LA Kings defeat division leading Las Vegas in key win heading to the New Year- December 2022
LA Kings played division leader Las Vegas Golden Knights on a rainy night in Los Angeles at the Crypto.comarena The Kings came in in second place trying to catch the top team as they ended up winning the fifth in a row 4-2. It was a tough thought game with Vegas missing some of their key players including Ben Hutton and Jonathan Marchessault but they are still very deep and competitive. The King’s Vilardi great pass from Blake Lizette at one time does shot passed Vegas goalie Logan Thompson to make it 1-0 in the first period. “He’s a very important player, he’s become essential for us,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said about Vilardi. It was Vilardi’s 23rd point in 37 games, tying his NHL career high from 2020-21, when he had 10 goals and 13 assists in 54 games.
Mike Amadio tied up 1 to 1 on a power-play goal as they went to the intermission.
Braydan McNabb score in the second period to give Vegas a 2-1 lead until Philip Danault tied up again a few minutes later. The third period started and both teams came out skating hard. A little less than halfway through. Viktor Arvidsson gave a great past to Iafallo and he Score to make it 3 to 2. Arvidsson scored an empty netter to finish the scoring in the kings have the victory. Arvidsson & Danault each had 3 points. Iafallo was the #1 star and talked about his goalie. “He’s been playing great for us,” Iafallo said of Copley, who is 7-1-0 this season. “He’s making key saves at the right time, so we’ve just got to keep having those team efforts.” Arvidsson added, “Divisional game, we’ve got to win these games, especially at home & I think we did a great job. We were ready to play. It’s hard coming back from a break and just having the time with your family and getting refocused, so I think we did a great job with that.”
Kings goalie Phoenix Copley won his fifth straight game and made some key saves as Los Angeles pulled within three points and are 5-0-1 In the last six games. Trevor Moore missed the game due to injury. More at https://www.nhl.com/kings