part of the trip. And then the guys finally just got it done. We were better in Nashville than we were tonight, but give our guys credit, they played pretty well in the second half of the game.

Notes –
• Forward Trevor Lewis (2-0=2) scored his second and third goals of the season for the 100th and 101st goals of his career. Lewis becomes the fourth American and 21st overall skater selected in the 2006 NHL Draft to reach the milestone.
• Lewis (101-129=230) becomes the second Utah-born skater in league history to reach 100 career goals. He joins fellow Salt Lake City native Steve Konowalchuk (171-225=396), who played 790 games with the Capitals and Avalanche from 1991-2006.
• This is Lewis’ second career multi-goal game as a member of the Kings (2-0=2; Jan 16, 2014 at STL). Per Stathead, Lewis becomes the 150th different skater to tally multiple two-goal games with the Kings.
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) scored his fifth goal of the season. Foegele now has three goals over his last two road games against the Wild (3-0=3) dating back to October 24, 2023 (with EDM), and four goals over his last four road games against the Wild (4) – 0=4) dating back to 16 November 2019 (with CAR).
• Forward Kevin Fiala (1-0=1) scored his seventh goal of the season and extended his point streak to a fifth game (3-4=7), and now has nine points (3-6=9) over his last seven games against the Wild.
• Fiala now has 48 power play goals in his career, passing Mark Streit (47) for the fourth-most all-time among Swiss-born skaters. Only Streit (47-160=207) and Roman Josi (64-185=249) have recorded more power play points among their compatriots in NHL history than Fiala’s 134 (48-85=134).
• Winger Alex Laferriere (0-2=2) picked up his fourth and fifth assists of the season. With the assists, Laferriere has collected six points (2-4=6) over his last five games.
• Captain Anze Kopitar (0-1=1) picked up his 10th assist of the season and extended his point streak to a fourth game (2-4=6). Kopitar is
second Kings skater this season to reach the 10-assist threshold, along with defenseman Brandt Clarke (11A).
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-1=2) scored his first goal and recorded his sixth assist of the season for his first multi-point effort of the campaign. Byfield (29-66=95) is now five points shy of becoming the seventh skater selected in the 2020 NHL Draft to reach 100 career points.
• Forward Tanner Jeannot (0-1=1) picked up his first assist as a member of the Kings.
• Forward Trevor Moore and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov each picked up their fifth assists of the season.
• The Kings successfully killed all four of the Wild’s power-play attempts tonight, their third-straight road game against the Wild to record a perfect penalty kill dating back to Feb. 21, 2023.
• Goaltender David Rittich turned aside 23 of Minnesota’s 24 shots on goal to improve his record to 4-3-0

The LA Kings have a scheduled day off on Wednesday and return to action on Thursday, November 7th against the Vancouver Canucks at Crypto.com Arena at 7 p.m. 7:30 PM PST.