Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena, Kings coach Jim Hiller guided his club to their fourth straight win and has them undefeated for the month of April. More importantly, they gained another two points over the visiting Edmonton Oilers, thereby extending their grip on second place in the Pacific Division. Pending the outcome of Vegas playing later in the evening, LA also closed the gap to just one point on the Golden Knights for first place.
After a slow start to the matinee affair, with both teams trying to find their legs early on, Jeff Mallot scored what appeared to be his first NHL goal — in spectacular, highlight reel fashion — only to have it be erased. The Hockey Gods would not allow it, as it was ruled offsides following a coach’s challenge.
Later in the middle frame, Kevin Fiala scored his 30th goal of the season, giving the Kings what turned out to be the winning goal in a 3-0 contest. Andrei Kuzmenko remained red hot, adding LA’s second goal and veteran Trevor Lewis later added an empty netter for good measure.
Kempe and Fiala are the first pair of Kings teammates to each score 30 or more goals in a season since 2007-08, when Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar accomplished the same feat.
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