FINAL – Kings 4, Ducks 1 – Copley, Fiala, Iafallo, McLellan

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• News post

• Zach Dooley

The LA Kings made it three straight victories with a 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

• Pheonix Copley
• Kevin Fiala
• Alex Iafallo
• Arthur Kaliyev
• Viktor Arvidsson
• Blake Lizotte

• Todd McLellan

# Kevin Fiala

It was a great play by [Adrian Kempe], first of all, and then I went basically on a breakaway but two guys came onto me. I just tried to make a play and thankfully it worked out.

I think it was just about sticking together. It was a little bit of a slow start tonight and we just kept going and going. Then, we found the back of the net and we never stopped, it was a good win.

I think [Pheonix Copley]’s huge, I don’t even have to explain it, he just saves it and he’s bringing it all. He makes big saves, he keeps us in the game and he’s done a great job. Just positive things to say.

# Alex Iafallo

Yeah, that’s a big step forward, I feel like in every zone. We’re just trying to communicate and do our job and I feel like everybody did a great job tonight, up and down the whole lineup. Copper made some huge saves and just finding the system is good.

Oh it definitely helps to get momentum and talking in the room, getting in good spirits and stuff like that, staying positive. It’d be nice to score at the end of the period all the time.

Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. We recover a lot of pucks by forechecking, all that stuff it helps push each shift forward. When you get a lot of chances like that and have control the puck, it’s good and it’s fun to play. It’s been good playing with them.

# Todd McLellan

We’re seeing more of it, we’re seeing more consistency, we’ve talked about that word. More commitment to checking and to preventing and it’s funny how it works sometimes. You get maybe more opportunities at the other end by doing that.

Really important. We looked at the numbers between periods and we liked what we saw. They obviously have those two lines that are pretty talented and if we can have the puck, they have to do a lot of work to get it back. I’m a big believer that if you don’t have possession in the first 10 or 15 seconds of your shift, you’re almost done. By the time you get it back, your energy level is low and it’s time to change, so that’s how important faceoffs are.

Strong. Vatrano had lost a stick and we were actually just talking about it, I wonder if the fact that [Kevin Fiala] was sandwiched between a couple players allowed him to stay on his feet, but he is very strong and determined. It’s a skill that if you want to be a top scorer, you’ve got to have that and he’s got it right now, so good for him.

I thought they had a really good night tonight. [Arthur Kaliyev] probably could have had three goals himself if he beared down, but they checked well, they played with some pace. I thought that [Viktor Arvidsson] and [Blake Lizotte] were on pucks a lot and that opened up ice for Arvy. Some good defensive plays, faceoff circle was good, they all play certain spots on special teams and they contributed there. I thought it was good, a better night tonight with them than it was on night one.

We want to get better every year. The team, the organization was at a different stage really year after year, significantly different over the past four or five seasons and this year is about taking a step forward and advancing. Are we there? We show some nights we certainly are, then we give it back a little bit. I think there are five or six teams that are consistently winning games right now and then there are some others that aren’t winning as many and then there’s a whole group of teams in the middle of the pack that are all trying to figure it out. We’d probably be in the middle, if you compare us to the rest of the league. We’re hoping for growth and getting better.