The LA Kings saw their three-game winning streak come to an end after tonight’s 4-1 defeat against the Buffalo Sabres.
Buffalo opened the scoring on the game’s first power play, with forward Alex Tuch getting the hosts on the board. Working off the right-hand wall, Tuch spun and fired a pass towards the slot, which took an unlucky deflection off the skate of Kings defenseman Cody Ceci and through the legs of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper for Tuch’s 20th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead for the hosts.
The Sabres doubled their advantage later in the opening period, taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, Buffalo executed the play well, working the point to defenseman Mattias Samuelsson at the right point. Samuelson fired a one-timer clean through that deflected off the glove of Kuemper and in, putting the visitors up by a pair in the process.
Shortly after the Kings had a goal controversially disallowed, Buffalo extended its lead to three goals as Tuch buried his second of the evening. Defenseman Bowen Byrum had the puck at the point and his shot found its way to the front of the net, with Tuch getting a piece of it to send the puck past Kuemper and in for his second goal of the evening and a three-goal lead for the Sabres.
Skating on their second power play of the evening, the Kings got on the board with a goal on the man advantage, pulling back within a pair. Forwards Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe executed perfectly very early in the sequence, with Kempe streaking through the high slot and getting a deflection on a hard pass from Fiala, sending it past Buffalo goaltender Alex Lyon and in as the visitors moved to within 3-1.
Inside the final minutes of the game, the Kings took a delay of game penalty with just over three minutes to play in regulation. They were able to successfully kill it off, but forward Alex Tuch completed his hat trick with 60 seconds remaining, bringing us to the final score of 4-1.
Hear from Kempe, defenseman Cody Ceci and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.
Adrian Kempe
Cody Ceci
On a frustrating result tonight in Buffalo
Frustrating game. They got a lucky bounce early and we had some looks and just didn’t capitalize. We didn’t play terrible but we’ve still got to find a way to win the game.
On the disallowed goal and what was seen and heard after it
I’m not too sure. I mean, we were talking about a little bit after the fact and we thought that he had enough time to reset. I’m not sure on the ruling orhow that all goes. Our guys felt like it was still goal interference, I think.
On how big a turning point that could have been in the game for the Kings
The game’s a different game if we get that one to go and the game’s 2-1. We get some more momentum. Unfortunately, it shifts their way right afterwards and then we’re chasing the game even more. I think if we get that one in our favor, then it is a different game, but it’s the way goes sometimes.
On having an unlucky one go in off his skate and how he rests after those moments
Yeah, you have to. I mean, there’s so much game left after that, you don’t want to play terrible rest of the game. Yeah, it’s a bad feeling. Obviously a lucky bounce by them, but still a bad feeling.
Jim Hiller
On his takeaways from tonight’s game
You can’t get down two. I didn’t like……there was lots……I shouldn’t say that. There was lots I didn’t like and it wasn’t all our team. I can tell you that.
On the explanation he received on the disallowed goal
They called it a goal on the ice, that was clear. Then, they decided it wasn’t a goal on the ice, by huddling. Somebody said, I believe, that the goalie didn’t have a chance to reset after Perrs was in the crease.
On the decision process behind challenging the play
I saw the goal on the ice, so I was pretty comfortable. I saw the goalie reset. Pretty comfortable that if the goal was going to get taken away, that Buffalo would probably have to take a look at it. If they thought he didn’t have a chance to reset, they would have to challenge it. That was what was going through my head, but I don’t decide that.
On the team’s pushback after going down 3-0 and having chances to get back in it
We had some really good chances. I think we had 10 chances in the second period, hit the crossbar, the one that we just discussed and there were plenty of others. I really liked how we played in second specifically, we just can’t get down by two. It’s hard for our team. We’ve created a lot of chances, had a lot of shots, attempts all that stuff, layer them on. Can’t get down by two, unfortunately, our margin for error is just thin.
On if he felt the team got enough quality and second/third chances
Goalie did a pretty good job squeezing, he didn’t kick out a lot of rebounds. A lot of it, whether he saw it or not, ended up in here and his arms and different spots. There wasn’t a lot coming off his pads.
On the frustration in taking a bench minor, denying a 6-on-5 opportunity
That was one of the things where we made mistake. That was one of the times where you could say, as I go through the game mentally, there were some things that we didn’t do well. That can happen. There’s a lot of confusion going on at that time and unfortunately we make a poor decision. I would say this, I’ve watched that happen plenty of times, there’s no impact on the play. I’ve seen that one not be called a number of times as well.
Notes –
– Forward Adrian Kempe (1-0=1) scored his 18th goal of the season to tie Kevin Fiala (18 G) for the most on the team this season by deflecting the latter’s shot on the power play. Kempe picks up his third goal and ninth point (3-6=9) on the man- advantage with his sixth career goal (6-5=11) against the Buffalo Sabres in 16 contests.
– With his team-leading 41st point of the campaign (18-23=41), Kempe extends his point streak to a fifth game (3-2=5), dating back to Saturday, Jan. 17, in Anaheim.
– Forward Kevin Fiala (0-1=1) picked up his 20th assist of the season, his ninth consecutive campaign with as many helpers, dating back to 2017-18 as a member of the Nashville Predators.
– Fiala notched his team-leading 15th power play point (4-11=15) of the season and his 94th such point (36-58=94) in his four seasons as a member of the LA Kings. Fiala is now six power play points away from becoming the 23rd skater in franchise history to record 100 points on the man-advantage. Fiala (297 A) is now three assists away from becoming the ninth member of the 2014 NHL Draft class to record 300 career helpers. Of his 297 career assists, 138 have come during Fiala’s tenure in Los Angeles, breaking a tie with Tomas Sandstrom (137 A) for sole possession of 33rd-most in Kings franchise history.
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) notched his 20th assist of the season on Kempe’s power play tally, accounting for the
– 22-year-old blueliner’s seventh point (1-6=7) of the campaign earned on the man-advantage. Clarke is the seventh defenseman to record multiple 20-assist seasons prior to their 23rd birthday, joining Mark Hardy (2x), Steve Duchesne (2x), Alexei Zhitnik (2x), Darryl Sydor (2x), Larry Murphy (3x), and Drew Doughty (4x).
– Forward Corey Perry played in his 1,433rd career regular season NHL game this evening at KeyBank Center, breaking a tie with Mike Gartner (1,432 GP) for sole possession of 34th most in League history.
The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow and will return to the ice on Saturday, January 31 against the Philadelphia Flyers at 9:30 AM Pacific, 12:30 PM local time.
